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diff --git a/8558-h/8558-h.htm b/8558-h/8558-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc1833b --- /dev/null +++ b/8558-h/8558-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11887 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of L'Assommoir, by Émile Zola</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of L'Assommoir, by Émile Zola</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: L'Assommoir</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Émile Zola</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: John Stirling</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: July 23, 2003 [eBook #8558]<br /> +[Most recently updated: July 5, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Cam Venezuela, Earle Beach, Eric Eldred, and the Distributed Online Proofing Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK L'ASSOMMOIR ***</div> + +<h1>L'ASSOMMOIR</h1> + +<h2 class="no-break">by Émile Zola</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER I<br/> +GERVAISE</h2> + +<p> +Gervaise had waited and watched for Lantier until two in the +morning. Then chilled and shivering, she turned from the window +and threw herself across the bed, where she fell into a feverish +doze with her cheeks wet with tears. For the last week when they +came out of the Veau à Deux Têtes, where they ate, +he had sent her off to bed with the children and had not appeared +until late into the night and always with a story that he had +been looking for work. +</p> + +<p>This very night, while she was watching for his return, she +fancied she saw him enter the ballroom of the Grand-Balcon, whose +ten windows blazing with lights illuminated, as with a sheet of +fire, the black lines of the outer boulevards. She caught a +glimpse of Adèle, a pretty brunette who dined at their +restaurant and who was walking a few steps behind him, with her +hands swinging as if she had just dropped his arm, rather than +pass before the bright light of the globes over the door in his +company.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise awoke about five o'clock, stiff and sore, she +burst into wild sobs, for Lantier had not come in. For the first +time he had slept out. She sat on the edge of the bed, half +shrouded in the canopy of faded chintz that hung from the arrow +fastened to the ceiling by a string. Slowly, with her eyes +suffused with tears, she looked around this miserable <i>chambre +garnie</i>, whose furniture consisted of a chestnut bureau of +which one drawer was absent, three straw chairs and a greasy +table on which was a broken-handled pitcher.</p> + +<p>Another bedstead—an iron one—had been brought in +for the children. This stood in front of the bureau and filled up +two thirds of the room.</p> + +<p>A trunk belonging to Gervaise and Lantier stood in the corner +wide open, showing its empty sides, while at the bottom a man's +old hat lay among soiled shirts and hose. Along the walls and on +the backs of the chairs hung a ragged shawl, a pair of muddy +pantaloons and a dress or two—all too bad for the +old-clothes man to buy. In the middle of the mantel between two +mismated tin candlesticks was a bundle of pawn tickets from the +Mont-de-Piété. These tickets were of a delicate +shade of rose.</p> + +<p>The room was the best in the hotel—the first floor +looking out on the boulevard.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile side by side on the same pillow the two children lay +calmly sleeping. Claude, who was eight years old, was breathing +calmly and regularly with his little hands outside of the +coverings, while Etienne, only four, smiled with one arm under +his brother's neck.</p> + +<p>When their mother's eyes fell on them she had a new paroxysm +of sobs and pressed her handkerchief to her mouth to stifle them. +Then with bare feet, not stopping to put on her slippers which +had fallen off, she ran to the window out of which she leaned as +she had done half the night and inspected the sidewalks as far as +she could see.</p> + +<p>The hotel was on the Boulevard de la Chapelle, at the left of +the Barrière Poissonnièrs. It was a two-story +building, painted a deep red up to the first floor, and had +disjointed weather-stained blinds.</p> + +<p>Above a lantern with glass sides was a sign between the two +windows:</p> + +<p class="center"> +HÔTEL BONCŒUR<br/> +KEPT BY<br/> +MARSOULLIER</p> + +<p>in large yellow letters, partially obliterated by the +dampness. Gervaise, who was prevented by the lantern from seeing +as she desired, leaned out still farther, with her handkerchief +on her lips. She looked to the right toward the Boulevard de +Rochechouart, where groups of butchers stood with their bloody +frocks before their establishments, and the fresh breeze brought +in whiffs, a strong animal smell—the smell of slaughtered +cattle.</p> + +<p>She looked to the left, following the ribbonlike avenue, past +the Hospital de Lariboisière, then building. Slowly, from +one end to the other of the horizon, did she follow the wall, +from behind which in the nightime she had heard strange groans +and cries, as if some fell murder were being perpetrated. She +looked at it with horror, as if in some dark corner—dark +with dampness and filth—she should distinguish +Lantier—Lantier lying dead with his throat cut.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Gervaise thought she distinguished Lantier amid this +crowd, and she leaned eagerly forward at the risk of falling from +the window. With a fresh pang of disappointment she pressed her +handkerchief to her lips to restrain her sobs.</p> + +<p>A fresh, youthful voice caused her to turn around.</p> + +<p>"Lantier has not come in then?"</p> + +<p>"No, Monsieur Coupeau," she answered, trying to smile.</p> + +<p>The speaker was a tinsmith who occupied a tiny room at the top +of the house. His bag of tools was over his shoulder; he had seen +the key in the door and entered with the familiarity of a +friend.</p> + +<p>"You know," he continued, "that I am working nowadays at the +hospital. What a May this is! The air positively stings one this +morning."</p> + +<p>As he spoke he looked closely at Gervaise; he saw her eyes +were red with tears and then, glancing at the bed, discovered +that it had not been disturbed. He shook his head and, going +toward the couch where the children lay with their rosy cherub +faces, he said in a lower voice:</p> + +<p>"You think your husband ought to have been with you, madame. +But don't be troubled; he is busy with politics. He went on like +a mad man the other day when they were voting for Eugène Sue. +Perhaps he passed the night with his friends abusing that +reprobate Bonaparte."</p> + +<p>"No, no," she murmured with an effort. "You think nothing of +that kind I know where Lantier is only too well. We have our +sorrows like the rest of the world!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau gave a knowing wink and departed, having offered to +bring her some milk if she did not care to go out; she was a good +woman, he told her and might count on him any time when she was +in trouble.</p> + +<p>As soon as Gervaise was alone she returned to the window.</p> + +<p>From the Barrière the lowing of the cattle and the +bleating of the sheep still came on the keen, fresh morning air. +Among the crowd she recognized the locksmiths by their blue +frocks, the masons by their white overalls, the painters by their +coats, from under which hung their blouses. This crowd was +cheerless. All of neutral tints—grays and blues +predominating, with never a dash of color. Occasionally a workman +stopped and lighted his pipe, while his companions passed on. +There was no laughing, no talking, but they strode on steadily +with cadaverous faces toward that Paris which quickly swallowed +them up.</p> + +<p>At the two corners of La Rue des Poissonnièrs were two +wineshops, where the shutters had just been taken down. Here some +of the workmen lingered, crowding into the shop, spitting, +coughing and drinking glasses of brandy and water. Gervaise was +watching the place on the left of the street, where she thought +she had seen Lantier go in, when a stout woman, bareheaded and +wearing a large apron, called to her from the pavement,</p> + +<p>"You are up early, Madame Lantier!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise leaned out.</p> + +<p>"Ah, is it you, Madame Boche! Yes, I am up early, for I have +much to do today."</p> + +<p>"Is that so? Well, things don't get done by themselves, that's +sure!"</p> + +<p>And a conversation ensued between the window and the sidewalk. +Mme Boche was the concierge of the house wherein the restaurant +Veau à Deux Têtes occupied the +<i>rez-de-chaussée</i>.</p> + +<p>Many times Gervaise had waited for Lantier in the room of this +woman rather than face the men who were eating. The concierge +said she had just been round the corner to arouse a lazy fellow +who had promised to do some work and then went on to speak of one +of her lodgers who had come in the night before with some woman +and had made such a noise that every one was disturbed until +after three o'clock.</p> + +<p>As she gabbled, however, she examined Gervaise with +considerable curiosity and seemed, in fact, to have come out +under the window for that express purpose.</p> + +<p>"Is Monsieur Lantier still asleep?" she asked suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he is asleep," answered Gervaise with flushing +cheeks.</p> + +<p>Madame saw the tears come to her eyes and, satisfied with her +discovery, was turning away when she suddenly stopped and called +out:</p> + +<p>"You are going to the lavatory this morning, are you not? All +right then, I have some things to wash, and I will keep a place +for you next to me, and we can have a little talk!"