Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Emile Zola [189]
At this moment a police officer appeared walking alone along the centre of the now deserted course. Higher up, towards the left, a man could be seen holding a red flag in his hand.
“That’s the starter, the Baron de Mauriac,” replied Labordette to a question of Nana’s.
Among the men surrounding the young woman, and who pressed even on to the steps of her landau, there arose a hubbub of exclamations, of sentences left unfinished, in the flush of first impressions. Philippe and George, Bordenave, La Faloise could not keep quiet.
“Don’t push!”—“Let me see!—”Ah! the judge is entering his box.“—”Did you say it was M. de Souvigny?“—”I say, he must have good eyes to decide a close contest from such a place!“—”Do be quiet, they’re hoisting the Hag.“—”Here they come—look out! “—”The first one is Cosinus.”
A red and yellow flag waved in the air from the top of the starting-post. The horses arrived one by one, led by stable lads, the jockeys in the saddle, their arms hanging down, and looking mere bright specks in the sunshine. After Cosinus, Hasard and Boum appeared. Then a murmur greeted Spirit, a tall, handsome bay, whose harsh colours, lemon and black, had a Britannic sadness. Valerio II. met with a grand reception. He was a lively little animal, and the colours were pale green, edged with pink. Vandeuvres’s two horses were a long time making their appearance. At length, the blue and white colours were seen following Frangipane; but Lusignan, a very dark bay of irreproachable form, was almost forgotten in the surprise created by Nana’s appearance. No one had ever before seen her thus. The sunshine gave to the chestnut filly the golden hue of a fair-haired girl. She glittered in the light like a new louis, with her deep chest, her graceful head and neck and shoulders, and her long, nervous, delicate back.
“Why! she has hair the colour of mine!” exclaimed Nana, delighted. “I feel quite proud of her!”
They all climbed on to the landau. Bordenave almost trod on little Louis, whom his mother had forgotten. He caught hold of him, grumbling in a paternal manner, and, lifting him on to his shoulder, he murmured,
“Poor young ’un, he must see too. Wait a minute and I’ll show you your mamma. There! over there—look at the geegee.”
And as Bijou was scratching his legs he lifted him up also, whilst Nana, delighted with the animal that bore her name, glanced at the other women to see how they took it. They were all madly jealous. At this moment old Tricon, on her cab, immovable until then, waved her hands, and shouted some instructions to a bookmaker over the crowd. Her instinct prompted her. She backed Nana.
La Faloise was making an unbearable row, however. He was quite smitten with Frangipane. “I’ve an inspiration,” he cried. “Just look at Frangipane. See what go there is in him! I take Frangipane at eight to one. Who’ll bet?”
“Do be quiet,” Labordette ended by saying. “You’ll only regret it all by-and-by.”
“Frangipane’s a jade,” declared Philippe. “He is already wet with perspiration. Look! they’re going to canter.”
The horses had turned to the right, and they started on their preliminary canter, passing in front of the grand stand in a disordered crowd. Then the excited remarks broke out again; every one spoke at the same time.
“Lusignan is in good condition, but he is too long in the back.”
—“You know, not a farthing on Valerio II. He is nervous; he holds his head too high—it’s a bad sign.”—“Hallo! it’s Burne who is riding Spirit.”—“I tell you he has no shoulder. A good shoulder means everything.—”No, Spirit is decidedly too quiet.—“Listen, I saw Nana after the race for the Grande Poule des Produits. She was soaking her coat as