BECOT (IRMA), daughter of the preceding.  After her father’s death she went to live with an aunt, but soon afterwards ran off with a young fellow who lived across the street.  She did not remain long with him, but, having a passion for artists, experienced in turn a caprice for Fagerolles, Gagniere, and many others.  A young and foolish Marquis furnished a flat for her, and later she occupied a house in Rue de Moscou, the rent of which was twenty thousand francs.  In the end she realized her dream of a princely house in the Avenue de Villiers; the site was bought by one lover, the house built by another, and the furniture provided by a third.  But fortune did not alter her tastes; behind the backs of her serious lovers she still retained her fancy for Art, in the person of Henri Fagerolles, one of her early admirers.  L’Oeuvre.

BEC-SALE, alias BOIT-SANS-SOIF, a rivet-maker employed in the same factory as Goujet.  He drank enormous quantities of brandy, and was a boon companion of Coupeau.  On the occasion of Gervaise Coupeau’s first visit to the factory to see her son Etienne, Bec-Sale entered into a contest of strength with Goujet in which he was beaten.  L’Assommoir.

BECU, gamekeeper and bell-ringer at Rognes, was a man of fifty years of age who had at one time been in the army.  He was an intense Bonapartist, and pretended that he had met the Emperor.  Himself a confirmed drunkard, he was on friendly terms with Hyacinthe Fouan, whose poaching expeditions he overlooked.  La Terre.

BECU (LA), wife of the preceding, was on intimate terms with Hyacinthe Fouan.  Her chief amusement was to throw Celine Macqueron and Flore Lengaigne against one another under the pretext of reconciling them.  Though she was not devout, she made ardent intercessions to Heaven to reserve for her son a lucky number in the drawing for the conscription, but, after the event, turned her anger against the Deity because her prayers had not been answered.  La Terre.

BECU (DELPHIN), son of the preceding, was a strong lad who, on leaving school, went to work as a farm labourer.  He was much averse to leaving home, and, having drawn an unlucky number for the conscription, he chopped off with a cleaver the first finger of his right hand, in order that he might be unfit for service.  La Terre.

BECU (MICHEL), uncle of Delphin.  He died at Orleans.  La Terre.

BEDORE, a hosier in Rue Gaillon, whose business was ruined by the extension of “The Ladies’ Paradise.”  Au Bonheur des Dames.

BEJUIN (LEON), a Member of the Corps Legislatif, and a supporter of Eugene Rougon.  He was proprietor of the Saint-Florent Cut-Glass Works.  “A very worthy fellow, votes straight, never speaks, is very patient and waits contentedly till you think of him, but he is always on the spot to take care that you don’t forget him.”  He received the Cross of the Legion of Honour after Rougon’s return to office, and an appointment as Inspector.  Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.