Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Emile Zola [169]
For a few minutes he had been of the same opinion; a project of complete submission was forming in his mind. However, he continued to joke, not wishing to let the matter become a serious one; and after putting on his gloves, he asked her, in the most correct manner, for the hand of Mademoiselle Estelle de Beuville. She ended by laughing, as though being tickled. Oh! that Mimi! it was impossible to be angry with him. Daguenet’s great successes with the ladies were due to the softness of his voice—a voice of a musical purity and suppleness, which had caused him to be nicknamed among the gay women Velvet Mouth. All yielded beneath the sonorous caress with which he enveloped them. He knew his power, so he lulled her with an endless string of words, telling her all sorts of stupid stories. When they quitted the table she was quite rosy, trembling on his arm, reconquered. As the day was very fine, she dismissed her carriage, and accompanied him on foot as far as his lodging; then naturally she went in with him. Two hours later she said, as she was putting on her things again,
“So, Mimi, you want this marriage to come off?”
“Well,” he murmured, “it’s the best thing I can do. You know I’m quite stumped.”
After a short silence she resumed, “All right, I’m willing; I’ll help you. You know she’s as dry as a faggot; but never mind, as you’re all agreeable. Oh! I’m obliging; I’ll settle it for you.” Then, bursting out laughing, her bosom still uncovered, she added, “Only what will you give me?”
He had seized hold of her, and was kissing her shoulders in a transport of gratitude. She, very gay, quivering, struggled and threw herself back.
“Ah! I know,” she exclaimed, excited by this play. “Listen! This is what I must have for my commission. On your wedding-day you must bring me the handselay of your innocence, you understand! ”
“That’s it! that’s it!” said he, laughing even more than she did. The bargain amused them. They thought it very funny.
It so happened that on the morrow there was a dinner party at Nana’s, that is, the usual Thursday gathering—Muffat, Vandeuvres, the two Hugons, and Satin. The count arrived early. He was in want of eighty thousand francs to rid the young woman of two or three debts, and to present her with a set of sapphires for which she had a great longing. As he had already eaten considerably into his fortune, he wished to meet with a money-lender, not yet daring to sell a portion of his estates. So, by Nana’s advice, he had applied to Labordette; but the latter, considering it too big a matter for himself, had desired to speak of it to the hairdresser, Francis, who was always willing to be useful to his customers. The count placed himself in the hands of these gentlemen, merely requesting that his name should not be mentioned. They both agreed to keep his acceptance for one hundred thousand francs in their possession, and they excused themselves for the twenty thousand francs of interest by railing against the swindling usurers, to whom, as they said, they had been forced to apply. When Muffat was ushered in, Francis was just finishing Nana’s head-dress. Labordette was also in the dressing-room, in his familiar fashion of a friend of no consequence. On seeing the count he discreetly placed a heavy bundle of bank-notes among the powders and the pomades, and the bill was accepted on a corner of the marble dressing-table. Nana wished Labordette to remain to dinner, but he declined, as he was showing a rich foreigner about Paris. However, Muffat having taken him on one side to beg him to go to Becker’s, the jeweller, and bring him back the set of sapphires, which he wished to have as a surprise for the young woman that very night, Labordette willingly undertook the commission. Half an hour later, Julien privately handed the count the case of jewels.
During dinner Nana was very nervous. The sight of the eighty thousand francs had upset her. To think that all that money was going to be paid away to tradespeople! It