It was only when they got to the station refreshment room that she thought of writing Steiner of her movements.

She begged him to wait till the day after tomorrow before rejoining her if he wanted to find her quite bright and fresh.

And then, suddenly conceiving another project, she wrote a second letter, in which she besought her aunt to bring little Louis to her at once.

It would do Baby so much good! And how happy they would be together in the shade of the trees! In the railway carriage between Paris and Orleans she spoke of nothing else; her eyes were full of tears; she had an unexpected attack of maternal tenderness and mingled together flowers, birds and child in her every sentence.
La Mignotte was more than three leagues away from the station, and Nana lost a good hour over the hire of a carriage, a huge, dilapidated calash, which rumbled slowly along to an accompaniment of rattling old iron.

She had at once taken possession of the coachman, a little taciturn old man whom she overwhelmed with questions.