of Rambouillet. This woman was clamoring for the sum of three hundred
francs before she would consent to give the little Louis back to her.
Nana, since her last visit to the child, had been seized with a fit
of maternal love and was desperate at the thought that she could not
realize a project, which had now become a hobby with her. This was to
pay off the nurse and to place the little man with his aunt, Mme Lerat,
at the Batignolles, whither she could go and see him as often as she
liked.

Meanwhile the lady's maid kept hinting that her mistress ought to have
confided her necessities to the old miser.

"To be sure, I told him everything," cried Nana, "and he told me in
answer that he had too many big liabilities. He won't go beyond his
thousand francs a month. The nigger's beggared just at present; I expect
he's lost at play. As to that poor Mimi, he stands in great need of a
loan himself; a fall in stocks has cleaned him out--he can't even bring
me flowers now."

She was speaking of Daguenet. In the self-abandonment of her awakening
she had no secrets from Zoe, and the latter, inured to such confidences,
received them with respectful sympathy. Since Madame condescended to
speak to her of her affairs she would permit herself to say what she
thought. Besides, she was very fond of Madame; she had left Mme Blanche
for the express purpose of taking service with her, and heaven knew Mme
Blanche was straining every nerve to have her again! Situations weren't
lacking; she was pretty well known, but she would have stayed with
Madame even in narrow circumstances, because she believed in Madame's
future. And she concluded by stating her advice with precision. When one
was young one often did silly things. But this time it was one's duty to