As Fontan never
came in before six o'clock, she made arrangements for her afternoons and
used to bring back forty francs, sixty francs, sometimes more. She might
have made it a matter of ten and fifteen louis had she been able to
maintain her former position, but as matters stood she was very glad
thus to earn enough to keep the pot boiling. At night she used to forget
all her sorrows when Bosc sat there bursting with dinner and Fontan
leaned on his elbows and with an expression of lofty superiority
becoming a man who is loved for his own sake allowed her to kiss him on
the eyelids.
In due course Nana's very adoration of her darling, her dear old duck,
which was all the more passionately blind, seeing that now she paid for
everything, plunged her back into the muddiest depths of her calling.
She roamed the streets and loitered on the pavement in quest of a
five-franc piece, just as when she was a slipshod baggage years ago.
One Sunday at La Rochefoucauld Market she had made her peace with Satin
after having flown at her with furious reproaches about Mme Robert. But
Satin had been content to answer that when one didn't like a thing there
was no reason why one should want to disgust others with it.
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