No, she would see nobody, nobody! Who'd sent her such a blooming leech of a man?
"Chuck 'em all out! I--I'm going to play a game of bezique with Madame Maloir.

I prefer doing that." The bell interrupted her remarks.

That was the last straw.

Another of the beggars yet! She forbade Zoe to go and open the door, but the latter had left the kitchen without listening to her, and when she reappeared she brought back a couple of cards and said authoritatively: "I told them that Madame was receiving visitors.

The gentlemen are in the drawing room." Nana had sprung up, raging, but the names of the Marquis de Chouard and of Count Muffat de Beuville, which were inscribed on the cards, calmed her down.