speeches!  It even got to such a point that I caught her a box on the ear.  She was too much bored by existence, she said; she wanted to get out of it.  By and by, when she began to say, ‘’Tisn’t you, after all, who’ve got the right to prevent me,’ I said to her:  ’you’re a miserable wretch; you’re bringing dishonor upon us.  Begone!’ And it was done.  I consented to arrange about it.  But my last hope’s blooming well blasted, and, oh, I used to dream about such nice things!”

The noise of a quarrel caused them to rise.  It was Georges in the act of defending Vandeuvres against certain vague rumors which were circulating among the various groups.

“Why should you say that he’s laying off his own horse?” the young man was exclaiming.  “Yesterday in the Salon des Courses he took the odds on Lusignan for a thousand louis.”

“Yes, I was there,” said Philippe in affirmation of this.  “And he didn’t put a single louis on Nana.  If the betting’s ten to one against Nana he’s got nothing to win there.  It’s absurd to imagine people are so calculating.  Where would his interest come in?”

Labordette was listening with a quiet expression.  Shrugging his shoulders, he said: 

“Oh, leave them alone; they must have their say.  The count has again laid at least as much as five hundred louis on Lusignan, and if he’s wanted Nana to run to a hundred louis it’s because an owner ought always to look as if he believes in his horses.”

“Oh, bosh!  What the deuce does that matter to us?” shouted La Faloise with a wave of his arms.  “Spirit’s going to win!  Down with France—­bravo, England!”

A long shiver ran through the crowd, while a fresh peal from the bell announced the arrival of the horses upon the racecourse.  At this Nana got up and stood on one of the seats of her carriage so as to obtain a better view, and in so doing she trampled the bouquets of roses and myosotis underfoot.  With a sweeping glance she took in the wide, vast horizon.  At this last feverish moment the course was empty and closed by gray barriers, between the posts of which stood a line of policemen.  The strip of grass which lay muddy in front of her grew brighter as it stretched away and turned into a tender green carpet in the distance.  In the middle landscape, as she lowered her eyes, she saw the field swarming with vast numbers of people, some on tiptoe, others perched on carriages, and all heaving and jostling in sudden passionate excitement.

Horses were neighing; tent canvases flapped, while equestrians urged their hacks forward amid a crowd of pedestrians rushing to get places along the barriers.  When Nana turned in the direction of the stands on the other side the faces seemed diminished, and the dense masses of heads were only a confused and motley array, filling gangways, steps and terraces and looming in deep, dark, serried lines against the sky.  And beyond these again she over looked the plain surrounding