remarks. That was the last straw. Another of
the beggars yet! She forbade Zoe to go and open the door, but the latter
had left the kitchen without listening to her, and when she reappeared
she brought back a couple of cards and said authoritatively:

"I told them that Madame was receiving visitors. The gentlemen are in
the drawing room."

Nana had sprung up, raging, but the names of the Marquis de Chouard and
of Count Muffat de Beuville, which were inscribed on the cards, calmed
her down. For a moment or two she remained silent.

"Who are they?" she asked at last. "You know them?"

"I know the old fellow," replied Zoe, discreetly pursing up her lips.

And her mistress continuing to question her with her eyes, she added
simply:

"I've seen him somewhere."

This remark seemed to decide the young woman. Regretfully she left the
kitchen, that asylum of steaming warmth, where you could talk and take
your ease amid the pleasant fumes of the coffeepot which was being kept
warm over a handful of glowing embers. She left Mme Maloir behind her.
That lady was now busy reading her fortune by the cards; she had never
yet taken her hat off, but now in order to be more at her ease she undid
the strings and threw them back over her shoulders.

In the dressing room, where Zoe rapidly helped her on with a tea gown,
Nana revenged herself for the way in which they were all boring her by
muttering quiet curses upon the male sex. These big words caused the
lady's maid not a little distress, for she saw with pain that her
mistress was not rising superior to her origin as quickly as she could
have desired. She even made bold to beg Madame to calm herself.

"You bet," was Nana's crude answer; "they're swine; they glory in that
sort of thing."

Nevertheless, she assumed her princesslike manner, as she was wont to
call it. But just when she was turning to go into the drawing room Zoe
held her back and herself introduced the Marquis de Chouard and the
Count Muffat into the dressing room. It was much better so.

"I regret having kept you waiting, gentlemen," said the young woman with
studied politeness.

The two men bowed and seated themselves. A blind of embroidered tulle
kept the little room in twilight. It was the most elegant chamber in
the flat, for it was hung with some light-colored fabric and contained a
cheval glass framed in inlaid wood, a lounge chair and some others
with arms and blue satin upholsteries. On the toilet tab