FLORY was born at Saintes, his father being employed in the local registry office.  He came to Paris and entered the office of Mazaud, the stockbroker.  At first he did his duties well, but was soon led astray and got into debt.  Having started speculation on his own account, he became deeply involved in the Universal bank, and on the failure of that concern was left with a liability of a hundred thousand francs, to meet which he had not a single sou.  Subsequently he was arrested and imprisoned for embezzling a large sum from Mazaud, his employer.  L’Argent.

FONTAN (ACHILLE), an actor at the Theatre des Varietes who played parts in La Blonde Venus and La Petite Duchesse.  He became for a time the lover of Nana, but treated her so abominably that she left him.  Nana.

FONTENAILLES (MLLE. DE), was descended from an aristocratic family, but was in great poverty when a situation was found for her in “The Ladies’ Paradise” through the influence of Madame Desforges.  She proved incapable of anything but the most menial work, and ultimately married Joseph, one of the porters in the establishment.  Au Bonheur des Dames.

FOUAN, alias BUTEAU.  See Buteau.

FOUAN (FANNY).  See Madame Delhomme.

FOUAN (HYACINTHE), the elder son of Pere Fouan and Rose Maliverne, his wife.  He was an idler and drunkard, who, when he had left the army, after having seen service in Africa, had taken to tramp the fields, refusing to do any regular work, but living by theft and poaching, as though he were still looting a trembling nation of Bedouins.  Withal there looked out of his fine, sunken eyes a merriment that was not altogether evil, the open heart of good-humoured drunkenness.  He lived with his daughter in a ruined hut amongst some rocks near Rognes.  After the division of land by his father, Hyacinthe soon mortgaged his share and drank the proceeds, never paying to his parents any part of the rent which had been agreed upon.  For a time he sheltered his father, but frightened the old man by searching for some bonds which he had concealed.  He had, however, neither the cold rapacity of his sister Fanny nor the murderous instincts of his brother Buteau.  La Terre.

FOUAN (JOSEPH CASIMIR), the father of Marianne, Louis, Michel, and Laure.  Born in 1766, he belonged to a family of peasant proprietors which for centuries had owned land, in varying quantities, in the neighbourhood of Rognes.  They were originally serfs of the Roques-Bouqueval family.  Bit by bit they acquired their land, until, when the Revolution of 1789 arrived, the Fouan of that day, Joseph Casimir, was the owner of twenty-one acres—­the conquest of four centuries from the seigneurial territory.  When, in 1793, the rest of the estate was declared national property and sold in lots by auction, he was too timid to purchase any, and had the mortification to see La Borderie sold to Isidore Hourdequin, a citizen of Chateaudun, for a fifth of its value.  When he became old he divided his twenty-one acres between three of his family, Marianne, Louis, and Michel, and gave a corresponding sum of money to his younger daughter Laure, who had been brought up as a sempstress and was in service at Chateaudun.  La Terre.