</p> + +<p>Then as if moved by sudden compassion, she added:</p> + +<p>"Poor child, don't stay at that window any longer. You are +purple with cold and will surely make yourself sick!"</p> + +<p>But Gervaise did not move. She remained in the same spot for +two mortal hours, until the clock struck eight. The shops were +now all open. The procession in blouses had long ceased, and only +an occasional one hurried along. At the wineshops, however, there +was the same crowd of men drinking, spitting and coughing. The +workmen in the street had given place to the workwomen. +Milliners' apprentices, florists, burnishers, who with thin +shawls drawn closely around them came in bands of three or four, +talking eagerly, with gay laughs and quick glances. Occasionally +one solitary figure was seen, a pale-faced, serious woman, who +walked rapidly, neither looking to the right nor to the left.</p> + +<p>Then came the clerks, blowing on their fingers to warm them, +eating a roll as they walked; young men, lean and tall, with +clothing they had outgrown and with eyes heavy with sleep; old +men, who moved along with measured steps, occasionally pulling +out their watches, but able, from many years' practice, to time +their movements almost to a second.</p> + +<p>The boulevards at last were comparatively quiet. The +inhabitants were sunning themselves. Women with untidy hair and +soiled petticoats were nursing their babies in the open air, and +an occasional dirty-faced brat fell into the gutter or rolled +over with shrieks of pain or joy.</p> + +<p>Gervaise felt faint and ill; all hope was gone. It seemed to +her that all was over and that Lantier would come no more. She +looked from the dingy slaughterhouses, black with their dirt and +loathsome odor, on to the new and staring hospital and into the +rooms consecrated to disease and death. As yet the windows were +not in, and there was nothing to impede her view of the large, +empty wards. The sun shone directly in her face and blinded +her.</p> + +<p>She was sitting on a chair with her arms dropping drearily at +her side but not weeping, when Lantier quietly opened the door +and walked in.</p> + +<p>"You have come!" she cried, ready to throw herself on his +neck.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have come," he answered, "and what of it? Don't begin +any of your nonsense now!" And he pushed her aside. Then with an +angry gesture he tossed his felt hat on the bureau.</p> + +<p>He was a small, dark fellow, handsome and well made, with a +delicate mustache which he twisted in his fingers mechanically as +he spoke. He wore an old coat, buttoned tightly at the waist, and +spoke with a strongly marked Provencal accent.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had dropped upon her chair again and uttered +disjointed phrases of lamentation.</p> + +<p>"I have not closed my eyes—I thought you were killed! +Where have you been all night? I feel as if I were going mad! +Tell me, Auguste, where have you been?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I had business," he answered with an indifferent shrug of +his shoulders. "At eight o'clock I had an engagement with that +friend, you know, who is thinking of starting a manufactory of +hats. I was detained, and I preferred stopping there. But you +know I don't like to be watched and catechized. Just let me +alone, will you?"</p> + +<p>His wife began to sob. Their voices and Lantier's noisy +movements as he pushed the chairs about woke the children. They +started up, half naked with tumbled hair, and hearing their +mother cry, they followed her example, rending the air with their +shrieks.</p> + +<p>"Well, this is lovely music!" cried Lantier furiously. "I warn +you, if you don't all stop, that out of this door I go, and you +won't see me again in a hurry! Will you hold your tongue? Good-by +then; I'll go back where I came from."</p> + +<p>He snatched up his hat, but Gervaise rushed toward him, +crying:</p> + +<p>"No! No!"</p> + +<p>And she soothed the children and stifled their cries with +kisses and laid them tenderly back in their bed, and they were +soon happy and merrily playing together. Meanwhile the father, +not even taking off his boots, threw himself on the bed with a +weary air. His face was white from exhaustion and a sleepless +night; he did not close his eyes but looked around the room.</p> + +<p>"A nice-looking place, this!" he muttered.</p> + +<p>Then examining Gervaise, he said half aloud and half to +himself:</p> + +<p>"So! You have given up washing yourself, it seems!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise was only twenty-two. She was tall and slender with +delicate features, already worn by hardships and anxieties. With +her hair uncombed and shoes down at the heel, shivering in her +white sack, on which was much dust and many stains from the +furniture and wall where it had hung, she looked at least ten +years older from the hours of suspense and tears she had +passed.</p> + +<p>Lantier's word startled her from her resignation and +timidity.</p> + +<p>"Are you not ashamed?" she said with considerable animation. +"You know very well that I do all I can. It is not my fault that +we came here. I should like to see you with two children in a +place where you can't get a drop of hot water. We ought as soon +as we reached Paris to have settled ourselves at once in a home; +that was what you promised."</p> + +<p>"Pshaw," he muttered; "You had as much good as I had out of +our savings. You ate the fatted calf with me—and it is not +worth while to make a row about it now!"</p> + +<p>She did not heed his word but continued:</p> + +<p>"There is no need of giving up either. I saw Madame +Fauconnier, the laundress in La Rue Neuve. She will take me +Monday. If you go in with your friend we shall be afloat again in +six months. We must find some kind of a hole where we can live +cheaply while we work. That is the thing to do now. Work! +Work!"</p> + +<p>Lantier turned his face to the wall with a shrug of disgust +which enraged his wife, who resumed:</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know very well that you don't like to work. You would +like to wear fine clothes and walk about the streets all day. You +don't like my looks since you took all my dresses to the +pawnbrokers. No, no, Auguste, I did not intend to speak to you +about it, but I know very well where you spent the night. I saw +you go into the Grand-Balcon with that streetwalker Adèle. +You have made a charming choice. She wears fine clothes and is +clean. Yes, and she has reason to be, certainly; there is not a +man in that restaurant who does not know her far better than an +honest girl should be known!"</p> + +<p>Lantier leaped from the bed. His eyes were as black as night +and his face deadly pale.</p> + +<p>"Yes," repeated his wife, "I mean what I say. Madame Boche +will not keep her or her sister in the house any longer, because +there are always a crowd of men hanging on the staircase."</p> + +<p>Lantier lifted both fists, and then conquering a violent +desire to beat her, he seized her in his arms, shook her +violently and threw her on the bed where the children were. They +at once began to cry again while he stood for a moment, and then, +with the air of a man who finally takes a resolution in regard to +which he has hesitated, he said:</p> + +<p>"You do not know what you have done, Gervaise. You are +wrong—as you will soon discover."</p> + +<p>For a moment the voices of the children filled the room. Their +mother, lying on their narrow couch, held them both in her arms +and said over and over again in a monotonous voice:</p> + +<p>"If you were not here, my poor darlings! If you were not here! +If you were not here!"</p> + +<p>Lantier was lying flat on his back with his eyes fixed on the +ceiling. He was not listening; his attention was concentrated on +some fixed idea. He remained in this way for an hour and more, +not sleeping, in spite of his evident and intense fatigue. When +he turned and, leaning on his elbow, looked about the room again, +he found that Gervaise had arranged the chamber and made the +children's bed. They were washed and dressed. He watched her as +she swept the room and dusted the furniture.</p> + +<p>The room was very dreary still, however, with its +smoke-stained ceiling and paper discolored by dampness and three +chairs and dilapidated bureau, whose greasy surface no dusting +could clean. Then while she washed herself and arranged her hair +before the small mirror, he seemed to examine her arms and +shoulders, as if instituting a comparison between herself and +someone else. And he smiled a disdainful little smile.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was slightly, very slightly, lame, but her lameness +was perceptible, only on such days as she was very tired. This +morning, so weary was she from the watches of the night, that she +could hardly walk without support.</p> + +<p>A profound silence reigned in the room; they did not speak to +each other. He seemed to be waiting for something. She, adopting +an unconcerned air, seemed to be in haste.</p> + +<p>She made up a bundle of soiled linen that had been thrown into +a corner behind the trunk, and then he spoke:</p> + +<p>"What are you doing? Are you going out?"</p> + +<p>At first she did not reply. Then when he angrily repeated the +question she answered:</p> + +<p>"Certainly I am. I am going to wash all these things. The +children cannot live in dirt."</p> + +<p>He threw two or three handkerchiefs toward her, and after +another long silence he said:</p> + +<p>"Have you any money?"</p> + +<p>She quickly rose to her feet and turned toward him; in her +hand she held some of the soiled clothes.</p> + +<p>"Money! Where should I get money unless I had stolen it? You +know very well that day before yesterday you got three francs on +my black skirt. We have breakfasted twice on that, and money goes +fast. No, I have no money. I have four sous for the lavatory. I +cannot make money like other women we know."