I felt inclined to smack somebody. And never a cab to come home in!
Luckily it's only a step from here, but never mind that; I did just run
home."

"You have the money?" asked the aunt.

"Dear, dear! That question!" rejoined Nana.

She had sat herself down on a chair close up against the stove, for her
legs had failed her after so much running, and without stopping to take
breath she drew from behind her stays an envelope in which there were
four hundred-franc notes. They were visible through a large rent she had
torn with savage fingers in order to be sure of the contents. The three
women round about her stared fixedly at the envelope, a big, crumpled,
dirty receptacle, as it lay clasped in her small gloved hands.

It was too late now--Mme Lerat would not go to Rambouillet till
tomorrow, and Nana entered into long explanations.

"There's company waiting for you," the lady's maid repeated.

But Nana grew excited again. The company might wait: she'd go to them
all in good time when she'd finished. And as her aunt began putting her
hand out for the money:

"Ah no! Not all of it," she said. "Three hundred francs for the nurse,
fifty for your journey and expenses, that's three hundred and fifty.
Fifty francs I keep."

The big difficulty was how to find change. There were not ten francs in