Nana went back to the public-house balls in the suburbs, where she had kicked up her heels in the early ill-shod days.

She revisited the dark corners on the outer boulevards, where when she was fifteen years old men used to hug her while her father was looking for her in order to give her a hiding.

Both the women would speed along, visiting all the ballrooms and restaurants in a quarter and climbing innumerable staircases which were wet with spittle and spilled beer, or they would stroll quietly about, going up streets and planting themselves in front of carriage gates.

Satin, who had served her apprenticeship in the Quartier Latin, used to take Nana to Bullier's and the public houses in the Boulevard Saint-Michel.

But the vacations were drawing on, and the Quarter looked too starved.
Eventually they always returned to the principal boulevards, for it was there they ran the best chance of getting what they wanted.