Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Emile Zola [210]
“Anyhow, it wasn’t my fault. It was cracked. Those old things never keep together. It was the lid! Did you see the stupid way in which it fell off?”
And she burst out laughing again. But as the young man’s eyes filled with tears, in spite of his efforts to restrain them, she lovingly threw her arms round his neck.
“How silly you are! I love you all the same. If nothing was ever broken, the dealers would never sell anything. It’s all made to be broken. Look at this fan! it isn’t even stuck together!”
She seized hold of a fan and roughly pulled it open. The silk tore in two. That seemed to excite her. To show that she did not care anything for the other presents, as she had spoilt his, she regaled herself with a general massacre, knocking the different things about, proving, as she destroyed them all, there was not one of them that was solid. A glimmer lighted up her vacant eyes, a slight curl of her lips displayed her white teeth. Then when all the things were in pieces, she struck the table with her open hands, looking very red, and laughing louder than ever, and stammered forth in a childish voice,
“All gone! no more! no more!”
Then Philippe, yielding to the intoxication, cheered up, and pressing against her, kissed her on the neck and bosom. She abandoned herself to him, clinging to his shoulders, feeling so happy that she could not recollect having ever enjoyed herself so much before. And without leaving go of him, she caressingly said,
“I say, darling; you might manage to bring me ten louis to-morrow. It’s an awful nuisance—a baker’s bill which is worrying me.”
He became very pale; then kissing her for a last time on the forehead, he merely said,
“I will do my best.”
A pause ensued. She was dressing herself. He was pressing his face against the window pane. At the end of a minute he returned to where she stood, and said slowly,
“Nana, you ought to marry me.”
The idea seemed so ludicrous to the young woman, that she could not finish fastening her petticoats.
“But, my poor fellow, you must be ill! Is it because I’ve asked you for ten louis that you offer me your hand? Never, I love you too much for that. What a stupid idea to get into your head!”
And, as Zoé entered the room to put madame’s boots on, they dropped the subject. The maid had at once caught sight of the remnants of the presents scattered over the table. She asked if they were to be put anywhere; and madame having said that they could be thrown away, she gathered them up in her apron. Down in the kitchen, the servants quarrelled together as they shared madame’s leavings.
That day George, in spite of having been forbidden by Nana to do so, had sneaked into the house. François had plainly enough seen him come in, but now the servants merely laughed among themselves over their mistress’s embarrassments. He had crept into the parlour, when the sound of his brother’s voice arrested his advance; and, with his ear at the key-hole, he had heard all that had taken place—the kisses, the offer of marriage. A feeling of horror froze him, he went off, idiotic and with a sensation of emptiness in his head. It was only when he reached the Rue Richelieu, in his room over his mother‘s, that his heart found relief in furious sobs. This time, doubt was impossible. An abominable vision kept appearing before his eyes—Nana in Philippe’s arms; and it seemed to him an incest. When he thought himself calmed, memory returned, and in a fresh fit of jealous rage, he threw himself on his bed, biting the sheets and uttering horrible oaths, which increased his passion. The rest of the day passed thus. He complained of a headache, so as to be able to remain in his room. But the night was more terrible still: a murderous fever shook his frame in a continuous nightmare. If his brother had lived in the house, he would have gone and stabbed him with a knife. When