Nana: By Emile Zola - Illustrated

by Emile Zola

  The crowd still continued to pour down the double staircase. La Faloise was waiting for Clarisse, and Fauchery had promised to escort Lucy Stewart, with Caroline Héquet and her mother. They now arrived, monopolising a whole corner of the vestibule to themselves, and laughing loudly, just as the Muffats passed, looking very frigid. At that moment Bordenave, opening a little door, appeared, and obtained from Fauchery a distinct promise of a notice. He was covered with perspiration, his face as red as though he had had a sunstroke, and looking intoxicated with success.

  “Your piece will run for two hundred nights at least,” said La Faloise, obligingly. “All Paris will visit your theatre.”

  But Bordenave, his rage getting the better of him, indicated, with a rapid movement of his chin, the crowd that filled the vestibule—that mob of men with parched mouths and sparkling eyes, still inflamed with their passionate longing for Nana—and violently exclaimed:—

  “Say my brothel, can’t you? you pig-headed animal!”

  CHAPTER II

  The next morning at ten o’clock, Nana was still sleeping. She occupied, in the Boulevard Haussmann, the second storey of a large new house, the owner of which was content to let to single ladies, in order to get his plaster dried. A rich merchant from Moscow, who had come to spend a winter in Paris, had installed her there, paying two quarters’ rent in advance. The rooms, too large for her, had never been completely furnished; and a gaudy luxury—gilded chairs and sideboards—contrasted with the rubbish of second-hand dealers—mahogany tables and zinc candelabra imitating Florentine bronze. Everything betokened the damsel abandoned too quickly by her first genuine protector, and fallen back into the clutches of unscrupulous lovers; a most difficult debut miscarried, and trammelled with a loss of credit and threats of eviction.

  Nana was sleeping lying on her stomach, her bare arms entwining the pillow in which she buried her face, all pale with fatigue. The bedroom and dressing-room were the only two rooms to which a neighbouring upholsterer had really given his attention. By the aid of the faint streak of light gleaming between the curtains, one could distinguish the violet ebony furniture, the blue and grey hangings and chair coverings. In the warm, drowsy atmosphere of this bedchamber Nana suddenly awoke with a start, as though surprised to find the place beside her vacant. She looked at the other pillow placed next to her own, and which still showed the warm impression of a head in the midst of its frilling. Then, feeling with her hand, she pressed the knob of an electric bell, placed at the head of her bed.

  “Has he gone, then?” she asked of the maid who appeared.

  “Yes, madame. M. Paul left about ten minutes ago. As madame was tired, he would not wake her. But he requested me to tell madame that he would come to-morrow.”

  Whilst speaking, Zoé, the maid, had thrown open the shutters. The bright daylight inundated the room. Zoé was very dark, and wore a little frilled cap; her face, long and pointed like a dog’s, was livid and scarred, with a flat nose, thick lips, and restless black eyes.

  “To-morrow, to-morrow,” repeated Nana, still only half awake, “is to-morrow his day, then?”

  “Yes, madame. M. Paul always comes on Wednesdays.”

  “Ah! now I recollect!” exclaimed the young woman, sitting up in bed. “Everything is altered. I meant to tell him so this morning. He would meet the blackamoor, and then there would be no end of a row! ”

  “Madame did not warn me, how was I to know,” murmured Zoé. “Next time madame alters her days, she will do well to tell me, so that I may act accordingly. So the old miser will no longer come on Tuesdays?”

  It was thus between themselves, and without a smile, that they termed “old miser” and “blackamoor” the two paying gentlemen of the establishment, a tradesman of the Faubourg Saint-Denis, of a rather economical temperament, and a Wallachian, q a pretended count, whose money, always long in coming, had a most singular odour. Daguenet had secured for himself the morrows of the old miser; as the tradesman had to be at his shop by eight in the morning, the young man watched in Zoé’s kitchen until he took his departure, and then jumped into the warm place he had just vacated, where he remained until ten o’clock, when he also went off to his business. Nana and he thought this arrangement very convenient.

