"
Then she called Daguenet and Georges, who had remained behind in the
anteroom, where they were hanging up their overcoats. They had both met
at the stage door in the Passage des Panoramas, and she had brought them
home with her in a cab. As there was nobody there yet, she shouted
to them to come into the dressing room while Zoe was touching up her
toilet. Hurriedly and without changing her dress she had her hair done
up and stuck white roses in her chignon and at her bosom. The little
room was littered with the drawing-room furniture, which the workmen had
been compelled to roll in there, and it was full of a motley assemblage
of round tables, sofas and armchairs, with their legs in air for the
most part. Nana was quite ready when her dress caught on a castor and
tore upward. At this she swore furiously; such things only happened
to her! Ragingly she took off her dress, a very simple affair of white
foulard, of so thin and supple a texture that it clung about her like
a long shift. But she put it on again directly, for she could not find
another to her taste, and with tears in her eyes declared that she was
dressed like a ragpicker. Daguenet and Georges had to patch up the rent
with pins, while Zoe once more arranged her hair.
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