Doubtless she was
willing to make sacrifices and to keep the child by her whatever might
happen while waiting for more prosperous times, but the thought that
Fontan was preventing her and the brat and its mother from swimming in
a sea of gold made her so savage that she was ready to deny the very
existence of true love. Accordingly she ended up with the following
severe remarks:
"Now listen, some fine day when he's taken the skin off your back,
you'll come and knock at my door, and I'll open it to you."
Soon money began to engross Nana's whole attention. Fontan had caused
the seven thousand francs to vanish away. Without doubt they were quite
safe; indeed, she would never have dared ask him questions about them,
for she was wont to be blushingly diffident with that bird, as Mme Lerat
called him. She trembled lest he should think her capable of quarreling
with him about halfpence. He had certainly promised to subscribe toward
their common household expenses, and in the early days he had given
out three francs every morning. But he was as exacting as a boarder; he
wanted everything for his three francs--butter, meat, early fruit and
early vegetables--and if she ventured to make an observation, if she
hinted that you could not have everything in the market for three
francs, he flew into a temper and treated her as a useless, wasteful
woman, a confounded donkey whom the tradespeople were robbing.
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