</p> + +<p>He did not reply to this allusion but rose from the bed and +passed in review the ragged garments hung around the room. He +ended by taking down the pantaloons and the shawl and, opening +the bureau, took out a sack and two chemises. All these he made +into a bundle, which he threw at Gervaise.</p> + +<p>"Take them," he said, "and make haste back from the +pawnbroker's."</p> + +<p>"Would you not like me to take the children?" she asked. +"Heavens! If pawnbrokers would only make loans on children, what +a good thing it would be!"</p> + +<p>She went to the Mont-de-Piété, and when she +returned a half-hour later she laid a silver five-franc piece on +the mantelshelf and placed the ticket with the others between the +two candlesticks.</p> + +<p>"This is what they gave me," she said coldly. "I wanted six +francs, but they would not give them. They always keep on the +safe side there, and yet there is always a crowd."</p> + +<p>Lantier did not at once take up the money. He had sent her to +the Mont-de-Piété that he might not leave her +without food or money, but when he caught sight of part of a ham +wrapped in paper on the table with half a loaf of bread he +slipped the silver piece into his vest pocket.</p> + +<p>"I did not dare go to the milk woman," explained Gervaise, +"because we owe her for eight days. But I shall be back early. +You can get some bread and some chops and have them ready. Don't +forget the wine too."</p> + +<p>He made no reply. Peace seemed to be made, but when Gervaise +went to the trunk to take out some of Lantier's clothing he +called out:</p> + +<p>"No—let that alone."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she said, turning round in surprise. "You +can't wear these things again until they are washed! Why shall I +not take them?"</p> + +<p>And she looked at him with some anxiety. He angrily tore the +things from her hands and threw them back into the trunk.</p> + +<p>"Confound you!" he muttered. "Will you never learn to obey? +When I say a thing I mean it—"</p> + +<p>"But why?" she repeated, turning very pale and seized with a +terrible suspicion. "You do not need these shirts; you are not +going away. Why should I not take them?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment, uneasy under the earnest gaze she fixed +upon him. "Why? Why? Because," he said, "I am sick of hearing you +say that you wash and mend for me. Attend to your own affairs, +and I will attend to mine."</p> + +<p>She entreated him, defended herself from the charge of ever +having complained, but he shut the trunk with a loud bang and +then sat down upon it, repeating that he was master at least of +his own clothing. Then to escape from her eyes, he threw himself +again on the bed, saying he was sleepy and that she made his head +ache, and finally slept or pretended to do so.</p> + +<p>Gervaise hesitated; she was tempted to give up her plan of +going to the lavatory and thought she would sit down to her +sewing. But at last she was reassured by Lantier's regular +breathing; she took her soap and her ball of bluing and, going to +the children, who were playing on the floor with some old corks, +she said in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"Be very good and keep quiet. Papa is sleeping."</p> + +<p>When she left the room there was not a sound except the +stifled laughter of the little ones. It was then after ten, and +the sun was shining brightly in at the window.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, on reaching the boulevard, turned to the left and +followed the Rue de la Goutte-d'Or. As she passed Mme +Fauconnier's shop she nodded to the woman. The lavatory, whither +she went, was in the middle of this street, just where it begins +to ascend. Over a large low building towered three enormous +reservoirs for water, huge cylinders of zinc strongly made, and +in the rear was the drying room, an apartment with a very high +ceiling and surrounded by blinds through which the air passed. On +the right of the reservoirs a steam engine let off regular puffs +of white smoke. Gervaise, habituated apparently to puddles, did +not lift her skirts but threaded her way through the part of +<i>eau de Javelle</i> which encumbered the doorway. She knew the +mistress of the establishment, a delicate woman who sat in a +cabinet with glass doors, surrounded by soap and bluing and +packages of bicarbonate of soda.</p> + +<p>As Gervaise passed the desk she asked for her brush and +beater, which she had left to be taken care of after her last +wash. Then having taken her number, she went in. It was an +immense shed, as it were, with a low ceiling—the beams and +rafters unconcealed—and lighted by large windows, through +which the daylight streamed. A light gray mist or steam pervaded +the room, which was filled with a smell of soapsuds and <i>eau de +Javelle</i> combined. Along the central aisle were tubs on either +side, and two rows of women with their arms bare to the shoulders +and their skirts tucked up stood showing their colored stockings +and stout laced shoes.</p> + +<p>They rubbed and pounded furiously, straightening themselves +occasionally to utter a sentence and then applying themselves +again to their task, with the steam and perspiration pouring down +their red faces. There was a constant rush of water from the +faucets, a great splashing as the clothes were rinsed and +pounding and banging of the beaters, while amid all this noise +the steam engine in the corner kept up its regular puffing.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went slowly up the aisle, looking to the right and +the left. She carried her bundle under her arm and limped more +than usual, as she was pushed and jarred by the energy of the +women about her.</p> + +<p>"Here! This way, my dear," cried Mme Boche, and when the young +woman had joined her at the very end where she stood, the +concierge, without stopping her furious rubbing, began to talk in +a steady fashion.</p> + +<p>"Yes, this is your place. I have kept it for you. I have not +much to do. Boche is never hard on his linen, and you, too, do +not seem to have much. Your package is quite small. We shall +finish by noon, and then we can get something to eat. I used to +give my clothes to a woman in La Rue Pelat, but bless my heart, +she washed and pounded them all away, and I made up my mind to +wash myself. It is clear gain, you see, and costs only the +soap."</p> + +<p>Gervaise opened her bundle and sorted the clothes, laying +aside all the colored pieces, and when Mme Boche advised her to +try a little soda she shook her head.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" she said. "I know all about it!"</p> + +<p>"You know?" answered Boche curiously. "You have washed then in +your own place before you came here?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise, with her sleeves rolled up, showing her pretty, fair +arms, was soaping a child's shirt. She rubbed it and turned it, +soaped and rubbed it again. Before she answered she took up her +beater and began to use it, accenting each phrase or rather +punctuating them with her regular blows.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, washed—I should think I had! Ever since I was +ten years old. We went to the riverside, where I came from. It +was much nicer than here. I wish you could see it—a pretty +corner under the trees by the running water. Do you know +Plassans? Near Marseilles?"</p> + +<p>"You are a strong one, anyhow!" cried Mme Boche, astonished at +the rapidity and strength of the woman. "Your arms are slender, +but they are like iron."</p> + +<p>The conversation continued until all the linen was well beaten +and yet whole! Gervaise then took each piece separately, rinsed +it, then rubbed it with soap and brushed it. That is to say, she +held the cloth firmly with one hand and with the other moved the +short brush from her, pushing along a dirty foam which fell off +into the water below.</p> + +<p>As she brushed they talked.</p> + +<p>"No, we are not married," said Gervaise. "I do not intend to +lie about it. Lantier is not so nice that a woman need be very +anxious to be his wife. If it were not for the children! I was +fourteen and he was eighteen when the first one was born. The +other child did not come for four years. I was not happy at home. +Papa Macquart, for the merest trifle, would beat me. I might have +married, I suppose."</p> + +<p>She dried her hands, which were red under the white +soapsuds.</p> + +<p>"The water is very hard in Paris," she said.</p> + +<p>Mme Boche had finished her work long before, but she continued +to dabble in the water merely as an excuse to hear this story, +which for two weeks had excited her curiosity. Her mouth was +open, and her eyes were shining with satisfaction at having +guessed so well.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, just as I knew," she said to herself, "but the little +woman talks too much! I was sure, though, there had been a +quarrel."</p> + +<p>Then aloud:</p> + +<p>"He is not good to you then?"</p> + +<p>"He was very good to me once," answered Gervaise, "but since +we came to Paris he has changed. His mother died last year and +left him about seventeen hundred francs. He wished to come to +Paris, and as Father Macquart was in the habit of hitting me in +the face without any warning, I said I would come, too, which we +did, with the two children. I meant to be a fine laundress, and +he was to continue with his trade as a hatter. We might have been +very happy. But, you see, Lantier is extravagant; he likes +expensive things and thinks of his amusement before anything +else. He is not good for much, anyhow!