Muffat and Chouard had exchanged a sly glance while Vandeuvres
continued joking about his coming marriage.
"Talking of ladies," Mme Hugon ended by saying, "I have a new
neighbor whom you probably know."
And she mentioned Nana. Vandeuvres affected the liveliest
astonishment.
"Well, that is strange! Nana's property near here!"
Fauchery and Daguenet indulged in a similar demonstration while the
Marquis de Chouard discussed the breast of a chicken without
appearing to comprehend their meaning. Not one of the men had
smiled.
"Certainly," continued the old lady, "and the person in question
arrived at La Mignotte yesterday evening, as I was saying she would.
I got my information from the gardener this morning."
At these words the gentlemen could not conceal their very real
surprise. They all looked up. Eh? What? Nana had come down! But
they were only expecting her next day; they were privately under the
impression that they would arrive before her! Georges alone sat
looking at his glass with drooped eyelids and a tired expression.
Ever since the beginning of lunch he had seemed to be sleeping with
open eyes and a vague smile on his lips.
"Are you still in pain, my Zizi?" asked his mother, who had been
gazing at him throughout the meal.
He started and blushed as he said that he was very well now, but the
worn-out insatiate expression of a girl who has danced too much did
not fade from his face.
"What's the matter with your neck?" resumed Mme Hugon in an alarmed
tone. "It's all red."
He was embarrassed and stammered. He did not know--he had nothing
the matter with his neck. Then drawing his shirt collar up:
"Ah yes, some insect stung me there!"
The Marquis de Chouard had cast a sidelong glance at the little red
place. Muffat, too, looked at Georges. The company was finishing
lunch and planning various excursions. Fauchery was growing
increasingly excited with the Countess Sabine's laughter. As he was
passing her a dish of fruit their hands touched, and for one second
she looked at him with eyes so full of dark meaning that he once
more thought of the secret which had been communicated to him one
evening after an uproarious dinner. Then, too, she was no longer
the same woman. Something was more pronounced than of old, and her
gray foulard gown which fitted loosely over her shoulders added a
touch of license to her delicate, high-strung elegance.
When they rose from the table Daguenet remained behind with Fauchery
in order to impart to him the following crude witticism about
Estelle: "A nice broomstick that to shove into a man's hands!"
Nevertheless, he grew serious when the journalist told him the
amount she was worth in the way of dowry.
"Four hundred thousand francs."
"And the mother?" queried Fauchery. "She's all right, eh?"
"Oh, SHE'LL work the oracle! But it's no go, my dear man!"
"Bah! How are we to know? We must wait and see."
It was impossible to go out that day, for the rain was still falling
in heavy showers. Georges had made haste to disappear from the
scene and had double-locked his door. These gentlemen avoided
mutual explanations, though they were none of them deceived as to
the reasons which had brought them together. Vandeuvres, who had
had a very bad time at play, had really conceived the notion of
lying fallow for a season, and he was counting on Nana's presence in
the neighborhood as a safeguard against excessive boredom. Fauchery
had taken advantage of the holidays granted him by Rose, who just
then was extremely busy. He was thinking of discussing a second
notice with Nana, in case country air should render them
reciprocally affectionate. Daguenet, who had been just a little
sulky with her since Steiner had come upon the scene, was dreaming
of resuming the old connection or at least of snatching some
delightful opportunities if occasion offered. As to the Marquis de
Chouard, he was watching for times and seasons. But among all those
men who were busy following in the tracks of Venus--a Venus with the
rouge scarce washed from her cheeks--Muffat was at once the most
ardent and the most tortured by the novel sensations of desire and
fear and anger warring in his anguished members. A formal promise
had been made him; Nana was awaiting him. Why then had she taken
her departure two days sooner than was expected?
He resolved to betake himself to La Mignotte after dinner that same
evening. At night as the count was leaving the park Georges fled
forth after him. He left him to follow the road to Gumieres,
crossed the Choue, rushed into Nana's presence, breathless, furious
and with tears in his eyes. Ah yes, he understood everything! That
old fellow now on his way to her was coming to keep an appointment!
Nana was dumfounded by this ebullition of jealousy, and, greatly
moved by the way things were turning out, she took him in her arms
and comforted him to the best of her ability. Oh no, he was quite
beside the mark; she was expecting no one. If the gentleman came it
would not be her fault. What a great ninny that Zizi was to be
taking on so about nothing at all! By her child's soul she swore
she loved nobody except her own Georges. And with that she kissed
him and wiped away his tears.
"Now just listen! You'll see that it's all for your sake," she went
on when he had grown somewhat calmer. "Steiner has arrived--he's up
above there now. You know, duckie, I can't turn HIM out of doors."
"Yes, I know; I'm not talking of HIM," whispered the boy.
"Very well then, I've stuck him into the room at the end. I said I
was out of sorts. He's unpacking his trunk. Since nobody's seen
you, be quick and run up and hide in my room and wait for me.
Georges sprang at her and threw his arms round her neck. It was
true after all! She loved him a little! So they would put the lamp
out as they did yesterday and be in the dark till daytime! Then as
the front-door bell sounded he quietly slipped away. Upstairs in
the bedroom he at once took off his shoes so as not to make any
noise and straightway crouched down behind a curtain and waited
soberly.
Nana welcomed Count Muffat, who, though still shaken with passion,
was now somewhat embarrassed. She had pledged her word to him and
would even have liked to keep it since he struck her as a serious,
practicable lover. But truly, who could have foreseen all that
happened yesterday? There was the voyage and the house she had
never set eyes on before and the arrival of the drenched little
lover! How sweet it had all seemed to her, and how delightful it
would be to continue in it! So much the worse for the gentleman!
