In fact, there isn't a word to be said for him.

I wouldn't have his portrait in my room even! And you ruin yourself for such a bird as that; yes, you ruin yourself, my darling; you toil and you moil, when there are so many others and such rich men, too, some of them even connected with the government! Ah well, it's not I who ought to be telling you this, of course! But all the same, when next he tries any of his dirty tricks on I should cut him short with a 'Monsieur, what d'you take me for ?' You know how to say it in that grand way of yours! It would downright cripple him." Thereupon Nana burst into sobs and stammered out: "Oh, Aunt, I love him!" The fact of the matter was that Mme Lerat was beginning to feel anxious at the painful way her niece doled out the sparse, occasional francs destined to pay for little Louis's board and lodging.

Doubtless she was willing to make sacrifices and to keep the child by her whatever might happen while waiting for more prosperous times, but the thought that Fontan was preventing her and the brat and its mother from swimming in a sea of gold made her so savage that she was ready to deny the very existence of true love.

Accordingly she ended up with the following severe remarks: "Now listen, some fine day when he's taken the skin off your back, you'll come and knock at my door, and I'll open it to you." Soon money began to engross Nana's whole attention.

Fontan had caused the seven thousand francs to vanish away.