"One is only too happy to be able to give."

At bottom she was flattered.

"Ah, madame," rejoined the marquis, "if only you knew about it! there's
such misery! Our district has more than three thousand poor people in
it, and yet it's one of the richest. You cannot picture to yourself
anything like the present distress--children with no bread, women ill,
utterly without assistance, perishing of the cold!"

"The poor souls!" cried Nana, very much moved.

Such was her feeling of compassion that tears flooded her fine eyes. No
longer studying deportment, she leaned forward with a quick movement,
and under her open dressing jacket her neck became visible, while the
bent position of her knees served to outline the rounded contour of
the thigh under the thin fabric of her skirt. A little flush of blood
appeared in the marquis's cadaverous cheeks. Count Muffat, who was on
the point of speaking, lowered his eyes. The air of that little room was
too hot: it had the close, heavy warmth of a greenhouse. The roses were
withering, and intoxicating odors floated up from the patchouli in the
cup.

"One would like to be very rich on occasions like this," added Nana.
"Well, well, we each do what we can. Believe me, gentlemen, if I had
known--"

She was on the point of being guilty of a silly speech, so melted was
she at heart. But she did not end her sentence and for a moment was
worried at not being able to remember where she had put her fifty francs