her mouth with a view to a further
examination when she felt it would be awkward to utter Muffat's name.
Thereupon Francis smiled and spoke instead of her. As to Monsieur le
Comte, it was all a great pity, so sad had been his sufferings since
Madame's departure.

He had been like a soul in pain--you might have met him wherever Madame
was likely to be found. At last M. Mignon had come across him and had
taken him home to his own place. This piece of news caused Nana to laugh
a good deal. But her laughter was not of the easiest kind.

"Ah, he's with Rose now," she said. "Well then, you must know, Francis,
I've done with him! Oh, the canting thing! It's learned some pretty
habits--can't even go fasting for a week now! And to think that he used
to swear he wouldn't have any woman after me!"

She was raging inwardly.

"My leavings, if you please!" she continued. "A pretty Johnnie for Rose
to go and treat herself to! Oh, I understand it all now: she wanted to
have her revenge because I got that brute of a Steiner away from her.
Ain't it sly to get a man to come to her when I've chucked him out of
doors?"

"M. Mignon doesn't tell that tale," said the hairdresser. "According to
his account, it was Monsieur le Comte who chucked you out. Yes, and in a
pretty disgusting way too--with a kick on the bottom!"

Nana became suddenly very pale.

"Eh, what?" she cried. "With a kick on my bottom? He's going too far, he
is! Look here, my little friend, it was I who threw him downstairs, the
cuckold, for he is a cuckold, I must inform you. His countess is making
him one with every man she meets--yes, even with that good-for-nothing
of a Fauchery. And that Mignon, who goes loafing about the pavement in
behalf of his harridan of a wife, whom nobody wants because she's so
lean! What a foul lot! What a foul lot!"

She was choking, and she paused for breath

"Oh, that's what they say, is it? Very well, my little Francis, I'll go
and look 'em up, I will. Shall you and I go to them at once? Yes, I'll
go, and we'll see whether they will have the cheek to go telling about
kicks on the bottom. Kick's! I never took one from anybody! And nobody's
ever going to strike me--d'ye see?--for I'd smash the man who laid a
finger on me!"

Nevertheless, the storm subsided at last. After all, they might jolly
well what they liked! She looked upon them as so much filth underfoot!
It would have soiled her to bother about people like that. She had a
con