Besides, he was ashamed of himself directly afterward, and when she begged him in a dry voice to behave politely he apologized.

For some time past he had suffered from such sudden changes of temper.

No one in the Paris of pleasure or of society was ignorant of the fact that he was playing his last trump card today.

If his horses did not win, if, moreover, they lost him the considerable sums wagered upon them, it would mean utter disaster and collapse for him, and the bulwark of his credit and the lofty appearance which, though undermined, he still kept up, would come ruining noisily down.

Moreover, no one was ignorant of the fact that Nana was the devouring siren who had finished him off, who had been the last to attack his crumbling fortunes and to sweep up what remained of them.
Stories were told of wild whims and fancies, of gold scattered to the four winds, of a visit to Baden-Baden, where she had not left him enough to pay the hotel bill, of a handful of diamonds cast on the fire during an evening of drunkenness in order to see whether they would burn like coal.