NEGREL (PAUL), son of the preceding. He was an engineer at the Voreux pit, an appointment which he received from his uncle, M. Hennebeau, with whom he lived, being treated as one of the family. Madame Hennebeau, notwithstanding a liaison which subsisted between her and Negrel, planned for him a marriage with Cecile Gregoire, an arrangement which was only prevented by the murder of the girl by old Bonnemort. Negrel posed as taking no interest in the affairs of practical life, but in the terrible disaster at the Voreux pit he threw himself into the work of rescue with an ardour beyond praise. Germinal.
NOEMI, an actress at the Vaudeville. Madame Deberle admired the realistic manner in which she died in a piece she played. Une Page d’Amour.
NORINE, a vendor of salted provisions, who went around the neighbourhood of Cloyes. La Terre.
NORMANDE (LA), the sobriquet of Louise Mehudin. Le Ventre de Paris.
NOUGAREDE, an old senator who was on the point of asking the hand of Clorinde Balbi after having seen her at a ball in the character of Diana the huntress. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.
OCTAVE, the favourite lover of Blanche de Sivry. Nana.
ORVIEDO (PRINCE D’), came to Paris from Spain with an immense fortune made on the Stock Exchange. There were strange stories told regarding the sources of his wealth; stories not more creditable than those told of the armed bandits of former days, for his robberies, though less open, were more dangerous. For twenty years he took his share of booty in all the great financial swindles. He ultimately died of apoplexy. L’Argent.
ORVIEDO (PRINCESS D’), was for a time one of the most curious notabilities of the Second Empire. At the command of her mother, the Duchesse de Combeville, she married the Prince in ignorance of the source of his regal fortune, estimated at three hundred millions of francs (twelve millions sterling). It was said that for twenty years the Prince had appropriated the lion’s share of every great piece of financial rascality on the Bourses of France and Spain. After his sudden death from a stroke of apoplexy, the Princess shut up the great house in the Rue Saint-Lazare and retired with a maid to three rooms on the second floor, where she lived the life of a recluse. From thenceforth she lived solely for deeds of charity on a colossal scale. During five years she founded the St. Mary’s Infant Asylum, the St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum, an Asylum for the aged at Chatillon, a hospital in the suburbs of Paris, and an institution known as _L’Oeuvre du Travail_, in which were boarded three hundred waifs and strays from the streets of Paris. On these foundations, and on other charities, she spent in five years over a hundred millions of francs. For some time Saccard assisted her in a disinterested way in carrying out her schemes, and later he rented from her the premises in which he started the Universal Bank. As time went on, the Princess seemed to be swayed more and more by the desire of restitution to the poor of the uttermost remnants of her husband’s fortune. In the end, when she had divided it all, she retired to a convent of Carmelites, walled off from the world. L’Argent.