  “Never mind!” said she, “I will write to him this afternoon. And, if by chance he doesn’t receive my letter, you must not let him in when he calls to-morrow.”

  Zoé walked softly about the room. She talked of the great success of the previous evening. “Madame had shown such talent, she sang so well! Ah! madame need not bother herself now about the future!”

  Nana, her elbow buried in the pillow, only answered by nodding her head. Her chemise had slipped from her shoulders, over which fell her unkempt hair.

  “No doubt,” she murmured, musingly; “but how can we manage to wait? I shall have all sorts of annoyances to-day. By the way, has the landlord sent yet this morning?”

  Then they both began to discuss ways and means. There were three quarters’ rent owing, and the landlord threatened to put in an execution. Besides him, there was a host of other creditors, a job-master, a linen-draper, a dressmaker, a coal merchant, and several others, who came every day and installed themselves on a bench in the anteroom; the coal merchant, especially, made himself most obnoxious, he shouted on the stairs. But Nana’s greatest worry was her little Louis, a child she had had when only sixteen, and whom she had placed out to nurse in a village near Rambouillet. The nurse demanded three hundred francs owing to her before she would give up Louis. Nana’s maternal love had been aroused ever since her last visit to the child, and she was in despair at not being able to realize what had now become her most ardent wish, which was to pay the nurse, and place the child at Batignolles with her aunt, Madame Lerat, so that she could see him whenever she wished. The maid, at this point, hinted that she ought to have confided her troubles to the old miser.

  “I know!” exclaimed Nana, “and I did tell him everything; but he replied that he had some very heavy bills to meet. He won’t part with more than his thousand francs a month. As for the blackamoor, he’s quite stumped just now; I think he’s been losing at cards. And poor Mimi is really in want of money himself; a fall in stocks has cleared him out completely. He can’t even bring me any flowers now.”

  She was speaking of Daguenet. On awaking in the morning she always felt in a confidential mood, and told Zoé everything. The maid, accustomed to such outpourings, listened with respectful sympathy. As madame deigned to talk to her of her affairs, she would take the liberty of giving her opinion. First of all, though, she could not help saying that she loved madame very much; it was for that reason that she had left Madame Blanche, and God knew that Madame Blanche was doing all she could to get her to return to her! She was well known, and would never have any difficulty in obtaining a situation; but she would remain with madame, even though things were not very brilliant, because she believed madame had a great future before her. And she ended by giving her advice. When one was young, one did very foolish things. Now it was necessary to be very careful, for men only thought of amusing themselves. And there would be no end of them! If madame liked she would only have a word to say to quiet her creditors and procure the money she was in want of.

  “All that does not give me three hundred francs,” Nana kept repeating, as she passed her fingers through her hair. “I want three hundred francs to-day, at once. How stupid it is not knowing someone who would give three hundred francs.”

  And she tried to think of some means of obtaining the money. She was expecting Madame Lerat that very morning, and she would have liked so much to have sent her off at once to Rambouillet. Her inability to gratify her whim quite spoilt her triumph of the preceding night. To think that among all those men who had greeted her with such applause there was not one who would bring her fifteen louis!r Besides, she could not accept money in that way. Oh, how miserable she was! And then she thought of her baby: his blue eyes were like an angel’s; he c
ould just lisp “Mamma” in such a funny tone of voice that it almost made her die with laughing!

  Just then the electric bell of the outer door sounded, with its rapid and trembling vibration. After going to see who was there, Zoé returned, and whispered confidentially:

  “It is a woman.”

  She had already seen this woman at least twenty times, only she pretended never to recognise her, and to ignore the nature of her dealings with ladies down in their luck.

  “She told me her name—Madame Tricon.”

  “Old Tricon! exclaimed Nana. ”Why, I forgot all about her! I will see her.”

  Zoé ushered in a tall old lady, wearing long curls, and looking like a countess frequently visiting her solicitor. Then she retired, disappeared without noise, with the snake-like movement with which she left a room when a gentleman called. She might just as well, however, have remained where she was. Old Madame Tricon did not even sit down. She only uttered a few short words.

