Nana (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Emile Zola [90]
“Oh! I am expecting some people,” continued she; “it will be more lively. First, there are two gentlemen whom George has invited, M. Fauchery and M. Daguenet. You know them, do you not? Then M. de Vandeuvres, who has promised to come these five years past. This year, perhaps, he will really do so.”
“Ah, well!” said the countess, laughing, “we have not much to expect if we have only M. de Vandeuvres to look forward to! He is too busy.”
“And Philippe!” queried Muffat.
“Philippe has asked for leave,” replied the old lady, “but you will probably have left Les Fondettes before he arrives.”
The coffee had just been served, and the conversation had turned to Paris, when Steiner was mentioned. On hearing the name, Madame Hugon uttered a faint cry.
“By the way,” said she, “M. Steiner is that stout gentleman I met at your house one evening, is he not? a banker, I think. He is a terrible man. He has bought an actress a small estate about a league from here, on the other side of the Choue, near Gumières! Every one in the neighbourhood is scandalized. Did you know of it, my friend?”
“Not at all,” replied Muffat. “Ah! so Steiner has bought an estate near here?”
On hearing his mother approach this subject, George buried his nose in his cup; but, surprised at the count’s answer, he raised his head again, and looked Muffat full in the face. Why had he lied so deliberately? The count having, on his side, noticed the young man’s movement, glanced at him with suspicion. Madame Hugon gave some further particulars. The estate was called La Mignotte. To reach it you had to follow the course of the Choue as far as Gumières, where there was a bridge, and that made the road a good two miles longer; otherwise you had to wade across the stream, and risk falling in.
“And what is the actress’s name?” asked the countess.
“Ah! I had heard it mentioned,” murmured the old lady. “George, you were there this morning, when the gardener was talking—”
George made a pretence of trying to recollect. Muffat waited, turning a teaspoon between his fingers meanwhile. Then the countess, addressing him, said, “Is not M. Steiner living with that singer of the Variety Theatre, that Nana?”
“Nana; yes, that is the name. A most abandoned woman!” exclaimed Madame Hugon, who was losing her temper. “And they are expecting her at La Mignotte. I have heard all about it from the gardener. George, did not the gardener say they expected her this evening?”
The count started slightly with surprise. But George hastily replied, “Oh, mamma! the gardener spoke without knowing. Only a little while ago the coachman was saying something quite different. No one is expected at La Mignotte until the day after to-morrow.”
He tried to talk in a natural manner, and watched the count from out of the corner of his eye, to see the effect of his words. Muffat, with a reassured look, was again turning the spoon between his fingers. The countess, gazing vaguely on the bluey horizon, seemed to be miles away from the conversation, as she followed, with the shadow of a smile, a secret thought suddenly awakened within her; whilst Estelle, erect on her chair, had listened to all that had been said about Nana without a change on her pale virgin face.
“Well! really now,” murmured Madame Hugon, after a pause, her good nature triumphing, “it is wrong of me to feel angry. Every one must live. If we should ever meet this person in our walks, the only thing to do is not to take any notice of her.”
And, as they rose from the table, she again scolded Countess Sabine for having been so long in coming to see her; but the countess excused herself, saying the delay was all her husband’s fault. Twice when they had been ready to start, with their trunks all packed, he had put off their departure, saying that some very important matters required his presence in Paris; then he had suddenly given orders for starting, just as the journey seemed definitely abandoned. Then the old lady related that George had in the same way announced to her his coming on two separate occasions, but had not made