She indulged like this in all sorts of lies in order to remain in the shop and continue warming her hands for a little longer.  On the morning after the evening when she had heard Claire close her door behind Florent, she spun out her story for a good half hour, inventing all sorts of mendacious and abominable particulars.

Lisa, who had assumed a look of contemptuous scorn, said but little, simply encouraging Mademoiselle Saget’s gossip by her silence.  At last, however, she interrupted her.  “No, no,” she said; “I can’t really listen to all that.  Is it possible that there can be such women?”

Thereupon Mademoiselle Saget told Lisa that unfortunately all women were not so well conducted as herself.  And then she pretended to find all sorts of excuses for Florent:  it wasn’t his fault; he was no doubt a bachelor; these women had very likely inveigled him in their snares.  In this way she hinted questions without openly asking them.  But Lisa preserved silence with respect to her cousin, merely shrugging her shoulders and compressing her lips.  When Mademoiselle Saget at last went away, the mistress of the shop glanced with disgust at the cover of the heating-pan, the glistening metal of which had been tarnished by the impression of the old woman’s little hands.

“Augustine,” she cried, “bring a duster, and wipe the cover of the heating-pan.  It’s quite filthy!”

The rivalry between the beautiful Lisa and the beautiful Norman now became formidable.  The beautiful Norman flattered herself that she had carried a lover off from her enemy; and the beautiful Lisa was indignant with the hussy who, by luring the sly cousin to her home, would surely end by compromising them all.  The natural temperament of each woman manifested itself in the hostilities which ensued.  The one remained calm and scornful, like a lady who holds up her skirts to keep them from being soiled by the mud; while the other, much less subject to shame, displayed insolent gaiety and swaggered along the footways with the airs of a duellist seeking a cause of quarrel.  Each of their skirmishes would be the talk of the fish market for the whole day.  When the beautiful Norman saw the beautiful Lisa standing at the door of her shop, she would go out of her way in order to pass her, and brush against her with her apron; and then the angry glances of the two rivals crossed like rapiers, with the rapid flash and thrust of pointed steel.  When the beautiful Lisa, on the other hand, went to the fish market, she assumed an expression of disgust on approaching the beautiful Norman’s stall.  And then she proceeded to purchase some big fish—­a turbot or a salmon—­of a neighbouring dealer, spreading her money out on the marble slab as she did so, for she had noticed that this seemed to have a painful effect upon the “hussy,” who ceased laughing at the sight.  To hear the two rivals speak, anyone would have supposed that the fish and pork they sold were quite unfit for food.  However, their principal engagements took place when the beautiful Norman was seated at her stall and the beautiful Lisa at her counter, and they glowered blackly at each other across the Rue Rambuteau.  They sat in state in their big white aprons, decked out with showy toilets and jewels, and the battle between them would commence early in the morning.