</p> + +<p>"We arrived at the Hôtel Montmartre. We had dinners and +carriages, suppers and theaters, a watch for him, a silk dress +for me—for he is not selfish when he has money. You can +easily imagine, therefore, at the end of two months we were +cleaned out. Then it was that we came to Hôtel Boncœur and +that this life began." She checked herself with a strange choking +in the throat. Tears gathered in her eyes. She finished brushing +her linen.</p> + +<p>"I must get my scalding water," she murmured.</p> + +<p>But Mme Boche, much annoyed at this sudden interruption to the +long-desired confidence, called the boy.</p> + +<p>"Charles," she said, "it would be very good of you if you +would bring a pail of hot water to Madame Lantier, as she is in a +great hurry." The boy brought a bucketful, and Gervaise paid him +a sou. It was a sou for each bucket. She turned the hot water +into her tub and soaked her linen once more and rubbed it with +her hands while the steam hovered round her blonde head like a +cloud.</p> + +<p>"Here, take some of this," said the concierge as she emptied +into the water that Gervaise was using the remains of a package +of bicarbonate of soda. She offered her also some <i>eau de +Javelle</i>, but the young woman refused. It was only good, she +said, for grease spots and wine stains.</p> + +<p>"I thought him somewhat dissipated," said Mme Boche, referring +to Lantier without naming him.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, leaning over her tub and her arms up to the elbows +in the soapsuds, nodded in acquiescence.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued the concierge, "I have seen many little +things." But she started back as Gervaise turned round with a +pale face and quivering lips.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know nothing," she continued. "He likes to +laugh—that is all—and those two girls who are with +us, you know, Adèle and Virginie, like to laugh too, so +they have their little jokes together, but that is all there is +of it, I am sure."</p> + +<p>The young woman, with the perspiration standing on her brow +and her arms still dripping, looked her full in the face with +earnest, inquiring eyes.</p> + +<p>Then the concierge became excited and struck her breast, +exclaiming:</p> + +<p>"I tell you I know nothing whatever, nothing more than I tell +you!"</p> + +<p>Then she added in a gentle voice, "But he has honest eyes, my +dear. He will marry you, child; I promise that he will marry +you!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise dried her forehead with her damp hand and shook her +head. The two women were silent for a moment; around them, too, +it was very quiet. The clock struck eleven. Many of the women +were seated swinging their feet, drinking their wine and eating +their sausages, sandwiched between slices of bread. An occasional +economical housewife hurried in with a small bundle under her +arm, and a few sounds of the pounder were still heard at +intervals; sentences were smothered in the full mouths, or a +laugh was uttered, ending in a gurgling sound as the wine was +swallowed, while the great machine puffed steadily on. Not one of +the women, however, heard it; it was like the very respiration of +the lavatory—the eager breath that drove up among the +rafters the floating vapor that filled the room.</p> + +<p>The heat gradually became intolerable. The sun shone in on the +left through the high windows, imparting to the vapor opaline +tints—the palest rose and tender blue, fading into soft +grays. When the women began to grumble the boy Charles went from +one window to the other, drawing down the heavy linen shades. +Then he crossed to the other side, the shady side, and opened the +blinds. There was a general exclamation of joy—a formidable +explosion of gaiety.</p> + +<p>All this time Gervaise was going on with her task and had just +completed the washing of her colored pieces, which she threw over +a trestle to drip; soon small pools of blue water stood on the +floor. Then she began to rinse the garments in cold water which +ran from a spigot near by.</p> + +<p>"You have nearly finished," said Mme Boche. "I am waiting to +help you wring them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you are very good! It is not necessary though!" answered +the young woman as she swashed the garments through the clear +water. "If I had sheets I would not refuse your offer, +however."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, she accepted the aid of the concierge. They took +up a brown woolen skirt, badly faded, from which poured out a +yellow stream as the two women wrung it together.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Mme Boche cried out:</p> + +<p>"Look! There comes big Virginie! She is actually coming here +to wash her rags tied up in a handkerchief."</p> + +<p>Gervaise looked up quickly. Virginie was a woman about her own +age, larger and taller than herself, a brunette and pretty in +spite of the elongated oval of her face. She wore an old black +dress with flounces and a red ribbon at her throat. Her hair was +carefully arranged and massed in a blue chenille net.</p> + +<p>She hesitated a moment in the center aisle and half shut her +eyes, as if looking for something or somebody, but when she +distinguished Gervaise she went toward her with a haughty, +insolent air and supercilious smile and finally established +herself only a short distance from her.</p> + +<p>"That is a new notion!" muttered Mme Boche in a low voice. +"She was never known before to rub out even a pair of cuffs. She +is a lazy creature, I do assure you. She never sews the buttons +on her boots. She is just like her sister, that minx of an +Adèle, who stays away from the shop two days out of three. +What is she rubbing now? A skirt, is it? It is dirty enough, I am +sure!"</p> + +<p>It was clear that Mme Boche wished to please Gervaise. The +truth was she often took coffee with Adèle and Virginie +when the two sisters were in funds. Gervaise did not reply but +worked faster than before. She was now preparing her bluing water +in a small tub standing on three legs. She dipped in her pieces, +shook them about in the colored water, which was almost a lake in +hue, and then, wringing them, she shook them out and threw them +lightly over the high wooden bars.</p> + +<p>While she did this she kept her back well turned on big +Virginie. But she felt that the girl was looking at her, and she +heard an occasional derisive sniff. Virginie, in fact, seemed to +have come there to provoke her, and when Gervaise turned around +the two women fixed their eyes on each other.</p> + +<p>"Let her be," murmured Mme Boche. "She is not the one, now I +tell you!"</p> + +<p>At this moment, as Gervaise was shaking her last piece of +linen, she heard laughing and talking at the door of the +lavatory.</p> + +<p>"Two children are here asking for their mother!" cried +Charles.</p> + +<p>All the women looked around, and Gervaise recognized Claude +and Etienne. As soon as they saw her they ran toward her, +splashing through the puddle's, their untied shoes half off and +Claude, the eldest, dragging his little brother by the hand.</p> + +<p>The women as they passed uttered kindly exclamations of pity, +for the children were evidently frightened. They clutched their +mother's skirts and buried their pretty blond heads.</p> + +<p>"Did Papa send you?" asked Gervaise.</p> + +<p>But as she stooped to tie Etienne's shoes she saw on Claude's +finger the key of her room with its copper tag and number.</p> + +<p>"Did you bring the key?" she exclaimed in great surprise. "And +why, pray?"</p> + +<p>The child looked down on the key hanging on his finger, which +he had apparently forgotten. This seemed to remind him of +something, and he said in a clear, shrill voice:</p> + +<p>"Papa is gone!"</p> + +<p>"He went to buy your breakfast, did he not? And he told you to +come and look for me here, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Claude looked at his brother and hesitated. Then he +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Papa has gone, I say. He jumped from the bed, put his things +in his trunk, and then he carried his trunk downstairs and put it +on a carriage. We saw him—he has gone!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise was kneeling, tying the boy's shoe. She rose slowly +with a very white face and with her hands pressed to either +temple, as if she were afraid of her head cracking open. She +could say nothing but the same words over and over again:</p> + +<p>"Great God! Great God! Great God!"</p> + +<p>Mme Boche, in her turn, interrogated the child eagerly, for +she was charmed at finding herself an actor, as it were, in this +drama.</p> + +<p>"Tell us all about it, my dear. He locked the door, did he? +And then he told you to bring the key here?" And then, lowering +her voice, she whispered in the child's ear:</p> + +<p>"Was there a lady in the carriage?" she asked.</p> + +<p>The child looked troubled for a moment but speedily began his +story again with a triumphant air.</p> + +<p>"He jumped off the bed, put his things in the trunk, and he +went away."</p> + +<p>Then as Mme Boche made no attempt to detain him, he drew his +brother to the faucet, where the two amused themselves in making +the water run.</p> + +<p>Gervaise could not weep. She felt as if she were stifling. She +covered her face with her hands and turned toward the wall. A +sharp, nervous trembling shook her from head to foot. An +occasional sobbing sigh or, rather, gasp escaped from her lips, +while she pressed her clenched hands more tightly on her eyes, as +if to increase the darkness of the abyss in which she felt +herself to have fallen.</p> + +<p>"Come! Come, my child!" muttered Mme Boche.</p> + +<p>"If you knew! If you only knew all!" answered Gervaise. "Only +this very morning he made me carry my shawl and my chemises to +the Mont-de-Piété, and that was the money he had +for the carriage."