For three months past she had been keeping him dangling after her
while she affected conventionality in order the further to inflame
him. Well, well! He would have to continue dangling, and if he
didn't like that he could go! She would sooner have thrown up
everything than have played false to Georges.
The count had seated himself with all the ceremonious politeness
becoming a country caller. Only his hands were trembling slightly.
Lust, which Nana's skillful tactics daily exasperated, had at last
wrought terrible havoc in that sanguine, uncontaminated nature. The
grave man, the chamberlain who was wont to tread the state
apartments at the Tuileries with slow and dignified step, was now
nightly driven to plunge his teeth into his bolster, while with sobs
of exasperation he pictured to himself a sensual shape which never
changed. But this time he was determined to make an end of the
torture. Coming along the highroad in the deep quiet of the
gloaming, he had meditated a fierce course of action. And the
moment he had finished his opening remarks he tried to take hold of
Nana with both hands.
"No, no! Take care!" she said simply. She was not vexed; nay, she
even smiled.
He caught her again, clenching his teeth as he did so. Then as she
struggled to get free he coarsely and crudely reminded her that he
had come to stay the night. Though much embarrassed at this, Nana
did not cease to smile. She took his hands and spoke very
familiarly in order to soften her refusal.
"Come now, darling, do be quiet! Honor bright, I can't: Steiner's
upstairs."
But he was beside himself. Never yet had she seen a man in such a
state. She grew frightened and put her hand over his mouth in order
to stifle his cries. Then in lowered tones she besought him to be
quiet and to let her alone. Steiner was coming downstairs. Things
were getting stupid, to be sure! When Steiner entered the room he
heard Nana remarking:
"I adore the country."
She was lounging comfortably back in her deep easy chair, and she
turned round and interrupted herself.
"It's Monsieur le Comte Muffat, darling. He saw a light here while
he was strolling past, and he came in to bid us welcome."
The two men clasped hands. Muffat, with his face in shadow, stood
silent for a moment or two. Steiner seemed sulky. Then they
chatted about Paris: business there was at a standstill; abominable
things had been happening on 'change. When a quarter of an hour had
elapsed Muffat took his departure, and, as the young woman was
seeing him to the door, he tried without success to make an
assignation for the following night. Steiner went up to bed almost
directly afterward, grumbling, as he did so, at the everlasting
little ailments that seemed to afflict the genus courtesan. The two
old boys had been packed off at last! When she was able to rejoin
him Nana found Georges still hiding exemplarily behind the curtain.
The room was dark. He pulled her down onto the floor as she sat
near him, and together they began playfully rolling on the ground,
stopping now and again and smothering their laughter with kisses
whenever they struck their bare feet against some piece of
furniture. Far away, on the road to Gumieres, Count Muffat walked
slowly home and, hat in hand, bathed his burning forehead in the
freshness and silence of the night.
During the days that followed Nana found life adorable. In the
lad's arms she was once more a girl of fifteen, and under the
caressing influence of this renewed childhood love's white flower
once more blossomed forth in a nature which had grown hackneyed and
disgusted in the service of the other sex. She would experience
sudden fits of shame, sudden vivid emotions, which left her
trembling. She wanted to laugh and to cry, and she was beset by
nervous, maidenly feelings, mingled with warm desires that made her
blush again. Never yet had she felt anything comparable to this.
The country filled her with tender thoughts. As a little girl she
had long wished to dwell in a meadow, tending a goat, because one
day on the talus of the fortifications she had seen a goat bleating
at the end of its tether. Now this estate, this stretch of land
belonging to her, simply swelled her heart to bursting, so utterly
had her old ambition been surpassed. Once again she tasted the
novel sensations experienced by chits of girls, and at night when
she went upstairs, dizzy with her day in the open air and
intoxicated by the scent of green leaves, and rejoined her Zizi
behind the curtain, she fancied herself a schoolgirl enjoying a
holiday escapade. It was an amour, she thought, with a young cousin
to whom she was going to be married. And so she trembled at the
slightest noise and dread lest parents should hear her, while making
the delicious experiments and suffering the voluptuous terrors
attendant on a girl's first slip from the path of virtue.
Nana in those days was subject to the fancies a sentimental girl
will indulge in. She would gaze at the moon for hours. One night
she had a mind to go down into the garden with Georges when all the
household was asleep. When there they strolled under the trees,
their arms round each other's waists, and finally went and laid down
in the grass, where the dew soaked them through and through. On
another occasion, after a long silence up in the bedroom, she fell
sobbing on the lad's neck, declaring in broken accents that she was
afraid of dying. She would often croon a favorite ballad of Mme
Lerat's, which was full of flowers and birds. The song would melt
her to tears, and she would break off in order to clasp Georges in a
passionate embrace and to extract from him vows of undying
affection. In short she was extremely silly, as she herself would
admit when they both became jolly good fellows again and sat up
smoking cigarettes on the edge of the bed, dangling their bare legs
over it the while and tapping their heels against its wooden side.
But what utterly melted the young woman's heart was Louiset's
arrival. She had an access of maternal affection which was as
violent as a mad fit. She would carry off her boy into the sunshine
outside to watch him kicking about; she would dress him like a
little prince and roll with him in the grass. The moment he arrived
she decided that he was to sleep near her, in the room next hers,
where Mme Lerat, whom the country greatly affected, used to begin
snoring the moment her head touched the pillow. Louiset did not
hurt Zizi's position in the least. On the contrary, Nana said that
she had now two children, and she treated them with the same wayward
tenderness. At night, more than ten times running, she would leave
Zizi to go and see if Louiset were breathing properly, but on her
return she would re-embrace her Zizi and lavish on him the caresses
that had been destined for the child. She played at being Mamma
