and the Suresnes, which, in their turn, were dominated by the severe outlines of Mont-Valerien.
Nana, as excited as if the Grand Prix were going to make ONE SUNDAY the race for the Grand Prix de Paris her fortune, wanted to take up a position by the railing next was being run in the Bois de Boulogne beneath the winning post. She had arrived very early—she was, in skies rendered sultry by the first heats of June.
fact, one of the first to come—in a landau adorned with The sun that morning had risen amid a mist of dun-colored silver and drawn, a la Daumont, by four splendid white dust, but toward eleven o’clock, just when the carriages horses. This landau was a present from Count Muffat. When were reaching the Longchamps course, a southerly wind she had made her appearance at the entrance to the field had swept away the clouds; long streamers of gray vapor with two postilions jogging blithely on the near horses and were disappearing across the sky, and gaps showing an two footmen perching motionless behind the carriage, the intense blue beyond were spreading from one end of the people had rushed to look as though a queen were passing.
horizon to the other. In the bright bursts of sunlight which She sported the blue and white colors of the Vandeuvres alternated with the clouds the whole scene shone again, stable, and her dress was remarkable. It consisted of a little from the field which was gradually filling with a crowd of blue silk bodice and tunic, which fitted closely to the body carriages, horsemen and pedestrians, to the still-vacant and bulged out enormously behind her waist, thereby bring-course, where the judge’s box stood, together with the posts ing her lower limbs into bold relief in such a manner as to be and the masts for signaling numbers, and thence on to the extremely noticeable in that epoch of voluminous skirts. Then five symmetrical stands of brickwork and timber, rising there was a white satin dress with white satin sleeves and a gallery upon gallery in the middle of the weighing enclo-sash worn crosswise over the shoulders, the whole orna-sure opposite. Beyond these, bathed in the light of noon, mented with silver guipure which shone in the sun. In addi-lay the vast level plain, bordered with little trees and shut tion to this, in order to be still more like a jockey, she had in to the westward by the wooded heights of Saint-Cloud stuck a blue toque with a white feather jauntily upon her 290
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chignon, the fair tresses from which flowed down beyond out of sheer ennui—a silly infatuation.
her shoulders and resembled an enormous russet pigtail.
“You have no idea how funny he is,” she continued, grow-Twelve struck. The public would have to wait more than ing merry over the particulars she was giving. “He’s a regu-three hours for the Grand Prix to be run. When the landau lar bigot at bottom, so he says his prayers every evening.
had drawn up beside the barriers Nana settled herself com-Yes, he does. He’s under the impression I notice nothing fortably down as though she were in her own house. A because I go to bed first so as not to be in his way, but I whim had prompted her to bring Bijou and Louiset with watch him out of the corner of my eye. Oh, he jaws away, her, and the dog crouched among her skirts, shivering with and then he crosses himself when he turns round to step cold despite the heat of the day, while amid a bedizenment over me and get to the inside of the bed.” of ribbons and laces the child’s poor little face looked waxen
“Jove, it’s sly,” muttered Philippe. “That’s what happens and dumb and white in the open air. Meanwhile the young before, but afterward, what then?” woman, without troubling about the people near her, talked She laughed merrily.
at the top of her voice with Georges and Philippe Hugon,
“Yes, just so, before and after! When I’m going to sleep who were seated opposite on the front seat among such a I hear him jawing away again. But the biggest bore of all is mountain of bouquets of white roses and blue myosotis that we can’t argue about anything now without his grow-that they were buried up to their shoulders.
ing ‘pi.’ I’ve always been religious. Yes, chaff as much as
“Well then,” she was saying, “as he bored me to death, I you like; that won’t prevent me believing what I do be-showed him the door. And now it’s two days that he’s been lieve! Only he’s too much of a nuisance: he blubbers; he sulking.”
