was very
vexed with her. Presently, as he gave a long sigh and seemed to recover
himself, she grew more coaxing and with grave kindness of manner added a
final reason:

"You see, dearie, you must try and understand how it is: I can't refuse
it to my poor friends."

The count consented to give way and only insisted that Georges should
be dismissed once for all. But all his illusions had vanished, and he no
longer believed in her sworn fidelity. Next day Nana would deceive him
anew, and he only remained her miserable possessor in obedience to a
cowardly necessity and to terror at the thought of living without her.

This was the epoch in her existence when Nana flared upon Paris with
redoubled splendor. She loomed larger than heretofore on the horizon of
vice and swayed the town with her impudently flaunted splendor and that
contempt of money which made her openly squander fortunes. Her house had
become a sort of glowing smithy, where her continual desires were the
flames and the slightest breath from her lips changed gold into fine
ashes, which the wind hourly swept away. Never had eye beheld such a
rage of expenditure. The great house seemed to have been built over a
gulf in which men--their worldly possessions, their fortunes, their very
names--were swallowed up without leaving even a handful of dust behind
them. This courtesan, who had the tastes of a parrot and gobbled up
radishes and burnt almonds and pecked at the meat upon her plate, had
monthly table bills amounting to five thousand francs. The wildest waste
went on in the kitchen: the place, metaphorically speaking was one great
river which stove in cask upon cask of wine and swept great bills with
it, swollen by three or four successive manipulators. Victorine and
Francois reigned supreme in the kitchen, whither they invited friends.
In addition to these there was quite a little tribe of cousins, who were
cockered up in their homes with cold meats and strong soup. Julien made
the trades-people give him commissions, and the glaziers never put up
a pane of glass at a cost of a franc and a half but he had a franc
put down to himself. Charles devoured the horses' oats and doubled the
amount of their provender, reselling at the back door what came in at
the carriage gate, while amid the general pillage, the sack of the
town after the storm, Zoe, by dint of cleverness, succeeded in saving
appearances and covering the thefts of all in order the better to slur
over