ess. When Octave Mouret came to Paris, he first got employment at
"The Ladies' Paradise," and with a view to establishing his position he
conceived the idea of becoming Madame Hedouin's lover. She discouraged
his advances, however, and he gave up his situation. M. Hedouin died
soon afterwards, and his widow, finding the responsibilities of business
too heavy, invited Octave Mouret to return; a few months afterwards they
were married. Pot-Bouille.

After her marriage with Octave Mouret the business extended rapidly, and
an enlargement of the shop soon became necessary. While the work was in
progress she met with an accident which resulted in her death three days
later. Au Bonheur des Dames.

HELENE (DUCHESSE), the principal character in _La Petite Duchesse_,
a piece by Fauchery played at the Theatre des Varietes. The part was
originally given to Rose Mignon, but was played by Nana, who was a
complete failure in it. Nana.

HELOISE, an actress at the Folies. She was plain-looking, but very
amusing. Au Bonheur des Dames.

HENNEBEAU, general manager of the Montsou Mining Company, was born in
the Ardennes. In his early life he had undergone the hardships of a poor
boy thrown as an orphan on the Paris streets. After having followed
the courses of the Ecole des Mines, at the age of twenty-four he became
engineer to the Sainte-Barbe mine, and three years later he became
divisional engineer in the Pas-de-Calais, at the Marles mines. When
there he married the daughter of the rich owner of a spinning factory at
Arras. For fifteen years they lived in the same small provincial town,
and no event broke the monotony of existence, not even the birth of
a child. An increasing irritation detached Madame Hennebeau, who
was disdainful of this husband who gained a small salary with such
difficulty. The misunderstandings between them became more pronounced,
but with the view of pleasing his wife Hennebeau accepted a situation in
an office in Paris. But Paris only completed their separation, for she
immediately threw herself into all the luxurious follies of the period.
During the ten years spent there she carried on an open intrigue with
a man whose desertion nearly killed her. It was then that her husband
accepted the management of the Montsou mines, still hoping that his wife
might be changed down there in that desolate black country. When the
great strike of miners broke out he at first minimized its seriousness,
thinking that it would