talks about remorse. The day before yesterday, for instance, She was talking of Muffat, but she took care not to con-he had a regular fit of it after our usual row, and I wasn’t fess to the young men the real reason for this first quarrel, the least bit reassured when all was over.” which was that one evening he had found a man’s hat in But she broke off, crying out:
her bedroom. She had indeed brought home a passer-by
“Just look at the Mignons arriving. Dear me, they’ve brought 291
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the children! Oh, how those little chaps are dressed up!” very smiling for the matter of that. Then I answered to the The Mignons were in a landau of severe hue; there was effect that I wanted nothing better, and I undertook to rec-something substantially luxurious about their turnout, sug-oncile the count and his wife. You know it’s not humbug. I gesting rich retired tradespeople. Rose was in a gray silk should be delighted to see them all happy again, the poor gown trimmed with red knots and with puffs; she was smil-things! Besides, it would be a relief to me for there are ing happily at the joyous behavior of Henri and Charles, days—yes, there are days—when he bores me to death.” who sat on the front seat, looking awkward in their ill-The weariness of the last months escaped her in this heart-fitting collegians’ tunics. But when the landau had drawn felt outburst. Moreover, the count appeared to be in big money up by the rails and she perceived Nana sitting in triumph difficulties; he was anxious and it seemed likely that the bill among her bouquets, with her four horses and her liveries, which Labordette had put his name to would not be met.
she pursed up her lips, sat bolt upright and turned her head
“Dear me, the countess is down yonder,” said Georges, away. Mignon, on the other hand, looking the picture of letting his gaze wander over the stands.
freshness and gaiety, waved her a salutation. He made it a
“Where, where?” cried Nana. “What eyes that baby’s got!
matter of principle to keep out of feminine disagreements.
Hold my sunshade, Philippe.”
“By the by,” Nana resumed, “d’you know a little old man But with a quick forward dart Georges had outstripped who’s very clean and neat and has bad teeth—a Monsieur his brother. It enchanted him to be holding the blue silk Venot? He came to see me this morning.” sunshade with its silver fringe. Nana was scanning the scene
“Monsieur Venot?” said Georges in great astonishment.
through a huge pair of field glasses.
“It’s impossible! Why, the man’s a Jesuit!”
“Ah yes! I see her,” she said at length. “In the right-hand
“Precisely; I spotted that. Oh, you have no idea what our stand, near a pillar, eh? She’s in mauve, and her daughter conversation was like! It was just funny! He spoke to me in white by her side. Dear me, there’s Daguenet going to about the count, about his divided house, and begged me bow to them.”
to restore a family its happiness. He was very polite and Thereupon Philippe talked of Daguenet’s approaching 292
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marriage with that lath of an Estelle. It was a settled matter—
hampers of champagne inside, and “spiders,” the immense the banns were being published. At first the countess had op-wheels of which were a flash of glittering steel, and light posed it, but the count, they said, had insisted. Nana smiled.
tandems, which looked as delicately formed as the works
“I know, I know,” she murmured. “So much the better of a clock and slipped along amid a peal of little bells. Ev-for Paul. He’s a nice boy—he deserves it” ery few seconds an equestrian rode by, and a swarm of And leaning toward Louiset:
people on foot rushed in a scared way among the carriages.
“You’re enjoying yourself, eh? What a grave face!” On the green the far-off rolling sound which issued from The child never smiled. With a very old expression he was the avenues in the Bois died out suddenly in dull rustlings, gazing at all those crowds, as though the sight of them filled and now nothing was audible save the hubbub of the ever-him with melancholy reflections. Bijou, chased from the skirts increasing crowds and cries and calls and the crackings of of the young woman who was moving about a great deal, whips in the open. When the sun, amid bursts of wind, had come to nestle, shivering, against the little fellow.
reappeared at the edge of a cloud, a long ray of golden Meanwhile the field was filling up. Carriages, a compact, light ran across the field, lit up the harness and the var-interminable file of them, were continually arriving through nished coach panels and touched the ladies’ dresses with the Porte de la Cascade. There were big omnibuses such fire, while amid the dusty radiance the coachmen, high up as the Pauline, which had started from the Boulevard des on their boxes, flamed beside their great whips.
