an, who looked so respectable, for,
after all, sentimental feelings are more deeply rooted among people of a
certain age. Still she watched. And, yes, he would have to pass over her
body before stealing her niece.

One evening she approached the gentleman, and told him, as straight as
a bullet, that his conduct was most improper. He bowed to her politely
without answering, like an old satyr who was accustomed to hear parents
tell him to go about his business. She really could not be cross with
him, he was too well mannered.

Then came lectures on love, allusions to dirty blackguards of men, and
all sorts of stories about hussies who had repented of flirtations,
which left Nana in a state of pouting, with eyes gleaming brightly in
her pale face.

One day, however, in the Rue du Faubourg-Poissonniere the button
manufacturer ventured to poke his nose between the aunt and the niece to
whisper some things which ought not to have been said. Thereupon Madame
Lerat was so frightened that she declared she no longer felt able to
handle the matter and she told the whole business to her brother. Then
came another row. There were some pretty rumpuses in the Coupeaus' room.
To begin with, the zinc-worker gave Nana a hiding. What was that he
learnt? The hussy was flirting with old men. All right. Only let her
be caught philandering out of doors again, she'd be done for; he, her
father, would cut off her head in a jiffy. Had the like ever been seen
before! A dirty nose who thought of beggaring her family! Thereupon he
shook her, declaring in God's name that she'd have to walk straight,
for he'd watch her himself in future. He now looked her over every night
when she came in, even going so far as to sniff at her and make her turn
round before him.

One evening she got another hiding because he discovered a mark on her
neck that he maintained was the mark of a kiss. Nana insisted it was
a bruise that Leonie had given her when they were having a bit of a
rough-house. Yet at other times her father would tease her, saying she
was certainly a choice morsel for men. Nana began to display the sullen
submissiveness of a trapped animal. She was raging inside.

"Why don't you leave her alone?" repeated Gervaise, who was more
reasonable. "You will end by making her wish to do it by talking to her
about it so much."

Ah! yes, indeed, she did wish to do it. She itched all over, longing to
break loose and gad all the time, as father Coupeau sa