he count gave a little start of astonishment, but Georges replied with
much vivacity:

"Oh, Mother, the gardener spoke without knowing anything about it.
Directly afterward the coachman said just the opposite. Nobody's
expected at La Mignotte before the day after tomorrow."

He tried hard to assume a natural expression while he slyly watched the
effect of his remarks on the count. The latter was twirling his spoon
again as though reassured. The countess, her eyes fixed dreamily on
the blue distances of the park, seemed to have lost all interest in
the conversation. The shadow of a smile on her lips, she seemed to be
following up a secret thought which had been suddenly awakened within
her. Estelle, on the other hand, sitting stiffly on her chair, had heard
all that had been said about Nana, but her white, virginal face had not
betrayed a trace of emotion.

"Dear me, dear me! I've got no right to grow angry," murmured Mme Hugon
after a pause, and with a return to her old good humor she added:

"Everybody's got a right to live. If we meet this said lady on the road
we shall not bow to her--that's all!"

And as they got up from table she once more gently upbraided the
Countess Sabine for having been so long in coming to her that year. But
the countess defended herself and threw the blame of the delays upon her
husband's shoulders. Twice on the eve of departure, when all the trunks
were locked, he counterordered their journey on the plea of urgent
business. Then he had suddenly decided to start just when the trip
seemed shelved. Thereupon the old lady told them how Georges in the same
way had twice announced his arrival without arriving and had finally
cropped up at Les Fondettes the day before yesterday, when she was no
longer expecting him. They had come down into the garden, and the two
men, walking beside the ladies, were listening to them in consequential
silence.

"Never mind," said Mme Hugon, kissing her son's sunny locks, "Zizi is a
very good boy to come and bury himself in the country with his mother.
He's a dear Zizi not to forget me!"

In the afternoon she expressed some anxiety, for Georges, directly after
leaving the table, had complained of a heavy feeling in his head and now
seemed in for an atrocious sick headache. Toward four o'clock he said
he would go upstairs to bed: it was the only remedy. After sleeping till
tomorrow morning he would be perfectly himself again. His mother was
bent on putting hi