Italiens, freighted with its fifty passengers, and was now Labordette was getting out of an open carriage where going to draw up to the right of the stands. Then there Gaga, Clarisse and Blanche de Sivry had kept a place for were dogcarts, victorias, landaus, all superbly well turned him. As he was hurrying to cross the course and enter the out, mingled with lamentable cabs which jolted along be-weighing enclosure Nana got Georges to call him. Then hind sorry old hacks, and four-in-hands, sending along their when he came up:
four horses, and mail coaches, where the masters sat on
“What’s the betting on me?” she asked laughingly.
the seats above and left the servants to take care of the She referred to the filly Nana, the Nana who had let her-293
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self be shamefully beaten in the race for the Prix de Diane against Frangipane.”
and had not even been placed in April and May last when
“No, I don’t bet on the Englishman, I don’t. I’m a pa-she ran for the Prix des Cars and the Grande Poule des triot. Perhaps Valerio II would do, eh? The Duc de Produits, both of which had been gained by Lusignan, the Corbreuse was beaming a little while ago. Well, no, after other horse in the Vandeuvres stable. Lusignan had all at all! Fifty louis on Lusignan; what do you say to that?” once become prime favorite, and since yesterday he had Labordette looked at her with a singular expression. She been currently taken at two to one.
leaned forward and asked him questions in a low voice, for
“Always fifty to one against,” replied Labordette.
she was aware that Vandeuvres commissioned him to ar-
“The deuce! I’m not worth much,” rejoined Nana, amused range matters with the bookmakers so as to be able to bet by the jest. “I don’t back myself then; no, by jingo! I don’t the more easily. Supposing him to have got to know some-put a single louis on myself.”
thing, he might quite well tell it her. But without entering Labordette went off again in a great hurry, but she re-into explanations Labordette persuaded her to trust to his called him. She wanted some advice. Since he kept in touch sagacity. He would put on her fifty louis for her as he might with the world of trainers and jockeys he had special infor-think best, and she would not repent of his arrangement.
mation about various stables. His prognostications had
“All the horses you like!” she cried gaily, letting him take come true a score of times already, and people called him his departure, “but no Nana; she’s a jade!” the “King of Tipsters.”
There was a burst of uproarious laughter in the carriage.
“Let’s see, what horses ought I to choose?” said the young The young men thought her sally very amusing, while woman. “What’s the betting on the Englishman?” Louiset in his ignorance lifted his pale eyes to his mother’s
“Spirit? Three to one against. Valerio II, the same. As to face, for her loud exclamations surprised him. However, the others, they’re laying twenty-five to one against there was no escape for Labordette as yet. Rose Mignon Cosinus, forty to one against Hazard, thirty to one against had made a sign to him and was now giving him her com-Bourn, thirty-five to one against Pichenette, ten to one mands while he wrote figures in a notebook. Then Clarisse 294
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and Gaga called him back in order to change their bets, for itinerant dentists while their odds were pasted up on tall they had heard things said in the crowd, and now they didn’t boards beside them.
want to have anything more to do with Valerio II and were
“All the same, it’s stupid not to know on what horse choosing Lusignan. He wrote down their wishes with an one’s betting,” Nana was remarking. “I really must risk impassible expression and at length managed to escape.
some louis in person.”
He could be seen disappearing between two of the stands She had stood up to select a bookmaker with a decent on the other side of the course.
expression of face but forgot what she wanted on perceiv-Carriages were still arriving. They were by this time drawn ing a perfect crowd of her acquaintance. Besides the up five rows deep, and a dense mass of them spread along Mignons, besides Gaga, Clarisse and Blanche, there were the barriers, checkered by the light coats of white horses.
present, to the right and left, behind and in the middle of Beyond them other carriages stood about in comparative the mass of carriages now hemming in her landau, the fol-isolation, looking as though they had stuck fast in the grass.
lowing ladies: Tatan Nene and Maria Blond in a victoria, Wheels and harness were here, there and everywhere, ac-Caroline Hequet with her mother and two gentlemen in an cording as the conveyances to which they belonged were open carriage, Louise Violaine quite alone, driving a little side by side, at an angle, across and across or head to head.
