He resolved to betake himself to La Mignotte after dinner that same evening.  At night as the count was leaving the park Georges fled forth after him.  He left him to follow the road to Gumieres, crossed the Choue, rushed into Nana’s presence, breathless, furious and with tears in his eyes.  Ah yes, he understood everything!  That old fellow now on his way to her was coming to keep an appointment!  Nana was dumfounded by this ebullition of jealousy, and, greatly moved by the way things were turning out, she took him in her arms and comforted him to the best of her ability.  Oh no, he was quite beside the mark; she was expecting no one.  If the gentleman came it would not be her fault.  What a great ninny that Zizi was to be taking on so about nothing at all!  By her child’s soul she swore she loved nobody except her own Georges.  And with that she kissed him and wiped away his tears.

“Now just listen!  You’ll see that it’s all for your sake,” she went on when he had grown somewhat calmer.  “Steiner has arrived—­he’s up above there now.  You know, duckie, I can’t turn him out of doors.”

“Yes, I know; I’m not talking of him,” whispered the boy.

“Very well then, I’ve stuck him into the room at the end.  I said I was out of sorts.  He’s unpacking his trunk.  Since nobody’s seen you, be quick and run up and hide in my room and wait for me.”

Georges sprang at her and threw his arms round her neck.  It was true after all!  She loved him a little!  So they would put the lamp out as they did yesterday and be in the dark till daytime!  Then as the front-door bell sounded he quietly slipped away.  Upstairs in the bedroom he at once took off his shoes so as not to make any noise and straightway crouched down behind a curtain and waited soberly.

Nana welcomed Count Muffat, who, though still shaken with passion, was now somewhat embarrassed.  She had pledged her word to him and would even have liked to keep it since he struck her as a serious, practicable lover.  But truly, who could have foreseen all that happened yesterday?  There was the voyage and the house she had never set eyes on before and the arrival of the drenched little lover!  How sweet it had all seemed to her, and how delightful it would be to continue in it!  So much the worse for the gentleman!  For three months past she had been keeping him dangling after her while she affected conventionality in order the further to inflame him.  Well, well!  He would have to continue dangling, and if he didn’t like that he could go!  She would sooner have thrown up everything than have played false to Georges.