Her movements were lithe as a serpent's, and the studied and yet seemingly involuntary carelessness with which she dressed was really exquisite in its elegance.

There was a nervous distinction in all she did which suggested a wellborn Persian cat; she was an aristocrat in vice and proudly and rebelliously trampled upon a prostrate Paris like a sovereign whom none dare disobey.

She set the fashion, and great ladies imitated her.
Nana's fine house was situated at the corner of the Rue Cardinet, in the Avenue de Villiers.

The avenue was part of the luxurious quarter at that time springing up in the vague district which had once been the Plaine Monceau.

The house had been built by a young painter, who was intoxicated by a first success, and had been perforce resold almost as soon as it was habitable.