He was told that Madame was not well.

Nana grew daily more disgusted at the notion of deceiving Georges.

He was such an innocent lad, and he had such faith in her! She would have looked on herself as the lowest of the low had she played him false.

Besides, it would have sickened her to do so! Zoe, who took her part in this affair in mute disdain, believed that Madame was growing senseless.
On the sixth day a band of visitors suddenly blundered into Nana's idyl.
She had, indeed, invited a whole swarm of people under the belief that none of them would come.

And so one fine afternoon she was vastly astonished and annoyed to see an omnibus full of people pulling up outside the gate of La Mignotte.
"It's us!" cried Mignon, getting down first from the conveyance and extracting then his sons Henri and Charles.
Labordette thereupon appeared and began handing out an interminable file of ladies--Lucy Stewart, Caroline Hequet, Tatan Nene, Maria Blond.