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?‰mile, 1840-1902

"Four Short Stories By Emile Zola"

There were five spare rooms at La
Mignotte, one of which was already occupied by Mme Lerat and Louiset.
The largest was devoted to the Gaga and La Faloise establishment, and
it was decided that Amelie should sleep on a truckle bed in the dressing
room at the side. Mignon and his two sons had the third room. Labordette
the fourth. There thus remained one room which was transformed into a
dormitory with four beds in it for Lucy, Caroline, Tatan and Maria. As
to Steiner, he would sleep on the divan in the drawing room. At the end
of an hour, when everyone was duly settled, Nana, who had begun by being
furious, grew enchanted at the thought of playing hostess on a grand
scale. The ladies complimented her on La Mignotte. "It's a stunning
property, my dear!" And then, too, they brought her quite a whiff of
Parisian air, and talking all together with bursts of laughter and
exclamation and emphatic little gestures, they gave her all the petty
gossip of the week just past. By the by, and how about Bordenave? What
had he said about her prank? Oh, nothing much! After bawling about
having her brought back by the police, he had simply put somebody else
in her place at night. Little Violaine was the understudy, and she had
even obtained a very pretty success as the Blonde Venus.


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