AUGUSTINE, an artificial-flower maker who was employed by Madame Titreville.  L’Assommoir.

AURELIE (MADEMOISELLE), an elderly friend of Madame Deberle, at whose house she was a frequent visitor.  She was in straitened circumstances.  Une Page d’Amour.

AURELIE (MADAME).  See Madame Aurelie Lhomme.  Au Bonheur des Dames.

AURIGNY (LAURE D’), a celebrated demi-mondaine of the Second Empire.  At a sale of her effects, Aristide Saccard bought a diamond necklace and aigrette for his second wife.  La Curee.

B

BABET, one of the peasant girls of Les Artaud, who came to decorate the church for the festival of the Virgin.  She was a hunchback.  La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

BACHELARD (PERE), brother of Narcisse Bachelard and uncle of Madame Josserand.  He conducted for forty years a boarding-school known as the Institution-Bachelard.  Pot-Bouille.

BACHELARD (ELEONORE).  See Madame Josserand.  Pot-Bouille.

BACHELARD (NARCISSE), a commission agent, whose keen business instincts were not blunted by his intemperate habits.  He was a brother of Madame Josserand, and had at one time promised to give a dowry to her daughter Berthe; this promise he was unwilling to implement, and when spoken to on the subject usually feigned intoxication; eventually he suggested the somewhat dishonest plan by which Berthe’s intended husband was hoodwinked into the belief that the dowry would be duly forthcoming.  His protegee, Fifi, having compromised herself with Gueulin, his nephew, he insisted on their marriage, and presented the girl with a dowry.  Pot-Bouille.

BADEUIL (CHARLES), married Laure Fouan, and went to live at Chartres.  He tried commerce without much success, and, haunted by a desire for rapid fortune, acquired a maison publique which had fallen into bad repute through mismanagement.  Thanks to the firm control of Badeuil, and the extraordinary activity of his wife, the establishment prospered, and in less than twenty-five years the couple had saved three hundred thousand francs.  They were then able to realize the dream of their life, and to retire to the country, where they purchased a property named Roseblanche, near Madame Badeuil’s native place.  M. Badeuil was a handsome man, sixty-five years of age, with a solemn face, and the air of a retired magistrate.  He was respected by his neighbours, and held the strictest views on morality.  The old couple lived in complete happiness, their only worry being that Vaucogne, who had married their daughter Estelle and taken over the property in Chartres, was not managing it properly.  La Terre.