Her son Ollivier, whom she was wont to speak of with pride, was a pupil at the Ecole de Marine.  Then ensued a conversation about the young people, during which all the ladies waxed very tender.  Nana described her own great happiness.  Her baby, the little Louis, she said, was now at the house of her aunt, who brought him round to her every morning at eleven o’clock, when she would take him into her bed, where he played with her griffon dog Lulu.  It was enough to make one die of laughing to see them both burying themselves under the clothes at the bottom of the bed.  The company had no idea how cunning Louiset had already become.

“Oh, yesterday I did just pass a day!” said Rose Mignon in her turn.  “Just imagine, I went to fetch Charles and Henry at their boarding school, and I had positively to take them to the theater at night.  They jumped; they clapped their little hands:  ’We shall see Mamma act!  We shall see Mamma act!’ Oh, it was a to-do!”

Mignon smiled complaisantly, his eyes moist with paternal tenderness.

“And at the play itself,” he continued, “they were so funny!  They behaved as seriously as grown men, devoured Rose with their eyes and asked me why Mamma had her legs bare like that.”

The whole table began laughing, and Mignon looked radiant, for his pride as a father was flattered.  He adored his children and had but one object in life, which was to increase their fortunes by administering the money gained by Rose at the theater and elsewhere with the businesslike severity of a faithful steward.  When as first fiddle in the music hall where she used to sing he had married her, they had been passionately fond of one another.  Now they were good friends.  There was an understanding between them:  she labored hard to the full extent of her talent and of her beauty; he had given up his violin in order the better to watch over her successes as an actress and as a woman.  One could not have found a more homely and united household anywhere!

“What age is your eldest?” asked Vandeuvres.

“Henry’s nine,” replied Mignon, “but such a big chap for his years!”

Then he chaffed Steiner, who was not fond of children, and with quiet audacity informed him that were he a father, he would make a less stupid hash of his fortune.  While talking he watched the banker over Blanche’s shoulders to see if it was coming off with Nana.  But for some minutes Rose and Fauchery, who were talking very near him, had been getting on his nerves.  Was Rose going to waste time over such a folly as that?  In that sort of case, by Jove, he blocked the way.  And diamond on finger and with his fine hands in great evidence, he finished discussing a fillet of venison.

Elsewhere the conversation about children continued.  La Faloise, rendered very restless by the immediate proximity of Gaga, asked news of her daughter, whom he had had the pleasure of noticing in her company at the Varietes.  Lili was quite well, but she was still such a tomboy!  He was astonished to learn that Lili was entering on her nineteenth year.  Gaga became even more imposing in his eyes, and when he endeavored to find out why she had not brought Lili with her: