“Come now, how can it hurt you?”

Then as the scene still continued, she closed it with a rough speech: 

“Besides, dear boy, if the thing doesn’t suit you it’s very simple:  the house door’s open!  There now, you must take me as you find me!”

He hung his head, for the young woman’s vows of fidelity made him happy at bottom.  She, however, now knew her power over him and ceased to consider his feelings.  And from that time forth Satin was openly installed in the house on the same footing as the gentlemen.  Vandeuvres had not needed anonymous letters in order to understand how matters stood, and accordingly he joked and tried to pick jealous quarrels with Satin.  Philippe and Georges, on their parts, treated her like a jolly good fellow, shaking hands with her and cracking the riskiest jokes imaginable.

Nana had an adventure one evening when this slut of a girl had given her the go-by and she had gone to dine in the Rue des Martyrs without being able to catch her.  While she was dining by herself Daguenet had appeared on the scene, for although he had reformed, he still occasionally dropped in under the influence of his old vicious inclinations.  He hoped of course that no one would meet him in these black recesses, dedicated to the town’s lowest depravity.  Accordingly even Nana’s presence seemed to embarrass him at the outset.  But he was not the man to run away and, coming forward with a smile, he asked if Madame would be so kind as to allow him to dine at her table.  Noticing his jocular tone, Nana assumed her magnificently frigid demeanor and icily replied: 

“Sit down where you please, sir.  We are in a public place.”

Thus begun, the conversation proved amusing.  But at dessert Nana, bored and burning for a triumph, put her elbows on the table and began in the old familiar way: 

“Well, what about your marriage, my lad?  Is it getting on all right?”

“Not much,” Daguenet averred.

As a matter of fact, just when he was about to venture on his request at the Muffats’, he had met with such a cold reception from the count that he had prudently refrained.  The business struck him as a failure.  Nana fixed her clear eyes on him; she was sitting, leaning her chin on her hand, and there was an ironical curve about her lips.

“Oh yes!  I’m a baggage,” she resumed slowly.  “Oh yes, the future father-in-law will have to be dragged from between my claws!  Dear me, dear me, for a fellow with nous, you’re jolly stupid!  What!  D’you mean to say you’re going to tell your tales to a man who adores me and tells me everything?  Now just listen:  you shall marry if I wish it, my little man!”