Then she called Daguenet and Georges, who had remained behind in the anteroom, where they were hanging up their overcoats.  They had both met at the stage door in the Passage des Panoramas, and she had brought them home with her in a cab.  As there was nobody there yet, she shouted to them to come into the dressing room while Zoe was touching up her toilet.  Hurriedly and without changing her dress she had her hair done up and stuck white roses in her chignon and at her bosom.  The little room was littered with the drawing-room furniture, which the workmen had been compelled to roll in there, and it was full of a motley assemblage of round tables, sofas and armchairs, with their legs in air for the most part.  Nana was quite ready when her dress caught on a castor and tore upward.  At this she swore furiously; such things only happened to her!  Ragingly she took off her dress, a very simple affair of white foulard, of so thin and supple a texture that it clung about her like a long shift.  But she put it on again directly, for she could not find another to her taste, and with tears in her eyes declared that she was dressed like a ragpicker.  Daguenet and Georges had to patch up the rent with pins, while Zoe once more arranged her hair.  All three hurried round her, especially the boy, who knelt on the floor with his hands among her skirts.  And at last she calmed down again when Daguenet assured her it could not be later than a quarter past twelve, seeing that by dint of scamping her words and skipping her lines she had effectually shortened the third act of the Blonde Venus.

“The play’s still far too good for that crowd of idiots,” she said.  “Did you see?  There were thousands there tonight.  Zoe, my girl, you will wait in here.  Don’t go to bed, I shall want you.  By gum, it is time they came.  Here’s company!”

She ran off while Georges stayed where he was with the skirts of his coat brushing the floor.  He blushed, seeing Daguenet looking at him.  Notwithstanding which, they had conceived a tender regard the one for the other.  They rearranged the bows of their cravats in front of the big dressing glass and gave each other a mutual dose of the clothesbrush, for they were all white from their close contact with Nana.

“One would think it was sugar,” murmured Georges, giggling like a greedy little child.

A footman hired for the evening was ushering the guests into the small drawing room, a narrow slip of a place in which only four armchairs had been left in order the better to pack in the company.  From the large drawing room beyond came a sound as of the moving of plates and silver, while a clear and brilliant ray of light shone from under the door.  At her entrance Nana found Clarisse Besnus, whom La Faloise had brought, already installed in one of the armchairs.

“Dear me, you’re the first of ’em!” said Nana, who, now that she was successful, treated her familiarly.

“Oh, it’s his doing,” replied Clarisse.  “He’s always afraid of not getting anywhere in time.  If I’d taken him at his word I shouldn’t have waited to take off my paint and my wig.”