Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Emile Zola [176]
Nana, as excited as if the race for the Grand Prize was to decide her own fortune, wished to have a place as near as possible to the winning-post. She arrived very early, one of the first, in her silver-mounted landau, to which were harnessed four magnificent white horses, a present from Count Muffat. When she appeared, with two postillions on the near side horses, and two grooms seated immovably behind the carriage, there was quite a rush on the part of the crowd, the same as at the passage of a queen. She wore the colours of the Vandeuvres stable, blue and white, intermingled in a most extraordinary costume. The little body and the tunic, in blue silk, were very tight fitting, and raised behind in an enormous puff which gave all the more prominence to the tightness in front; the skirt and sleeves were in white satin, as well as a sash that passed over the shoulder, and the whole was trimmed with silver braid which sparkled in the sunshine. Whilst, the more to resemble a jockey, she had placed a flat blue cap, ornamented with a feather, on the top of her chignon, from which a long switch of her golden hair hung down the middle of her back like an enormous yellow tail.
Twelve o’clock struck. There were still three hours to wait for the race for the Grand Prize. As soon as the landau had taken up its position, Nana put herself at her ease, as though at home. She had amused herself by bringing Bijou and little Louis. The dog, asleep amongst her skirts, was shivering in spite of the heat, whilst the child, dressed up in ribbons and lace, remained as though dumb, and had become so pale from the force of the wind that he looked like a wax figure. The young woman, without troubling herself about her neighbours, talked very loud with Philippe and George Hugon, seated opposite to her amidst such a pile of bouquets, white roses and blue forget-me-nots, that they were invisible below the shoulders.
“So,” she was saying, “as he was becoming quite unbearable I showed him the door; and for the last two days he hasn’t been near me.
She was speaking of Muffat, only she did not tell the two young men the real cause of the quarrel. One night he had found a man’s hat in her room; it had merely been a stupid fancy of hers, a mere nobody she had picked up just to enliven her.
“You don’t know how peculiar he’s becoming,” she continued, amused at the details she was giving. “He’s a regular bigot. For instance, he says his prayers every night. Oh! it’s quite true. He thinks I don’t notice it, as I go to bed first so as not to be in his way; but I have my eye on him. He mutters, he makes the sign of the cross as he turns round to step over me to get to the inside of the bed.”
“How artful!” murmured Philippe. “Does he do it before and after them?”
She laughed aloud.
“Yes, that’s it; before and after. When I doze off, I can hear him muttering again. But what annoys me is that we can’t have the least dispute without his immediately talking of the priests. Now, I’ve always been religious. Oh! laugh as much as you like, it won’t prevent me believing what I believe. Only, he’s too bad; he sobs, he talks of his remorse. For instance, the day before yesterday, after our row, he had quite an attack; I began to feel very anxious—” But she interrupted herself to say, “Look, there are the Mignons. Why, they’ve brought the children. Aren’t they dressed up, those youngsters?”
The Mignons were in a very quiet coloured landau, with the substantial air of people who had made their fortune. Rose, in a grey silk dress, trimmed with little cerise puffs and bows, was smiling, pleased at the