HONORINE, a servant in the employment of the Badeuils.  When dismissed for misconduct she became insolent.

HORN (LEA DE), a Parisian demi-mondaine whose drawing-room was frequented by some of the old ministers of Louis Philippe.  Nana.

HORTEUR (ABBE), parish priest of Bonneville, was a thick-set man of peasant-like build whose red hair was still unsilvered by his fifty years.  Much of his time was spent in cultivating a small plot of ground in the churchyard, which he had enclosed as a vegetable garden.  With regard to religion, he had come to be contented with the observance of outward ceremonies, and his tolerance had degenerated into a state of indifference as to the spiritual condition of his flock.  He was on good terms with Chanteau, with whom it was his custom to play draughts every Saturday.  La Joie de Vivre.

HOTON, a sugar-refinery at Montsou.  Its prosperity was greatly affected by the strike of miners.  Germinal.

HOURDEQUIN (ALEXANDRE), born 1804, was the only son of Isidore Hourdequin.  He studied at the college of Chateaudun, but made little progress, as his only interest was in farming, for which he had an absolute passion.  On the death of his father he became master of La Borderie, which he cultivated on the latest principles of agriculture, spending large sums upon it.  He married a sister of Baillehache, the notary, who brought him a considerable sum, which also went into the land.  His wife died in a few years, leaving him with two children, a son named Leon, who to his great disappointment became a soldier, and a daughter who died young.  In spite of these misfortunes he retained all his passion for the land, and in it he gradually sunk all his fortune, getting little from it in return.  A liaison with Jacqueline Cognet, followed, and she gradually acquired complete influence over him.  He died as the result of an accident brought about by Tron, one of his own servants, who was also a lover of Jacqueline.  La Terre.

HOURDEQUIN (MADAME), wife of the preceding.  See Mademoiselle Baillehache.  La Terre.

HOURDEQUIN (ISIDORE), born 1767, was the descendant of an old peasant family of Cloyes, which had educated and elevated itself into a middle-class position in the sixteenth century.  They had all been employed in the administration of the salt monopoly, and Isidore, who had been left an orphan, was worth sixty thousand francs, when at twenty-six, the Revolution cost him his post.  As a speculation he bought the farm of La Borderie for a fifth of its value, but the depreciation of real estate continued, and he was unable to resell it at the profit of which he had dreamed.  He therefore determined to farm it himself, and about this time he married the daughter of a neighbour, who brought him an additional hundred and twenty acres of land.  He had one son, Alexandre, and died in 1831.  La Terre.

HOURDEQUIN (LEON), son of Alexandre Hourdequin.  He had an intense hatred of the soil and became a soldier, being promoted Captain after Solferino.  He did not visit his home more than once a year, and was much annoyed to discover the liaison between his father and Jacqueline Cognet.  He endeavoured to get the latter into disgrace, but the only effect was to make a complete breach between his father and himself.  La Terre.