The heaped-up wealth of the place, the Old
World furniture, the fabrics of silk and gold, the ivory, the bronzes,
were slumbering in the rosy light of the lamps, while from the whole of
the silent house a rich feeling of great luxury ascended, the luxury of
the solemn reception rooms, of the comfortable, ample dining room,
of the vast retired staircase, with their soft carpets and seats. Her
individuality, with its longing for domination and enjoyment and its
desire to possess everything that she might destroy everything,
was suddenly increased. Never before had she felt so profoundly the
puissance of her sex. She gazed slowly round and remarked with an
expression of grave philosophy:
"Ah well, all the same, one's jolly well right to profit by things when
one's young!"
But now Satin was rolling on the bearskins in the bedroom and calling
her.
"Oh, do come! Do come!"
Nana undressed in the dressing room, and in order to be quicker about it
she took her thick fell of blonde hair in both hands and began shaking
it above the silver wash hand basin, while a downward hail of long
hairpins rang a little chime on the shining metal.
CHAPTER XI
One Sunday the race for the Grand Prix de Paris was being run in the
Bois de Boulogne beneath skies rendered sultry by the first heats of
June.
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