</p> + +<p>And the tears rushed to her eyes. The recollection of her +visit to the pawnbroker's, of her hasty return with the money in +her hand, seemed to let loose the sobs that strangled her and was +the one drop too much. Tears streamed from her eyes and poured +down her face. She did not think of wiping them away.</p> + +<p>"Be reasonable, child! Be quiet," whispered Mme Boche. "They +are all looking at you. Is it possible you can care so much for +any man? You love him still, although such a little while ago you +pretended you did not care for him, and you cry as if your heart +would break! Oh lord, what fools we women are!"</p> + +<p>Then in a maternal tone she added:</p> + +<p>"And such a pretty little woman as you are too. But now I may +as well tell you the whole, I suppose? Well then, you remember +when I was talking to you from the sidewalk and you were at your +window? I knew then that it was Lantier who came in with +Adèle. I did not see his face, but I knew his coat, and +Boche watched and saw him come downstairs this morning. But he +was with Adèle, you understand. There is another person +who comes to see Virginie twice a week."</p> + +<p>She stopped for a moment to take breath and then went on in a +lower tone still.</p> + +<p>"Take care! She is laughing at you—the heartless little +cat! I bet all her washing is a sham. She has seen her sister and +Lantier well off and then came here to find out how you would +take it."</p> + +<p>Gervaise took her hands down from her face and looked around. +When she saw Virginie talking and laughing with two or three +women a wild tempest of rage shook her from head to foot. She +stooped with her arms extended, as if feeling for something, and +moved along slowly for a step or two, then snatched up a bucket +of soapsuds and threw it at Virginie.</p> + +<p>"You devil! Be off with you!" cried Virginie, starting back. +Only her feet were wet.</p> + +<p>All the women in the lavatory hurried to the scene of action. +They jumped up on the benches, some with a piece of bread in +their hands, others with a bit of soap, and a circle of +spectators was soon formed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she is a devil!" repeated Virginie. "What has got into +the fool?" Gervaise stood motionless, her face convulsed and lips +apart. The other continued:</p> + +<p>"She got tired of the country, it seems, but she left one leg +behind her, at all events."</p> + +<p>The women laughed, and big Virginie, elated at her success, +went on in a louder and more triumphant tone:</p> + +<p>"Come a little nearer, and I will soon settle you. You had +better have remained in the country. It is lucky for you that +your dirty soapsuds only went on my feet, for I would have taken +you over my knees and given you a good spanking if one drop had +gone in my face. What is the matter with her, anyway?" And big +Virginie addressed her audience: "Make her tell what I have done +to her! Say! Fool, what harm have I ever done to you?"</p> + +<p>"You had best not talk so much," answered Gervaise almost +inaudibly; "you know very well where my husband was seen +yesterday. Now be quiet or harm will come to you. I will strangle +you—quick as a wink."</p> + +<p>"Her husband, she says! Her husband! The lady's husband! As if +a looking thing like that had a husband! Is it my fault if he has +deserted her? Does she think I have stolen him? Anyway, he was +much too good for her. But tell me, some of you, was his name on +his collar? Madame has lost her husband! She will pay a good +reward, I am sure, to anyone who will carry him back!"</p> + +<p>The women all laughed. Gervaise, in a low, concentrated voice, +repeated:</p> + +<p>"You know very well—you know very well! Your +sister—yes, I will strangle your sister!"</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, I understand," answered Virginie. "Strangle her if +you choose. What do I care? And what are you staring at me for? +Can't I wash my clothes in peace? Come, I am sick of this stuff. +Let me alone!"</p> + +<p>Big Virginie turned away, and after five or six angry blows +with her beater she began again:</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is my sister, and the two adore each other. You +should see them bill and coo together. He has left you with these +dirty-faced imps, and you left three others behind you with three +fathers! It was your dear Lantier who told us all that. Ah, he +had had quite enough of you—he said so!"</p> + +<p>"Miserable fool!" cried Gervaise, white with anger.</p> + +<p>She turned and mechanically looked around on the floor; seeing +nothing, however, but the small tub of bluing water, she threw +that in Virginie's face.</p> + +<p>"She has spoiled my dress!" cried Virginie, whose shoulder and +one hand were dyed a deep blue. "You just wait a moment!" she +added as she, in her turn, snatched up a tub and dashed its +contents at Gervaise. Then ensued a most formidable battle. The +two women ran up and down the room in eager haste, looking for +full tubs, which they quickly flung in the faces of each other, +and each deluge was heralded and accompanied by a shout.</p> + +<p>"Is that enough? Will that cool you off?" cried Gervaise.</p> + +<p>And from Virginie:</p> + +<p>"Take that! It is good to have a bath once in your life!"</p> + +<p>Finally the tubs and pails were all empty, and the two women +began to draw water from the faucets. They continued their mutual +abuse while the water was running, and presently it was Virginie +who received a bucketful in her face. The water ran down her back +and over her skirts. She was stunned and bewildered, when +suddenly there came another in her left ear, knocking her head +nearly off her shoulders; her comb fell and with it her abundant +hair.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was attacked about her legs. Her shoes were filled +with water, and she was drenched above her knees. Presently the +two women were deluged from head to foot; their garments stuck to +them, and they dripped like umbrellas which had been out in a +heavy shower.</p> + +<p>"What fun!" said one of the laundresses as she looked on at a +safe distance.</p> + +<p>The whole lavatory were immensely amused, and the women +applauded as if at a theater. The floor was covered an inch deep +with water, through which the termagants splashed. Suddenly +Virginie discovered a bucket of scalding water standing a little +apart; she caught it and threw it upon Gervaise. There was an +exclamation of horror from the lookers-on. Gervaise escaped with +only one foot slightly burned, but exasperated by the pain, she +threw a tub with all her strength at the legs of her opponent. +Virginie fell to the ground.</p> + +<p>"She has broken her leg!" cried one of the spectators.</p> + +<p>"She deserved it," answered another, "for the tall one tried +to scald her!"</p> + +<p>"She was right, after all, if the blonde had taken away her +man!"</p> + +<p>Mme Boche rent the air with her exclamations, waving her arms +frantically high above her head. She had taken the precaution to +place herself behind a rampart of tubs, with Claude and Etienne +clinging to her skirts, weeping and sobbing in a paroxysm of +terror and keeping up a cry of "Mamma! Mamma!" When she saw +Virginie prostrate on the ground she rushed to Gervaise and tried +to pull her away.</p> + +<p>"Come with me!" she urged. "Do be sensible. You are growing so +angry that the Lord only knows what the end of all this will +be!"</p> + +<p>But Gervaise pushed her aside, and the old woman again took +refuge behind the tubs with the children. Virginie made a spring +at the throat of her adversary and actually tried to strangle +her. Gervaise shook her off and snatched at the long braid +hanging from the girl's head and pulled it as if she hoped to +wrench it off, and the head with it.</p> + +<p>The battle began again, this time silent and wordless and +literally tooth and nail. Their extended hands with fingers +stiffly crooked, caught wildly at all in their way, scratching +and tearing. The red ribbon and the chenille net worn by the +brunette were torn off; the waist of her dress was ripped from +throat to belt and showed the white skin on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had lost a sleeve, and her chemise was torn to her +waist. Strips of clothing lay in every direction. It was Gervaise +who was first wounded. Three long scratches from her mouth to her +throat bled profusely, and she fought with her eyes shut lest she +should be blinded. As yet Virginia showed no wound. Suddenly +Gervaise seized one of her earrings—pear-shaped, of yellow +glass—she tore it out and brought blood.</p> + +<p>"They will kill each other! Separate them," cried several +voices.</p> + +<p>The women gathered around the combatants; the spectators were +divided into two parties—some exciting and encouraging +Gervaise and Virginie as if they had been dogs fighting, while +others, more timid, trembled, turned away their heads and said +they were faint and sick. A general battle threatened to take +place, such was the excitement.</p> + +<p>Mme Boche called to the boy in charge:</p> + +<p>"Charles! Charles! Where on earth can he be?"</p> + +<p>Finally she discovered him, calmly looking on with his arms +folded. He was a tall youth with a big neck. He was laughing and +hugely enjoying the scene. It would be a capital joke, he +thought, if the women tore each other's clothes to rags and if +they should be compelled to finish their fight in a state of +nudity.</p> + +<p>"Are you there then?" cried Mme Boche when she saw him. "Come +and help us separate them, or you can do it yourself."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," he answered quietly. "I don't propose to have +my own eyes scratched out! I am not here for that. Let them +alone! It will do them no harm to let a little of their hot blood +out!"