ng him down on
his knees and make him bow to the blouse. But the crush was too great;
there was no means of walking. He and Gervaise turned slowly round the
dancers; there were three rows of sightseers packed close together,
whose faces lighted up whenever any of the dancers showed off. As
Coupeau and Gervaise were both short, they raised themselves up on
tiptoe, trying to see something besides the chignons and hats that
were bobbing about. The cracked brass instruments of the orchestra were
furiously thundering a quadrille, a perfect tempest which made the hall
shake; while the dancers, striking the floor with their feet, raised
a cloud of dust which dimmed the brightness of the gas. The heat was
unbearable.

"Look there," said Gervaise suddenly.

"Look at what?"

"Why, at that velvet hat over there."

They raised themselves up on tiptoe. On the left hand there was an old
black velvet hat trimmed with ragged feathers bobbing about--regular
hearse's plumes. It was dancing a devil of a dance, this hat--bouncing
and whirling round, diving down and then springing up again. Coupeau and
Gervaise lost sight of it as the people round about moved their heads,
but then suddenly they saw it again, swaying farther off with such droll
effrontery that folks laughed merely at the sight of this dancing hat,
without knowing what was underneath it.

"Well?" asked Coupeau.

"Don't you recognize that head of hair?" muttered Gervaise in a stifled
voice. "May my head be cut off if it isn't her."

With one shove the zinc-worker made his way through the crowd. _Mon
Dieu!_ yes, it was Nana! And in a nice pickle too! She had nothing on
her back but an old silk dress, all stained and sticky from having wiped
the tables of boozing dens, and with its flounces so torn that they fell
in tatters round about. Not even a bit of a shawl over her shoulders.
And to think that the hussy had had such an attentive, loving gentleman,
and had yet fallen to this condition, merely for the sake of following
some rascal who had beaten her, no doubt! Nevertheless she had remained
fresh and insolent, with her hair as frizzy as a poodle's, and her mouth
bright pink under that rascally hat of hers.

"Just wait a bit, I'll make her dance!" resumed Coupeau.

Naturally enough, Nana was not on her guard. You should have seen how
she wriggled about! She twisted to the right and to the left, bending
double as if she were going to break herself in two, and kicking