science of her own, she had! And Francis, seeing her thus giving
herself away, what with her housewife's costume and all, became familiar
and, at parting, made so bold as to give her some good advice. It
was wrong of her to be sacrificing everything for the sake of an
infatuation; such infatuations ruined existence. She listened to him
with bowed head while he spoke to her with a pained expression, as
became a connoisseur who could not bear to see so fine a girl making
such a hash of things.

"Well, that's my affair," she said at last "Thanks all the same, dear
boy." She shook his hand, which despite his perfect dress was always a
little greasy, and then went off to buy her fish. During the day that
story about the kick on the bottom occupied her thoughts. She even spoke
about it to Fontan and again posed as a sturdy woman who was not
going to stand the slightest flick from anybody. Fontan, as became a
philosophic spirit, declared that all men of fashion were beasts whom it
was one's duty to despise. And from that moment forth Nana was full of
very real disdain.

That same evening they went to the Bouffes-Parisiens Theatre to see a
little woman of Fontan's acquaintance make her debut in a part of some
ten lines. It was close on one o'clock when they once more trudged up
the heights of Montmartre. They had purchased a cake, a "mocha," in
the Rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin, and they ate it in bed, seeing that the
night was not warm and it was not worth while lighting a fire. Sitting
up side by side, with the bedclothes pulled up in front and the pillows
piled up behind, they supped and talked about the little woman. Nana
thought her plain and lacking in style. Fontan, lying on his stomach,
passed up the pieces of cake which had been put between the candle
and the matches on the edge of the night table. But they ended by
quarreling.

"Oh, just to think of it!" cried Nana. "She's got eyes like gimlet
holes, and her hair's the color of tow."

"Hold your tongue, do!" said Fontan. "She has a superb head of hair and
such fire in her looks! It's lovely the way you women always tear each
other to pieces!"

He looked annoyed.

"Come now, we've had enough of it!" he said at last in savage tones.
"You know I don't like being bored. Let's go to sleep, or things'll take
a nasty turn."

And he blew out the candle, but Nana was furious and went on talking.
She was not going to be spoken to in that voice; she was accustomed to
bein