</p> + +<p>Mme Boche declared she would summon the police, but to this +the mistress of the lavatory, the delicate-looking woman with +weak eyes, strenuously objected.</p> + +<p>"No, no, I will not. It would injure my house!" she said over +and over again.</p> + +<p>Both women lay on the ground. Suddenly Virginie struggled up +to her knees. She had got possession of one of the beaters, which +she brandished. Her voice was hoarse and low as she muttered:</p> + +<p>"This will be as good for you as for your dirty linen!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise, in her turn, snatched another beater, which she held +like a club. Her voice also was hoarse and low.</p> + +<p>"I will beat your skin," she muttered, "as I would my coarse +towels."</p> + +<p>They knelt in front of each other in utter silence for at +least a minute, with hair streaming, eyes glaring and distended +nostrils. They each drew a long breath.</p> + +<p>Gervaise struck the first blow with her beater full on the +shoulders of her adversary and then threw herself over on the +side to escape Virginie's weapon, which touched her on the +hip.</p> + +<p>Thus started, they struck each other as laundresses strike +their linen, in measured cadence.</p> + +<p>The women about them ceased to laugh; many went away, saying +they were faint. Those who remained watched the scene with a +cruel light in their eyes. Mme Boche had taken Claude and Etienne +to the other end of the room, whence came the dreary sound of +their sobs which were heard through the dull blows of the +beaters.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Gervaise uttered a shriek. Virginie had struck her +just above the elbow on her bare arm, and the flesh began to +swell at once. She rushed at Virginie; her face was so terrible +that the spectators thought she meant to kill her.</p> + +<p>"Enough! Enough!" they cried.</p> + +<p>With almost superhuman strength she seized Virginie by the +waist, bent her forward with her face to the brick floor and, +notwithstanding her struggles, lifted her skirts and showed the +white and naked skin. Then she brought her beater down as she had +formerly done at Plassans under the trees on the riverside, where +her employer had washed the linen of the garrison.</p> + +<p>Each blow of the beater fell on the soft flesh with a dull +thud, leaving a scarlet mark.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Oh!" murmured Charles with his eyes nearly starting from +his head.</p> + +<p>The women were laughing again by this time, but soon the cry +began again of "Enough! Enough!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise did not even hear. She seemed entirely absorbed, as +if she were fulfilling an appointed task, and she talked with +strange, wild gaiety, recalling one of the rhymes of her +childhood:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Pan! Pan! Margot au lavoir,<br/> +Pan! Pan! à coups de battoir;<br/> +Pan! Pan! va laver son coeur,<br/> +Pan! Pan! tout noir de douleur</p> + +<p>"Take that for yourself and that for your sister and this for +Lantier. And now I shall begin all over again. That is for +Lantier—that for your sister—and this for +yourself!</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"Pan! Pan! Margot au lavoir!<br/> +Pan! Pan! à coups de battoir." +</p> + +<p>They tore Virginie from her hands. The tall brunette, weeping +and sobbing, scarlet with shame, rushed out of the room, leaving +Gervaise mistress of the field, who calmly arranged her dress +somewhat and, as her arm was stiff, begged Mme Boche to lift her +bundle of linen on her shoulder.</p> + +<p>While the old woman obeyed she dilated on her emotions during +the scene that had just taken place.</p> + +<p>"You ought to go to a doctor and see if something is not +broken. I heard a queer sound," she said.</p> + +<p>But Gervaise did not seem to hear her and paid no attention +either to the women who crowded around her with congratulations. +She hastened to the door where her children awaited her.</p> + +<p>"Two hours!" said the mistress of the establishment, already +installed in her glass cabinet. "Two hours and two sous!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise mechanically laid down the two sous, and then, +limping painfully under the weight of the wet linen which was +slung over her shoulder and dripped as she moved, with her +injured arm and bleeding cheek, she went away, dragging after her +with her naked arm the still-sobbing and tear-stained Etienne and +Claude.</p> + +<p>Behind her the lavatory resumed its wonted busy air, a little +gayer than usual from the excitement of the morning. The women +had eaten their bread and drunk their wine, and they splashed the +water and used their beaters with more energy than usual as they +recalled the blows dealt by Gervaise. They talked from alley to +alley, leaning over their tubs. Words and laughs were lost in the +sound of running water. The steam and mist were golden in the sun +that came in through holes in the curtain. The odor of soapsuds +grew stronger and stronger.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise entered the alley which led to the Hôtel +Boncœur her tears choked her. It was a long, dark, narrow alley, +with a gutter on one side close to the wall, and the loathsome +smell brought to her mind the recollection of having passed +through there with Lantier a fortnight previous.</p> + +<p>And what had that fortnight been? A succession of quarrels and +dissensions, the remembrance of which would be forevermore a +regret and bitterness.</p> + +<p>Her room was empty, filled with the glowing sunlight from the +open window. This golden light rendered more apparent the +blackened ceiling and the walls with the shabby, dilapidated +paper. There was not an article beyond the furniture left in the +room, except a woman's fichu that seemed to have caught on a nail +near the chimney. The children's bed was pulled out into the +center of the room; the bureau drawers were wide open, displaying +their emptiness. Lantier had washed and had used the last of the +pomade—two cents' worth on the back of a playing +card—the dirty water in which he had washed still stood in +the basin. He had forgotten nothing; the corner hitherto occupied +by his trunk now seemed to Gervaise a vast desert. Even the small +mirror was gone. With a presentiment of evil she turned hastily +to the chimney. Yes, she was right, Lantier had carried away the +tickets. The pink papers were no longer between the +candlesticks!</p> + +<p>She threw her bundle of linen into a chair and stood looking +first at one thing and then at another in a dull agony that no +tears came to relieve.</p> + +<p>She had but one sou in the world. She heard a merry laugh from +her boys who, already consoled, were at the window. She went +toward them and, laying a hand on each of their heads, looked out +on that scene on which her weary eyes had dwelt so long that same +morning.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was on that street that she and her children would +soon be thrown, and she turned her hopeless, despairing eyes +toward the outer boulevards—looking from right to left, +lingering at the two extremities, seized by a feeling of terror, +as if her life thenceforward was to be spent between a +slaughterhouse and a hospital. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER II<br/> +GERVAISE AND COUPEAU</h2> + +<p>Three weeks later, about half-past eleven one fine sunny +morning, Gervaise and Coupeau, the tinworker, were eating some +brandied fruit at the Assommoir.</p> + +<p>Coupeau, who was smoking outside, had seen her as she crossed +the street with her linen and compelled her to enter. Her huge +basket was on the floor, back of the little table where they +sat.</p> + +<p>Father Colombe's Tavern, known as the Assommoir, was on the +corners of the Rue des Poissonnièrs and of the Boulevard +de Rochechouart. The sign bore the one single word in long, blue +letters:</p> + +<p class="center"> +DISTILLATION +</p> + +<p>And this word stretched from one end to the other. On either +side of the door stood tall oleanders in small casks, their +leaves covered thick with dust. The enormous counter with its +rows of glasses, its fountain and its pewter measures was on the +left of the door, and the huge room was ornamented by gigantic +casks painted bright yellow and highly varnished, hooped with +shining copper. On high shelves were bottles of liquors and jars +of fruits; all sorts of flasks standing in order concealed the +wall and repeated their pale green or deep crimson tints in the +great mirror behind the counter.</p> + +<p>The great feature of the house, however, was the distilling +apparatus which stood at the back of the room behind an oak +railing on which the tipsy workmen leaned as they stupidly +watched the still with its long neck and serpentine tubes +descending to subterranean regions—a very devil's +kitchen.</p> + +<p>At this early hour the Assommoir was nearly empty. A stout man +in his shirt sleeves—Father Colombe himself—was +serving a little girl not more than twelve years old with four +cents' worth of liquor in a cup.</p> + +<p>The sun streamed in at the door and lay on the floor, which +was black where the men had spat as they smoked. And from the +counter, from the casks, from all the room, rose an alcoholic +emanation which seemed to intoxicate the very particles of dust +floating in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Coupeau rolled a new cigarette. He was very +neat and clean, wearing a blouse and a little blue cloth cap and +showing his white teeth as he smiled.