t and were cracking jokes and taking
things easy, they behaved humbly enough amid this whelming flood of
petticoats.

"I say, their stew's very good, ain't it?" said Satin.

Nana nodded with much satisfaction. It was the old substantial dinner
you get in a country hotel and consisted of vol-au-vent a la financiere,
fowl boiled in rice, beans with a sauce and vanilla creams, iced and
flavored with burnt sugar. The ladies made an especial onslaught on
the boiled fowl and rice: their stays seemed about to burst; they wiped
their lips with slow, luxurious movements. At first Nana had been afraid
of meeting old friends who might have asked her silly questions, but
she grew calm at last, for she recognized no one she knew among that
extremely motley throng, where faded dresses and lamentable hats
contrasted strangely with handsome costumes, the wearers of which
fraternized in vice with their shabbier neighbors. She was momentarily
interested, however, at the sight of a young man with short curly
hair and insolent face who kept a whole tableful of vastly fat women
breathlessly attentive to his slightest caprice. But when the young man
began to laugh his bosom swelled.

"Good lack, it's a woman!"

She let a little cry escape as she spoke, and Satin, who was stuffing
herself with boiled fowl, lifted up her head and whispered:

"Oh yes! I know her. A smart lot, eh? They do just fight for her."

Nana pouted disgustingly. She could not understand the thing as yet.
Nevertheless, she remarked in her sensible tone that there was no
disputing about tastes or colors, for you never could tell what you
yourself might one day have a liking for. So she ate her cream with an
air of philosophy, though she was perfectly well aware that Satin with
her great blue virginal eyes was throwing the neighboring tables into
a state of great excitement. There was one woman in particular, a
powerful, fair-haired person who sat close to her and made herself
extremely agreeable. She seemed all aglow with affection and pushed
toward the girl so eagerly that Nana was on the point of interfering.

But at that very moment a woman who was entering the room gave her a
shock of surprise. Indeed, she had recognized Mme Robert. The latter,
looking, as was her wont, like a pretty brown mouse, nodded familiarly
to the tall, lean serving maid and came and leaned upon Laure's counter.
Then both women exchanged a long kiss. Nana thought such an attention on
the