We'll
settle up tonight--there!"
Straightway Nana rebelled. She could not help shouting:
"Come, I say, it's you who've run through my ten thousand francs. It's a
dirty trick, I tell you!"
But he did not stop to discuss matters further, for he dealt her a
random box on the ear across the table, remarking as he did so:
"Let's have that again!"
She let him have it again despite his blow. Whereupon he fell upon her
and kicked and cuffed her heartily. Soon he had reduced her to such a
state that she ended, as her wont was, by undressing and going to bed in
a flood of tears.
He was out of breath and was going to bed, in his turn, when he noticed
the letter he had written to Georges lying on the table. Whereupon
he folded it up carefully and, turning toward the bed, remarked in
threatening accents:
"It's very well written, and I'm going to post it myself because I don't
like women's fancies. Now don't go moaning any more; it puts my teeth on
edge."
Nana, who was crying and gasping, thereupon held her breath. When he was
in bed she choked with emotion and threw herself upon his breast with a
wild burst of sobs. Their scuffles always ended thus, for she trembled
at the thought of losing him and, like a coward, wanted always to feel
that he belonged entirely to her, despite everything.
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