which was so fertile
in all kinds of amenities, and they settled down side by side and
adopted a family arrangement which no longer proved a stumbling block.
The whole thing was conducted according to rule; it suited admirably,
and each man vied with the other in his efforts for the common
happiness. That very evening Mignon had come by Fauchery's advice to see
if he could not steal Nana's lady's maid from her, the journalist having
formed a high opinion of the woman's extraordinary intelligence. Rose
was in despair; for a month past she had been falling into the hands of
inexperienced girls who were causing her continual embarrassment. When
Zoe received him at the door he forthwith pushed her into the dining
room. But at his opening sentence she smiled. The thing was impossible,
she said, for she was leaving Madame and establishing herself on her own
account. And she added with an expression of discreet vanity that she
was daily receiving offers, that the ladies were fighting for her and
that Mme Blanche would give a pile of gold to have her back.

Zoe was taking the Tricon's establishment. It was an old project and had
been long brooded over. It was her ambition to make her fortune thereby,
and she was investing all her savings in it. She was full of great ideas
and meditated increasing the business and hiring a house and combining
all the delights within its walls. It was with this in view that she had
tried to entice Satin, a little pig at that moment dying in hospital, so
terribly had she done for herself.

Mignon still insisted with his offer and spoke of the risks run in the
commercial life, but Zoe, without entering into explanations about the
exact nature of her establishment, smiled a pinched smile, as though she
had just put a sweetmeat in her mouth, and was content to remark:

"Oh, luxuries always pay. You see, I've been with others quite long
enough, and now I want others to be with me."

And a fierce look set her lip curling. At last she would be "Madame,"
and for the sake of earning a few louis all those women whose slops she
had emptied during the last fifteen years would prostrate themselves
before her.

Mignon wished to be announced, and Zoe left him for a moment after
remarking that Madame had passed a miserable day. He had only been at
the house once before, and he did not know it at all. The dining room
with its Gobelin tapestry, its sideboard and its plate filled him with
astonishment. He open