</p> + +<p>The lower jaw was somewhat prominent and the nose slightly +flat; he had fine brown eyes and the face of a happy child and +good-natured animal. His hair was thick and curly. His complexion +was delicate still, for he was only twenty-six. Opposite him sat +Gervaise in a black gown, leaning slightly forward, finishing her +fruit, which she held by the stem.</p> + +<p>They were near the street, at the first of the four tables +arranged in front of the counter. When Coupeau had lighted his +cigar he placed both elbows on the table and looked at the woman +without speaking. Her pretty face had that day something of the +delicate transparency of fine porcelain.</p> + +<p>Then continuing something which they apparently had been +previously discussing, he said in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"Then you say no, do you? Absolutely no?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. No it must be, Monsieur Coupeau," answered +Gervaise with a smile. "Surely you do not intend to begin that +again here! You promised to be reasonable too. Had I known, I +should certainly have refused your treat."</p> + +<p>He did not speak but gazed at her more intently than before +with tender boldness. He looked at her soft eyes and dewy lips, +pale at the corners but half parted, allowing one to see the rich +crimson within.</p> + +<p>She returned his look with a kind and affectionate smile. +Finally she said:</p> + +<p>"You should not think of such a thing. It is folly! I am an +old woman. I have a boy eight years old. What should we do +together?"</p> + +<p>"Much as other people do, I suppose!" answered Coupeau with a +wink.</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"You know nothing about it, Monsieur Coupeau, but I have had +some experience. I have two mouths in the house, and they have +excellent appetites. How am I to bring up my children if I trifle +away my time? Then, too, my misfortune has taught me one great +lesson, which is that the less I have to do with men, the +better!"</p> + +<p>She then proceeded to explain all her reasons, calmly and +without anger. It was easy to see that her words were the result +of grave consideration.</p> + +<p>Coupeau listened quietly, saying only at intervals:</p> + +<p>"You are hurting my feelings. Yes, hurting my feelings."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see that," she answered, "and I am really very sorry +for you. If I had any idea of leading a different life from that +which I follow today it might as well be with you as with +another. You have the look of a good-natured man. But what is the +use? I have now been with Madame Fauconnier for a fortnight. The +children are going to school, and I am very happy, for I have +plenty to do. Don't you see, therefore, that it is best for us to +remain as we are?"</p> + +<p>And she stooped to pick up her basket.</p> + +<p>"You are keeping me here to talk," she said, "and they are +waiting for me at my employer's. You will find some other woman, +Monsieur Coupeau, far prettier than I, who will not have two +children to bring up!"</p> + +<p>He looked at the clock and made her sit down again.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" he cried. "It is still thirty-five minutes of eleven. +I have twenty-five minutes still, and don't be afraid of my +familiarity, for the table is between us! Do you dislike me so +very much that you can't stay and talk with me for five +minutes?"</p> + +<p>She put down her basket, unwilling to seem disobliging, and +they talked for some time in a friendly sort of way. She had +breakfasted before she left home, and he had swallowed his soup +in the greatest haste and laid in wait for her as she came out. +Gervaise, as she listened to him, watched from the +windows—between the bottles of brandied fruit—the +movement of the crowd in the street, which at this +hour—that of the Parisian breakfast—was unusually +lively. Workmen hurried into the baker's and, coming out with a +loaf under their arms, they went into the Veau à Deux +Têtes, three doors higher up, to breakfast at six sous. +Next the baker's was a shop where fried potatoes and mussels with +parsley were sold. A constant succession of shopgirls carried off +paper parcels of fried potatoes and cups filled with mussels, and +others bought bunches of radishes. When Gervaise leaned a little +more toward the window she saw still another shop, also crowded, +from which issued a steady stream of children holding in their +hands, wrapped in paper, a breaded cutlet or a sausage, still +warm.</p> + +<p>A group formed around the door of the Assommoir.</p> + +<p>"Say, Bibi-la-Grillade," asked a voice, "will you stand a +drink all around?"</p> + +<p>Five workmen went in, and the same voice said:</p> + +<p>"Father Colombe, be honest now. Give us honest glasses, and no +nutshells, if you please."</p> + +<p>Presently three more workmen entered together, and finally a +crowd of blouses passed in between the dusty oleanders.</p> + +<p>"You have no business to ask such questions," said Gervaise to +Coupeau; "of course I loved him. But after the manner in which he +deserted me—"</p> + +<p>They were speaking of Lantier. Gervaise had never seen him +again; she supposed him to be living with Virginie's sister, with +a friend who was about to start a manufactory for hats.</p> + +<p>At first she thought of committing suicide, of drowning +herself, but she had grown more reasonable and had really begun +to trust that things were all for the best. With Lantier she felt +sure she never could have done justice to the children, so +extravagant were his habits.</p> + +<p>He might come, of course, and see Claude and Etienne. She +would not show him the door; only so far as she herself was +concerned, he had best not lay his finger on her. And she uttered +these words in a tone of determination, like a woman whose plan +of life is clearly defined, while Coupeau, who was by no means +inclined to give her up lightly, teased and questioned her in +regard to Lantier with none too much delicacy, it is true, but +his teeth were so white and his face so merry that the woman +could not take offense. "Did you beat him?" he asked finally. +"Oh, you are none too amiable. You beat people sometimes, I have +heard."</p> + +<p>She laughed gaily.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was true she had whipped that great Virginie. That day +she could have strangled someone with a glad heart. And she +laughed again, because Coupeau told her that Virginie, in her +humiliation, had left the <i>Quartier</i>.</p> + +<p>Gervaise's face, as she laughed, however, had a certain +childish sweetness. She extended her slender, dimpled hands, +declaring she would not hurt a fly. All she knew of blows was +that she had received a good many in her life. Then she began to +talk of Plassans and of her youth. She had never been indiscreet, +nor was she fond of men. When she had fallen in with Lantier she +was only fourteen, and she regarded him as her husband. Her only +fault, she declared, was that she was too amiable and allowed +people to impose on her and that she got fond of people too +easily; were she to love another man, she should wish and expect +to live quietly and comfortably with him always, without any +nonsense.</p> + +<p>And when Coupeau slyly asked her if she called her dear +children nonsense she gave him a little slap and said that she, +of course, was much like other women. But women were not like +men, after all; they had their homes to take care of and keep +clean; she was like her mother, who had been a slave to her +brutal father for more than twenty years!</p> + +<p>"My very lameness—" she continued.</p> + +<p>"Your lameness?" interrupted Coupeau gallantly. "Why, it is +almost nothing. No one would ever notice it!"</p> + +<p>She shook her head. She knew very well that it was very +evident, and at forty it would be far worse, but she said softly, +with a faint smile, "You have a strange taste, to fall in love +with a lame woman!"</p> + +<p>He, with his elbows on the table, still coaxed and entreated, +but she continued to shake her head in the negative. She listened +with her eyes fixed on the street, seemingly fascinated by the +surging crowd.</p> + +<p>The shops were being swept; the last frying pan of potatoes +was taken from the stove; the pork merchant washed the plates his +customers had used and put his place in order. Groups of +mechanics were hurrying out from all the workshops, laughing and +pushing each other like so many schoolboys, making a great +scuffling on the sidewalk with their hobnailed shoes; while some, +with their hands in their pockets, smoked in a meditative +fashion, looking up at the sun and winking prodigiously. The +sidewalks were crowded and the crowd constantly added to by men +who poured from the open door—men in blouses and frocks, +old jackets and coats, which showed all their defects in the +clear morning light.</p> + +<p>The bells of the various manufactories were ringing loudly, +but the workmen did not hurry. They deliberately lighted their +pipes and then with rounded shoulders slouched along, dragging +their feet after them.</p> + +<p>Gervaise mechanically watched a group of three, one man much +taller than the other two, who seemed to be hesitating as to what +they should do next. Finally they came directly to the +Assommoir.</p> + +<p>"I know them," said Coupeau, "or rather I know the tall one. +It is Mes-Bottes, a comrade of mine."</p> + +<p>The Assommoir was now crowded with boisterous men. Two glasses +rang with the energy with which they brought down their fists on +the counter. They stood in rows, with their hands crossed over +their stomachs or folded behind their backs, waiting their turn +to be served by Father Colombe.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" cried Mes-Bottes, giving Coupeau a rough slap on the +shoulders. "How fine you have got to be with your cigarettes and +your linen shirt bosom! Who is your friend that pays for all +this? I should like to make her acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"Don't be so silly!" returned Coupeau angrily.