“Look here, my dear,” he whispered.  “Be careful:  don’t madden Rose too much.  You understand, I think it best to warn you.  Yes, she’s got a weapon in store, and as she’s never forgiven you the Petite Duchesse business—­”

“A weapon,” said Nana; “what’s that blooming well got to do with me?”

“Just listen:  it’s a letter she must have found in Fauchery’s pocket, a letter written to that screw Fauchery by the Countess Muffat.  And, by Jove, it’s clear the whole story’s in it.  Well then, Rose wants to send the letter to the count so as to be revenged on him and on you.”

“What the deuce has that got to do with me?” Nana repeated.  “It’s a funny business.  So the whole story about Fauchery’s in it!  Very well, so much the better; the woman has been exasperating me!  We shall have a good laugh!”

“No, I don’t wish it,” Mignon briskly rejoined.  “There’ll be a pretty scandal!  Besides, we’ve got nothing to gain.”

He paused, fearing lest he should say too much, while she loudly averred that she was most certainly not going to get a chaste woman into trouble.

But when he still insisted on his refusal she looked steadily at him.  Doubtless he was afraid of seeing Fauchery again introduced into his family in case he broke with the countess.  While avenging her own wrongs, Rose was anxious for that to happen, since she still felt a kindness toward the journalist.  And Nana waxed meditative and thought of M. Venot’s call, and a plan began to take shape in her brain, while Mignon was doing his best to talk her over.

“Let’s suppose that Rose sends the letter, eh?  There’s food for scandal:  you’re mixed up in the business, and people say you’re the cause of it all.  Then to begin with, the count separates from his wife.”

“Why should he?” she said.  “On the contrary—­”

She broke off, in her turn.  There was no need for her to think aloud.  So in order to be rid of Mignon she looked as though she entered into his view of the case, and when he advised her to give Rose some proof of her submission—­to pay her a short visit on the racecourse, for instance, where everybody would see her—­she replied that she would see about it, that she would think the matter over.

A commotion caused her to stand up again.  On the course the horses were coming in amid a sudden blast of wind.  The prize given by the city of Paris had just been run for, and Cornemuse had gained it.  Now the Grand Prix was about to be run, and the fever of the crowd increased, and they were tortured by anxiety and stamped and swayed as though they wanted to make the minutes fly faster.  At this ultimate moment the betting world was surprised and startled by the continued shortening of the odds against Nana, the outsider of the Vandeuvres stables.  Gentlemen kept returning every few moments with a new quotation:  the betting was thirty to one against Nana; it was twenty-five to one against Nana, then twenty to one,