“Most certainly, gentlemen, you were quite right to come up,” she said with a very good grace.
But the electric bell made her tremble again. Another call, and that Zoe always opening the door! She went on:
“One is only too happy to be able to give.”
At bottom she was flattered.
“Ah, madame,” rejoined the marquis, “if only you knew about it! there's such misery! Our district has more than three thousand poor people in it, and yet it's one of the richest. You cannot picture to yourself anything like the present distress—children with no bread, women ill, utterly without assistance, perishing of the cold!”
“The poor souls!” cried Nana, very much moved.
Such was her feeling of compassion that tears flooded her fine eyes. No longer studying deportment, she leaned forward with a quick move
