g, monstrous in lust, a past master in corruption. But besides
being nervous, that trollop of a Satin was lacking in respect. She would
blurt out awful things in front of dignified gentlemen in carriages and
assure them that their coachmen were better bred than they because they
behaved respectfully toward the women and did not half kill them with
their diabolical tricks and suggestions. The way in which smart people
sprawled head over heels into all the cesspools of vice still caused
Nana some surprise, for she had a few prejudices remaining, though Satin
was rapidly destroying them.

"Well then," she used to say when talking seriously about the matter,
"there's no such thing as virtue left, is there?"

From one end of the social ladder to the other everybody was on the
loose! Good gracious! Some nice things ought to be going on in Paris
between nine o'clock in the evening and three in the morning! And with
that she began making very merry and declaring that if one could only
have looked into every room one would have seen some funny sights--the
little people going it head over ears and a good lot of swells, too,
playing the swine rather harder than the rest. Oh, she was finishing her
education!

One evening when she came to call for Satin she recognized the Marquis
de Chouard. He was coming downstairs with quaking legs; his face was
ashen white, and he leaned heavily on the banisters. She pretended to be
blowing her nose. Upstairs she found Satin amid indescribable filth.
No household work had been done for a week; her bed was disgusting, and
ewers and basins were standing about in all directions. Nana expressed
surprise at her knowing the marquis. Oh yes, she knew him! He had jolly
well bored her confectioner and her when they were together. At present
he used to come back now and then, but he nearly bothered her life out,
going sniffing into all the dirty corners--yes, even into her slippers!

"Yes, dear girl, my slippers! Oh, he's the dirtiest old beast, always
wanting one to do things!"

The sincerity of these low debauches rendered Nana especially uneasy.
Seeing the courtesans around her slowly dying of it every day, she
recalled to mind the comedy of pleasure she had taken part in when she
was in the heyday of success. Moreover, Satin inspired her with an awful
fear of the police. She was full of anecdotes about them. Formerly she
had been the mistress of a plain-clothes man, had consented to this in
order