But on certain days, when she had neither Mme Maloir nor her aunt and Louiset with her, she grew mortally dull.

Thus one Sunday, when she was bargaining for some pigeons at La Rochefoucauld Market, she was delighted to meet Satin, who, in her turn, was busy purchasing a bunch of radishes.

Since the evening when the prince had drunk Fontan's champagne they had lost sight of one another.
"What?
It's you! D'you live in our parts ?" said Satin, astounded at seeing her in the street at that hour of the morning and in slippers too.

"Oh, my poor, dear girl, you're really ruined then!" Nana knitted her brows as a sign that she was to hold her tongue, for they were surrounded by other women who wore dressing gowns and were without linen, while their disheveled tresses were white with fluff.

In the morning, when the man picked up overnight had been newly dismissed, all the courtesans of the quarter were wont to come marketing here, their eyes heavy with sleep, their feet in old down-at-heel shoes and themselves full of the weariness and ill humor entailed by a night of boredom.