basket chaise decked with orange and green ribbons, the Over such spaces of turf as still remained unoccupied cava-colors of the Mechain stables, and finally, Lea de Horn on liers kept trotting, and black groups of pedestrians moved the lofty seat of a mail coach, where a band of young men continually. The scene resembled the field where a fair is were making a great din. Farther off, in a huit ressorts of being held, and above it all, amid the confused motley of aristocratic appearance, Lucy Stewart, in a very simple the crowd, the drinking booths raised their gray canvas black silk dress, sat, looking distinguished beside a tall roofs which gleamed white in the sunshine. But a veritable young man in the uniform of a naval cadet. But what most tumult, a mob, an eddy of hats, surged round the several astounded Nana was the arrival of Simonne in a tandem bookmakers, who stood in open carriages gesticulating like which Steiner was driving, while a footman sat motionless, 295
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with folded arms, behind them. She looked dazzling in white the thick of the carriages. Having arrived in a cab, whence satin striped with yellow and was covered with diamonds she could not see anything, the Tricon had quietly mounted from waist to hat. The banker, on his part, was handling a the coach box. And there, straightening up her tall figure, tremendous whip and sending along his two horses, which with her noble face enshrined in its long curls, she domi-were harnessed tandemwise, the leader being a little warm-nated the crowd as though enthroned amid her feminine colored chestnut with a mouselike trot, the shaft horse a big subjects. All the latter smiled discreetly at her while she, in brown bay, a stepper, with a fine action.
her superiority, pretended not to know them. She wasn’t
“Deuce take it!” said Nana. “So that thief Steiner has there for business purposes: she was watching the races cleared the Bourse again, has he? I say, isn’t Simonne a for the love of the thing, as became a frantic gambler with swell! It’s too much of a good thing; he’ll get into the a passion for horseflesh.
clutches of the law!”
“Dear me, there’s that idiot La Faloise!” said Georges Nevertheless, she exchanged greetings at a distance. In-suddenly.
deed, she kept waving her hand and smiling, turning round It was a surprise to them all. Nana did not recognize her and forgetting no one in her desire to be seen by every-La Faloise, for since he had come into his inheritance he body. At the same time she continued chatting.
had grown extraordinarily up to date. He wore a low col-
“It’s her son Lucy’s got in tow! He’s charming in his lar and was clad in a cloth of delicate hue which fitted uniform. That’s why she’s looking so grand, of course!
close to his meager shoulders. His hair was in little You know she’s afraid of him and that she passes herself bandeaux, and he affected a weary kind of swagger, a soft off as an actress. Poor young man, I pity him all the same!
tone of voice and slang words and phrases which he did He seems quite unsuspicious.”
not take the trouble to finish.
“Bah,” muttered Philippe, laughing, “she’ll be able to find
“But he’s quite the thing!” declared Nana in perfect him an heiress in the country when she likes.” enchantment.
Nana was silent, for she had just noticed the Tricon amid Gaga and Clarisse had called La Faloise and were throw-296
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ing themselves at him in their efforts to regain his alle-Truth out of Lenore. A big bay horse he was, who would giance, but he left them immediately, rolling off in a chaff-certainly have stood a chance if they hadn’t let him get ing, disdainful manner. Nana dazzled him. He rushed up to foundered during training. As to Valerio II from the her and stood on the carriage step, and when she twitted Corbreuse stable, he wasn’t ready yet; he’d had the colic in him about Gaga he murmured:
April. Oh yes, they were keeping that dark, but he was
“Oh dear, no! We’ve seen the last of the old lot! Mustn’t sure of it, on his honor! In the end he advised Nana to play her off on me any more. And then, you know, it’s you choose Hazard, the most defective of the lot, a horse no-now, Juliet mine!”
body would have anything to do with. Hazard, by jingo—
He had put his hand to his heart. Nana laughed a good such superb lines and such an action! That horse was go-deal at this exceedingly sudden out-of-door declaration.
ing to astonish the people.
She continued:
“No,” said Nana, “I’m going to put ten louis on Lusignan
“I say, that’s not what I’m after. You’re making me for-and five on Boum.”
get that I want to lay wagers. Georges, you see that book-La Faloise burst forth at once:
maker down there, a great red-faced man with curly hair?
“But, my dear girl, Boum’s all rot! Don’t choose him!
