It did no good to slap her; she couldn't cut herself in two,
however much she wanted to be nice to everybody. It was Nana who finally
carried her off in triumph, so assiduously had she loaded Satin with
kindnesses and presents. In order to be revenged, however, Mme Robert
wrote abominable, anonymous letters to her rival's lovers.
For some time past Count Muffat had appeared suspicious, and one
morning, with considerable show of feeling, he laid before Nana an
anonymous letter, where in the very first sentences she read that she
was accused of deceiving the count with Vandeuvres and the young Hugons.
"It's false! It's false!" she loudly exclaimed in accents of
extraordinary candor.
"You swear?" asked Muffat, already willing to be comforted.
"I'll swear by whatever you like--yes, by the head of my child!"
But the letter was long. Soon her connection with Satin was described
in the broadest and most ignoble terms. When she had done reading she
smiled.
"Now I know who it comes from," she remarked simply.
And as Muffat wanted her denial to the charges therein contained, she
resumed quietly enough:
"That's a matter which doesn't concern you, dear old pet. How can it
hurt you?"
She did not deny anything.
Pages:
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533