and untidy that the lodgings seemed as though
inhabited by a pack of mad cats. On the mornings when she grew disgusted
with herself and thought about cleaning up a bit, chair rails and
strips of curtain would come off in her hands during her struggle with
superincumbent dirt. On such days the place was fouler than ever, and
it was impossible to enter it, owing to the things which had fallen down
across the doorway. At length she ended by leaving her house severely
alone. When the lamp was lit the cupboard with plate-glass doors, the
clock and what remained of the curtains still served to impose on the
men. Besides, for six months past her landlord had been threatening to
evict her. Well then, for whom should she be keeping the furniture nice?
For him more than anyone else, perhaps! And so whenever she got up in a
merry mood she would shout "Gee up!" and give the sides of the cupboard
and the chest of drawers such a tremendous kick that they cracked again.

Nana nearly always found her in bed. Even on the days when Satin went
out to do her marketing she felt so tired on her return upstairs that
she flung herself down on the bed and went to sleep again. During the
day she dragged herself about and dozed off on chairs. Indeed, she did
not emerge from this languid condition till the evening drew on and
the gas was lit outside. Nana felt very comfortable at Satin's, sitting
doing nothing on the untidy bed, while basins stood about on the floor
at her feet and petticoats which had been bemired last night hung over
the backs of armchairs and stained them with mud. They had long gossips
together and were endlessly confidential, while Satin lay on her stomach
in her nightgown, waving her legs above her head and smoking cigarettes
as she listened. Sometimes on such afternoons as they had troubles to
retail they treated themselves to absinthe in order, as they termed
it, "to forget." Satin did not go downstairs or put on a petticoat but
simply went and leaned over the banisters and shouted her order to
the portress's little girl, a chit of ten, who when she brought up the
absinthe in a glass would look furtively at the lady's bare legs. Every
conversation led up to one subject--the beastliness of the men. Nana was
overpowering on the subject of Fontan. She could not say a dozen words
without lapsing into endless repetitions of his sayings and his doings.
But Satin, like a good-natured girl, would listen unwearyingly to
everlasting