He was told that Madame was not well. Nana grew daily more
disgusted at the notion of deceiving Georges. He was such an innocent
lad, and he had such faith in her! She would have looked on herself as
the lowest of the low had she played him false. Besides, it would have
sickened her to do so! Zoe, who took her part in this affair in mute
disdain, believed that Madame was growing senseless.
On the sixth day a band of visitors suddenly blundered into Nana's idyl.
She had, indeed, invited a whole swarm of people under the belief
that none of them would come. And so one fine afternoon she was vastly
astonished and annoyed to see an omnibus full of people pulling up
outside the gate of La Mignotte.
"It's us!" cried Mignon, getting down first from the conveyance and
extracting then his sons Henri and Charles.
Labordette thereupon appeared and began handing out an interminable file
of ladies--Lucy Stewart, Caroline Hequet, Tatan Nene, Maria Blond. Nana
was in hopes that they would end there, when La Faloise sprang from the
step in order to receive Gaga and her daughter Amelie in his trembling
arms. That brought the number up to eleven people. Their installation
proved a laborious undertaking.
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