  “I have somebody for you to-day. Are you willing?”

  “Yes. How much?”

  “Twenty louis.”

  “And at what time?”

  “At three o’clock. Then, that’s settled?”

  “Yes, that’s settled.”

  Madame Tricon immediately began to talk of the weather; it was very dry, and good for walking. She had still to call on four or five persons; and off she went, after consulting a little note-book. Nana, left alone, felt a weight lifted off her mind. A slight shiver passed across her back; she slowly drew the warm clothes over her, with the indolence of a chilly cat. Little by little her eyes closed; she smiled at the idea of prettily dressing little Louis on the morrow; then, in the sleep which at length overtook her, her feverish dream of the night, a prolonged thunder of applause, returned like a thorough-bass, and lulled her weariness. At twelve o’clock, when Zoé showed Madame Lerat into the room, Nana was still sleeping. But the noise awoke her, and she at once said:

  “Ah! it’s you. You will go to Rambouillet to-day?”

  “I came for that,” replied the aunt. “There is a train at twenty past twelve. I have time to catch it.”

  “No, I shall only have the money this afternoon,” said the young woman, stretching herself, her breasts rising as she did so. “You will have some lunch, and then we will see.”

  Zoé whispered, as she brought her a dressing-gown, “Madame, the hairdresser is there.”

  But Nana would not retire into her dressing-room. She called out:

  “Come in, Francis.”

  A gentleman, very stylishly dressed, pushed open the door. He bowed. Just at that moment Nana was getting out of bed, her legs quite bare. Without hurrying herself, she held out her arms, so that Zoé could pass the sleeves of the dressing-gown on to them; and Francis, quite at his ease, waited in a dignified manner, and without looking away. Then, when she had seated herself, and he had passed the comb through her hair, he spoke:

  “Madame has, perhaps, not yet read the papers? There is a very good article in the ‘Figaro.’ ”

  As he had the paper with him, Madame Lerat put on her spectacles, and read the article out loud, standing in front of the window. She drew up to her full trooper-like stature, her nostrils contracted each time she came to an adjective exceptionally gallant. It was a notice of Fauchery’s, written directly after leaving the theatre—two very warm columns, full of witty but unkind remarks, so far as regarded the actress, and of a brutish admiration for the woman.

  “Excellent! excellent!” kept repeating Francis.

  Nana didn’t care a button for the chaff about her voice! He was a nice fellow, that Fauchery; all the same, she’d pay him out for his pleasant little ways! After reading the article a second time, Madame Lerat abruptly declared that all the men had the devil in the calves of their legs; and she refused to explain further, satisfied with having made this racy allusion, which she alone was able to understand. Meanwhile Francis had finished fastening up Nana’s hair. He bowed and said,

  “I shall have my eye on the evening papers. The same time as usual, I suppose—at half-past five?”

  “Bring me a pot of pomatums and a pound of burnt almonds from Boissier’s!” Nana called after him across the drawing-room, just as he was shutting the door.

  Then the two women, left alone, remembered that they had not kissed each other, so they cordially embraced one another on the cheek. The article had rather excited them. Nana, until then only half awake, again felt all the fever of her triumph. Ah! Rose Mignon must have spent a very pleasant morning! As her aunt had not been to the theatre, because, as she said, all emotion upset her stomach, she began to relate the events of the evening, the recital intoxicating her as though Paris itself had crumbled beneath the applause. Then, suddenly interrupting herself, she asked, with a laugh, if anyone would ever have expected as much in the days when she dragged her blackguard little person about the Rue de la Goutte d’Or. Madame Lerat shook her head. No, no; no one could ever have foreseen it. She spoke in her turn in a grave tone of voice, and calling her her daughter. For wasn’t she her second mother, now that the real one had gone to join the papa and the grandma. Nana, greatly affected, was on the point of shedding tears. But Madame Lerat said that by-gones were by-gones, and very filthy by-gones too! things that should not be touched upon every day in the week. For a long while she had given up seeing her niece, for the other members of the family accused her of going to the bad in her company. As if, great heavens! such a thing were possible! She did not want to know her niece’s secrets; she was sure that the latter had always led a respectable life. And now she was satisfied with finding her in a good position, and seeing that she entertained a motherly feeling for her son. In this world, after all, there was nothing to beat honesty and work.

