Washed and dressed and duly installed in the house in the Avenue de Villiers, during three days the girl talked of Saint-Lazare and the annoyances the sisters had caused her and how those dirty police people had put her down on the official list.

Nana grew indignant and comforted her and vowed she would get her name taken off, even though she herself should have to go and find out the minister of the interior.

Meanwhile there was no sort of hurry: nobody would come and search for her at Nana's--that was certain.

And thereupon the two women began to pass tender afternoons together, making numberless endearing little speeches and mingling their kisses with laughter.
The same little sport, which the arrival of the plainclothes men had interrupted in the Rue de Laval, was beginning again in a jocular sort of spirit.

One fine evening, however, it became serious, and Nana, who had been so disgusted at Laure's, now understood what it meant.