part of a woman so distinguished looking very amusing, the more so
because Mme Robert had quite altered her usual modest expression. On
the contrary, her eye roved about the saloon as she kept up a whispered
conversation. Laure had resumed her seat and once more settled herself
down with all the majesty of an old image of Vice, whose face has been
worn and polished by the kisses of the faithful. Above the range of
loaded plates she sat enthroned in all the opulence which a hotelkeeper
enjoys after forty years of activity, and as she sat there she swayed
her bloated following of large women, in comparison with the biggest of
whom she seemed monstrous.

But Mme Robert had caught sight of Satin, and leaving Laure, she ran up
and behaved charmingly, telling her how much she regretted not having
been at home the day before. When Satin, however, who was ravished at
this treatment, insisted on finding room for her at the table, she vowed
she had already dined. She had simply come up to look about her. As she
stood talking behind her new friend's chair she leaned lightly on her
shoulders and in a smiling, coaxing manner remarked:

"Now when shall I see you? If you were free--"

Nana unluckily failed to hear more. The conversation vexed her, and she
was dying to tell this honest lady a few home truths. But the sight of
a troop of new arrivals paralyzed her. It was composed of smart,
fashionably dressed women who were wearing their diamonds. Under the
influence of perverse impulse they had made up a party to come to
Laure's--whom, by the by, they all treated with great familiarity--to
eat the three-franc dinner while flashing their jewels of great price
in the jealous and astonished eyes of poor, bedraggled prostitutes. The
moment they entered, talking and laughing in their shrill, clear tones
and seeming to bring sunshine with them from the outside world, Nana
turned her head rapidly away. Much to her annoyance she had recognized
Lucy Stewart and Maria Blond among them, and for nearly five minutes,
during which the ladies chatted with Laure before passing into the
saloon beyond, she kept her head down and seemed deeply occupied in
rolling bread pills on the cloth in front of her. But when at length she
was able to look round, what was her astonishment to observe the chair
next to hers vacant! Satin had vanished.

"Gracious, where can she be?" she loudly ejaculated.

The sturdy, fair woman who had been overwhelming Satin with