"I recollect the big
courtyard at your place very well. There was a portress there with a
broom!"
"Mother Boche--she's dead."
"And I can still picture your shop. Your mother was a great fatty. One
evening when we were playing your father came in drunk. Oh, so drunk!"
At this point Vandeuvres tried to intercept the ladies' reminiscences
and to effect a diversion,
"I say, my dear, I should be very glad to have some more truffles.
They're simply perfect. Yesterday I had some at the house of the Duc de
Corbreuse, which did not come up to them at all."
"The truffles, Julien!" said Nana roughly.
Then returning to the subject:
"By Jove, yes, Dad hadn't any sense! And then what a smash there was!
You should have seen it--down, down, down we went, starving away all the
time. I can tell you I've had to bear pretty well everything and it's a
miracle I didn't kick the bucket over it, like Daddy and Mamma."
This time Muffat, who was playing with his knife in a state of infinite
exasperation, made so bold as to intervene.
"What you're telling us isn't very cheerful."
"Eh, what? Not cheerful!" she cried with a withering glance. "I believe
you; it isn't cheerful! Somebody had to earn a living for us dear boy.
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