More often she was a few minutes late.
Then she would fawn on her aunt all day, hoping to soften her and keep her from telling.

Madame Lerat understood what it was to be young and would lie to the Coupeaus, but she also lectured Nana, stressing the dangers a young girl runs on the streets of Paris.

_Mon Dieu!_ she herself was followed often enough! "Oh! I watch, you needn't fear," said the widow to the Coupeaus.

"I will answer to you for her as I would for myself.

And rather than let a blackguard squeeze her, why I'd step between them." The workroom at Titreville's was a large apartment on the first floor, with a broad work-table standing on trestles in the centre.