He’s got a dirty blackguard expression which I like. You’re Gasc himself is chucking up backing his own horse. And to go and choose—Oh, I say, what can one choose?” your Lusignan—never! Why, it’s all humbug! By Lamb and
“I’m not a patriotic soul—oh dear, no!” La Faloise blurted Princess—just think! By Lamb and Princess—no, by Jove!
out. “I’m all for the Englishman. It will be ripping if the All too short in the legs!”
Englishman gains! The French may go to Jericho!” He was choking. Philippe pointed out that, notwithstand-Nana was scandalized. Presently the merits of the sev-ing this, Lusignan had won the Prix des Cars and the Grande eral horses began to be discussed, and La Faloise, wishing Poule des Produits. But the other ran on again. What did to be thought very much in the swim, spoke of them all as that prove? Nothing at all. On the contrary, one ought to sorry jades. Frangipane, Baron Verdier’s horse, was by The distrust him. And besides, Gresham rode Lusignan; well 297
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then, let them jolly well dry up! Gresham had bad luck; he pushed and defended and applauded exceedingly. Gaga, would never get to the post.
Blanche, Caroline and the rest betted on Lusignan. Lucy And from one end of the field to the other the discussion Stewart abstained from this on account of her son, but it raging in Nana’s landau seemed to spread and increase.
was bruited abroad that Rose Mignon had commissioned Voices were raised in a scream; the passion for gambling Labordette to risk two hundred louis for her. The Tricon, filled the air, set faces glowing and arms waving excitedly, as she sat alone next her driver, waited till the last moment.
while the bookmakers, perched on their conveyances, Very cool, indeed, amid all these disputes, very far above shouted odds and jotted down amounts right furiously. Yet the ever-increasing uproar in which horses’ names kept these were only the small fry of the betting world; the big recurring and lively Parisian phrases mingled with guttural bets were made in the weighing enclosure. Here, then, raged English exclamations, she sat listening and taking notes the keen contest of people with light purses who risked majestically.
their five-franc pieces and displayed infinite covetousness
“And Nana?” said Georges. “Does no one want her?” for the sake of a possible gain of a few louis. In a word, the Indeed, nobody was asking for the filly; she was not even battle would be between Spirit and Lusignan. Englishmen, being mentioned. The outsider of the Vandeuvres’s stud plainly recognizable as such, were strolling about among was swamped by Lusignan’s popularity. But La Faloise the various groups. They were quite at home; their faces flung his arms up, crying:
were fiery with excitement; they were afready triumphant.
“I’ve an inspiration. I’ll bet a louis on Nana.” Bramah, a horse belonging to Lord Reading, had gained
“Bravo! I bet a couple,” said Georges.
the Grand Prix the previous year, and this had been a de-
“And I three,” added Philippe.
feat over which hearts were still bleeding. This year it would And they mounted up and up, bidding against one an-be terrible if France were beaten anew. Accordingly all the other good-humoredly and naming prices as though they ladies were wild with national pride. The Vandeuvres stable had been haggling over Nana at an auction. La Faloise said became the rampart of their honor, and Lusignan was he would cover her with gold. Besides, everybody was to 298
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be made to back her; they would go and pick up backers.
well making fun of them. When Georges boldly presented But as the three young men were darting off to propagan-himself before the Mignons’ carriage Rose turned her head dize, Nana shouted after them:
away in the most marked manner and did not answer him.
“You know I don’t want to have anything to do with her; One must be a pretty foul sort to let one’s name be given to I don’t for the world! Georges, ten louis on Lusignan and a horse! Mignon, on the contrary, followed the young man’s five on Valerio II.”
movements with a look of amusement and declared that Meanwhile they had started fairly off, and she watched the women always brought luck.
them gaily as they slipped between wheels, ducked under
“Well?” queried Nana when the young men returned af-horses’ heads and scoured the whole field. The moment ter a prolonged visit to the bookmakers.
they recognized anyone in a carriage they rushed up and
“The odds are forty to one against you,” said La Faloise.
