set them joking again. Daguenet took his departure with his wife

Toward the end of September Count Muffat, who was to dine at Nana's

that evening, came at nightfall to inform her of a summons to the

Tuileries. The lamps in the house had not been lit yet, and the

servants were laughing uproariously in the kitchen regions as he

softly mounted the stairs, where the tall windows gleamed in warm

shadow. The door of the drawing room up-stairs opened noiselessly.

A faint pink glow was dying out on the ceiling of the room, and the