  “Who is the father of your baby?” she asked, suddenly interrupting her sermon, her eyes lighted up with intense curiosity.

  Nana, surprised, hesitated for a second. “A gentleman,” she replied.

  “Ah!” resumed the aunt, “I was told it was a mason who used to beat you. Well, you can tell me all about it some other day; you know that I can be trusted! Be easy, I will take as great care of him as though he was the son of a prince.”

  She had given up her artificial flower-making business and retired on her savings—six hundred francs a year—hoarded up sou by sou. Nana promised to take some nice rooms for her, besides which she would allow her one hundred francs a month. When she heard this the aunt quite forgot herself in her delight, and impressed upon her niece that she should squeeze them whilst she had the chance. She was alluding to the men. Then they kissed each other again. But Nana, in the midst of her joy, and just as she had once more begun to talk of little Louis, seemed to get sad at some sudden recollection.

  “What a nuisance it is: I have to go out at three o’lock!” she murmured. “It’s an awful bore!”

  At that moment Zoé came to say that the lunch was ready. They went into the dining-room, where they found an elderly lady already seated at the table. She had not taken her bonnet off, and was dressed in a dark gown of no precise colour, but something between puce and goose droppings. Nana did not seem surprised at seeing her there. She merely asked her why she had not gone into the bedroom.

  “I heard voices,” answered the old lady. “I thought you were engaged.”

  Madame Maloir, who had a respectable appearance and distinguished ways, acted as Nana’s old lady friend. She entertained her and accompanied her about. At first, Madame Lerat’s presence seemed to make her uneasy; but when she learnt that the stranger was only the aunt, she looked at her in quite a pleasant sort of a way, and smiled faintly. However, Nana, who said her stomach had gone right down into her heels, started on some radishes, which she devoured without any bread. Madame Lerat, becoming very ceremonious, declined the radishes, saying they produced wind. Then, when Zoé brought in some cutlets, Nana played with the meat, and ended by merely sucking the bone. Now and again she cast a glance in the
direction of her old friend’s bonnet.

  “Is that the new bonnet I gave you?” she eventually asked.

  “Yes, I have altered it to suit me,” murmured Madame Maloir, with her mouth full.

  The bonnet looked frightful with the big feather she had stuck in it. Madame Maloir had a mania for re-making up all her bonnets: she alone knew what suited her, and in a minute she would utterly spoil the most elegant article. Nana, who had bought her the bonnet so as not to feel ashamed every time she went out with her, began to get angry.

  “Well! you might at least take it off!” she cried.

  “No, thank you,” the old lady replied most politely, “It does not trouble me. I can eat very well with it on.”

  After the cutlets came some cauliflower and the remains of a cold chicken. But Nana turned up her nose at each dish put upon the table, and left her food untouched on her plate. After smelling everything and hesitating what to take, she finished her lunch with some jam. The dessert lasted some time, and Zoé did not remove the cloth before serving the coffee; the ladies merely pushed away their plates. They talked of the great success achieved at the theatre the previous evening. Nana was making cigarettes, which she smoked as she leant back in her chair; and Zoé, having remained in the room, standing up against the sideboard swinging her arms about, at length began relating the story of her life. She said that she was the daughter of a midwife, who had got into trouble. First of all she obtained a situation at a dentist‘s, then with an agent for an insurance company, but she did not like it; and then she mentioned, with a touch of pride in her voice, the names of the different ladies with whom she had lived as lady’s-maid. Zoé spoke of these ladies as though they owed her everything. For certain, more than one of them would have got into a nice mess had it not been for her. For instance, one day that Madame Blanche was with M. Octave, the old gentleman unexpectedly arrived. What did Zoé do? She pretended to fall down as she passed through the drawing-room; the old gentleman hastened to help her, and then rushed off to the kitchen to get her a glass of water, while M. Octave got clear away.