urged Nana’s claims. And there were great bursts of laugh-
“What’s that? Forty to one!” she cried, astounded. “They ter among the crowd when sometimes they turned back, were fifty to one against me. What’s happened?” triumphantly signaling amounts with their fingers, while Labordette had just then reappeared. The course was be-the young woman stood and waved her sunshade. Never-ing cleared, and the pealing of a bell announced the first theless, they made poor enough work of it. Some men let race. Amid the expectant murmur of the bystanders she themselves be persuaded; Steiner, for instance, ventured questioned him about this sudden rise in her value. But he three louis, for the sight of Nana stirred him. But the women replied evasively; doubtless a demand for her had arisen.
refused point-blank. “Thanks,” they said; “to lose for a She had to content herself with this explanation. More-certainty!” Besides, they were in no hurry to work for the over, Labordette announced with a preoccupied expres-benefit of a dirty wench who was overwhelming them all sion that Vandeuvres was coming if he could get away.
with her four white horses, her postilions and her outra-The race was ending unnoticed; people were all waiting geous assumption of side. Gaga and Clarisse looked ex-for the Grand Prix to be run—when a storm burst over the ceedingly prim and asked La Faloise whether he was jolly Hippodrome. For some minutes past the sun had disap-299
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peared, and a wan twilight had darkened over the multi-a few drops on the white satin of her dress, but she didn’t tude. Then the wind rose, and there ensued a sudden del-care a pin for them. The bouquets, refreshed by the rain, uge. Huge drops, perfect sheets of water, fell. There was a glowed like snow, and she smelled one ecstatically, drench-momentary confusion, and people shouted and joked and ing her lips in it as though it were wet with dew.
swore, while those on foot scampered madly off to find Meanwhile the burst of rain had suddenly filled the stands.
refuge under the canvas of the drinking booths. In the car-Nana looked at them through her field glasses. At that dis-riages the women did their best to shelter themselves, grasp-tance you could only distinguish a compact, confused mass ing their sunshades with both hands, while the bewildered of people, heaped up, as it were, on the ascending ranges footmen ran to the hoods. But the shower was already of steps, a dark background relieved by light dots which nearly over, and the sun began shining brilliantly through were human faces. The sunlight filtered in through open-escaping clouds of fine rain. A blue cleft opened in the ings near the roof at each end of the stand and detached stormy mass, which was blown off over the Bois, and the and illumined portions of the seated multitude, where the skies seemed to smile again and to set the women laughing ladies’ dresses seemed to lose their distinguishing colors.
in a reassured manner, while amid the snorting of horses But Nana was especially amused by the ladies whom the and the disarray and agitation of the drenched multitude shower had driven from the rows of chairs ranged on the that was shaking itself dry a broad flush of golden light lit sand at the base of the stands. As courtesans were abso-up the field, still dripping and glittering with crystal drops.
lutely forbidden to enter the enclosure, she began making
“Oh, that poor, dear Louiset!” said Nana. “Are you very exceedingly bitter remarks about all the fashionable women drenched, my darling?”
therein assembled. She thought them fearfully dressed up, The little thing silently allowed his hands to be wiped.
and such guys!
The young woman had taken out her handkerchief. Then There was a rumor that the empress was entering the she dabbed it over Bijou, who was trembling more vio-little central stand, a pavilion built like a chalet, with a wide lently than ever. It would not matter in the least; there were balcony furnished with red armchairs.
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“Why, there he is!” said Georges. “I didn’t think he was ess Sabine and Estelle. Daguenet was still at their side.
on duty this week.”
Fauchery had just arrived and was disturbing the people The stiff and solemn form of the Count Muffat had ap-round him in his desire to make his bow to them. He, too, peared behind the empress. Thereupon the young men stayed smilingly beside them. After that Nana pointed with jested and were sorry that Satin wasn’t there to go and dig disdainful action at the stands and continued: him in the ribs. But Nana’s field glass focused the head of
“Then, you know, those people don’t fetch me any longer the Prince of Scots in the imperial stand.
now! I know ‘em too well. You should see ‘em behind
“Gracious, it’s Charles!” she cried.
scenes. No more honor! It’s all up with honor! Filth She thought him stouter than formerly. In eighteen months belowstairs, filth abovestairs, filth everywhere. That’s why he had broadened, and with that she entere