Soon she grew
bolder and asked him for loans of two hundred francs, three hundred
francs--never more than that--wherewith to pay the interest of bills
or to stave off outrageous debts. And Philippe, who in July had been
appointed paymaster to his regiment, would bring the money the day
after, apologizing at the same time for not being rich, seeing that good
Mamma Hugon now treated her sons with singular financial severity. At
the close of three months these little oft-renewed loans mounted up to
a sum of ten thousand francs. The captain still laughed his
hearty-sounding laugh, but he was growing visibly thinner, and sometimes
he seemed absent-minded, and a shade of suffering would pass over his
face. But one look from Nana's eyes would transfigure him in a sort
of sensual ecstasy. She had a very coaxing way with him and would
intoxicate him with furtive kisses and yield herself to him in sudden
fits of self-abandonment, which tied him to her apron strings the moment
he was able to escape from his military duties.
One evening, Nana having announced that her name, too, was Therese and
that her fete day was the fifteenth of October, the gentlemen all sent
her presents. Captain Philippe brought his himself; it was an old comfit
dish in Dresden china, and it had a gold mount.
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