When seventeen years old she married M. Grandjean, the son of a sugar-refiner of Marseilles, whose family were bitterly opposed to the match on account of her poverty.  The wedding was a secret one, and the young couple had difficulty making ends meet until an uncle died, leaving them ten thousand francs a year.  “It was then that Grandjean, within whom an intense hatred of Marseilles was growing, had decided on coming to Paris, to live there for good.”  The day after their arrival Grandjean was seized with illness, and after eight days he died, leaving his wife with one daughter, a young girl of ten.  Helene, who was a woman of singular beauty, had no friends in Paris except Abbe Jouve and his half-brother M. Rambaud, but from them she received much kindness.  Her daughter Jeanne was far from strong, having inherited much of the hereditary neurosis of her mother’s family, along with a consumptive tendency from that of her father.  A sudden illness of the girl led to an acquaintance with Doctor Deberle, and this ripened into love between him and Helene, though considerations of duty kept them apart.  Meantime, Helene had discovered the beginnings of an intrigue between Madame Deberle and M. Malignon, and in order to break it off was herself placed in such a compromising position towards Doctor Deberle that he became her lover.  The discovery of the fact by Jeanne, whose jealous love of her mother amounted to a mania, led to the child’s illness and death, and to her mother’s bitter repentance.  Two years later Helene married M. Rambaud, and went to live at Marseilles.  Une Page d’Amour.

She lived for many years, very happy, and idolized by her husband, in a house which he owned near Marseilles, close to the seashore.  She had no children by her second marriage.  Le Docteur Pascal.

MOURET (OCTAVE), born 1840, son of Francois Mouret.  La Fortune des Rougon.

A young man of high spirits and somewhat idle habits, he made little progress at college, and failed to pass the examinations for a degree.  His father was much annoyed at this, and sent him off to Marseilles to enter a commercial business.  The reports regarding him were, however, unsatisfactory, as it appeared that he showed no inclination to settle to hard work and was living a dissolute life.[*] La Conquete de Plassans.

After the death of his parents, Serge Mouret, who was about to take Holy Orders, renounced his share of his father’s fortune in favour of his brother Octave.  La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

He was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had charge of Pauline Quenu’s fortune.  La Joie de Vivre.