She was delighted when the young woman arrived in dresses that had cost
four or five thousand francs and would be occupied during the whole
of the next day in showing off her presents and in citing prices which
quite stupefied the neighbors. As often as not, Nana kept Sunday free
for the sake of "her family," and on such occasions, if Muffat invited
her, she would refuse with the smile of a good little shopwoman. It
was impossible, she would answer; she was dining at her aunt's; she was
going to see Baby. Moreover, that poor little man Louiset was always
ill. He was almost three years old, growing quite a great boy! But he
had had an eczema on the back of his neck, and now concretions were
forming in his ears, which pointed, it was feared, to decay of the bones
of the skull. When she saw how pale he looked, with his spoiled blood
and his flabby flesh all out in yellow patches, she would become
serious, but her principal feeling would be one of astonishment. What
could be the matter with the little love that he should grow so weakly?
She, his mother, was so strong and well!
On the days when her child did not engross attention Nana would again
sink back into the noisy monotony of her existence, with its drives
in the Bois, first nights at the theater, dinners and suppers at the
Maison-d'Or or the Cafe Anglais, not to mention all the places of public
resort, all the spectacles to which crowds rushed--Mabille, the reviews,
the races.
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