</p> + +<p>But the other gave a knowing wink.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I understand. 'A word to the wise—'" And he turned +round with a fearful lurch to look at Gervaise, who shuddered and +recoiled. The tobacco smoke, the odor of humanity added to this +air heavy with alcohol, was oppressive, and she choked a little +and coughed.</p> + +<p>"Ah, what an awful thing it is to drink!" she said in a +whisper to her friend, to whom she then went on to say how years +before she had drunk anisette with her mother at Plassans and how +it had made her so very sick that ever since that day she had +never been able to endure even the smell of liquors.</p> + +<p>"You see," she added as she held up her glass, "I have eaten, +the fruit, but I left the brandy, for it would make me ill."</p> + +<p>Coupeau also failed to understand how a man could swallow +glasses of brandy and water, one after the other. Brandied fruit, +now and again, was not bad. As to absinthe and similar +abominations, he never touched them—not he, indeed. His +comrades might laugh at him as much as they pleased; he always +remained on the other side of the door when they came in to +swallow perdition like that.</p> + +<p>His father, who was a tinworker like himself, had fallen one +day from the roof of No. 25, in La Rue Coquenaud, and this +recollection had made him very prudent ever since. As for +himself, when he passed through that street and saw the place he +would sooner drink the water in the gutter than swallow a drop at +the wineshop. He concluded with the sentence:</p> + +<p>"You see, in my trade a man needs a clear head and steady +legs."</p> + +<p>Gervaise had taken up her basket; she had not risen from her +chair, however, but held it on her knees with a dreary look in +her eyes, as if the words of the young mechanic had awakened in +her mind strange thoughts of a possible future.</p> + +<p>She answered in a low, hesitating tone, without any apparent +connection:</p> + +<p>"Heaven knows I am not ambitious. I do not ask for much in +this world. My idea would be to live a quiet life and always have +enough to eat—a clean place to live in—with a +comfortable bed, a table and a chair or two. Yes, I would like to +bring my children up in that way and see them good and +industrious. I should not like to run the risk of being +beaten—no, that would not please me at all!"</p> + +<p>She hesitated, as if to find something else to say, and then +resumed:</p> + +<p>"Yes, and at the end I should wish to die in my bed in my own +home!"</p> + +<p>She pushed back her chair and rose. Coupeau argued with her +vehemently and then gave an uneasy glance at the clock. They did +not, however, depart at once. She wished to look at the still and +stood for some minutes gazing with curiosity at the great copper +machine. The tinworker, who had followed her, explained to her +how the thing worked, pointing out with his finger the various +parts of the machine, and showed the enormous retort whence fell +the clear stream of alcohol. The still, with its intricate and +endless coils of wire and pipes, had a dreary aspect. Not a +breath escaped from it, and hardly a sound was heard. It was like +some night task performed in daylight by a melancholy, silent +workman.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Mes-Bottes, accompanied by his two comrades, +had lounged to the oak railing and leaned there until there was a +corner of the counter free. He laughed a tipsy laugh as he stood +with his eyes fixed on the machine.</p> + +<p>"By thunder!" he muttered. "That is a jolly little thing!"</p> + +<p>He went on to say that it held enough to keep their throats +fresh for a week. As for himself, he would like to hold the end +of that pipe between his teeth, and he would like to feel that +liquor run down his throat in a steady stream until it reached +his heels.</p> + +<p>The still did its work slowly but surely. There was not a +glimmer on its surface—no firelight reflected in its +clean-colored sides. The liquor dropped steadily and suggested a +persevering stream which would gradually invade the room, spread +over the streets and boulevard and finally deluge and inundate +Paris itself.</p> + +<p>Gervaise shuddered and drew back. She tried to smile, but her +lips quivered as she murmured:</p> + +<p>"It frightens me—that machine! It makes me feel cold to +see that constant drip."</p> + +<p>Then returning to the idea which had struck her as the acme of +human happiness, she said:</p> + +<p>"Say, do you not think that would be very nice? To work and +have plenty to eat, to have a little home all to oneself, to +bring up children and then die in one's bed?"</p> + +<p>"And not be beaten," added Coupeau gaily. "But I will promise +never to beat you, Madame Gervaise, if you will agree to what I +ask. I will promise also never to drink, because I love you too +much! Come now, say yes."</p> + +<p>He lowered his voice and spoke with his lips close to her +throat, while she, holding her basket in front of her, was making +a path through the crowd of men.</p> + +<p>But she did not say no or shake her head as she had done. She +glanced up at him with a half-tender smile and seemed to rejoice +in the assurance he gave that he did not drink.</p> + +<p>It was clear that she would have said yes if she had not sworn +never to have anything more to do with men.</p> + +<p>Finally they reached the door and went out of the place, +leaving it crowded to overflowing. The fumes of alcohol and the +tipsy voices of the men carousing went out into the street with +them.</p> + +<p>Mes-Bottes was heard accusing Father Colombe of cheating by +not filling his glasses more than half full, and he proposed to +his comrades to go in future to another place, where they could +do much better and get more for their money.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Gervaise, drawing a long breath when they stood on +the sidewalk, "here one can breathe again. Good-by, Monsieur +Coupeau, and many thanks for your politeness. I must hasten +now!"</p> + +<p>She moved on, but he took her hand and held it fast.</p> + +<p>"Go a little way with me. It will not be much farther for you. +I must stop at my sister's before I go back to the shop."</p> + +<p>She yielded to his entreaties, and they walked slowly on +together. He told her about his family. His mother, a tailoress, +was the housekeeper. Twice she had been obliged to give up her +work on account of trouble with her eyes. She was sixty-two on +the third of the last month. He was the youngest child. One of +his sisters, Mme Lerat, a widow, thirty-six years old, was a +flower maker and lived at Batignolles, in La Rue Des Moines. The +other, who was thirty, had married a chainmaker—a man by +the name of Lorilleux. It was to their rooms that he was now +going. They lived in that great house on the left. He ate his +dinner every night with them; it was an economy for them all. But +he wanted to tell them now not to expect him that night, as he +was invited to dine with a friend.</p> + +<p>Gervaise interrupted him suddenly:</p> + +<p>"Did I hear your friend call you Cadet-Cassis?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. That is a name they have given me, because when they +drag me into a wineshop it is cassis I always take. I had as lief +be called Cadet-Cassis as Mes-Bottes, any time."</p> + +<p>"I do not think Cadet-Cassis so very bad," answered Gervaise, +and she asked him about his work. How long should he be employed +on the new hospital?</p> + +<p>"Oh," he answered, "there was never any lack of work." He had +always more than he could do. He should remain in that shop at +least a year, for he had yards and yards of gutters to make.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, "when I am up there I can see the +Hôtel Boncœur. Yesterday you were at the window, and I +waved my hand, but you did not see me."</p> + +<p>They by this time had turned into La Rue de la Goutte-d'Or. He +stopped and looked up.</p> + +<p>"There is the house," he said, "and I was born only a few +doors farther off. It is an enormous place."</p> + +<p>Gervaise looked up and down the façade. It was indeed +enormous. The house was of five stories, with fifteen windows on +each floor. The blinds were black and with many of the slats +broken, which gave an indescribable air of ruin and desolation to +the place. Four shops occupied the <i>rez-de-chaussée</i>. +On the right of the door was a large room, occupied as a +cookshop. On the left was a charcoal vender, a thread-and-needle +shop and an establishment for the manufacture of umbrellas.</p> + +<p>The house appeared all the higher for the reason that on +either side were two low buildings, squeezed close to it, and +stood square, like a block of granite roughly hewn, against the +blue sky. Totally without ornament, the house grimly suggested a +prison.</p> + +<p>Gervaise looked at the entrance, an immense doorway which rose +to the height of the second story and made a deep passage, at the +end of which was a large courtyard. In the center of this +doorway, which was paved like the street, ran a gutter full of +pale rose-colored water.</p> + +<p>"Come up," said Coupeau; "they won't eat you."</p> + +<p>Gervaise preferred to wait for him in the street, but she +consented to go as far as the room of the concierge, which was +within the porch, on the left.</p> + +<p>When she had reached this place she again looked up.</p> + +<p>Within there were six floors, instead of five, and four +regular façades surrounded the vast square of the +courtyard. The walls were gray, covered with patches of leprous +yellow, stained by the dripping from the slate-covered roof. The +wall had not even a molding to break its dull +uniformity—only the gutters ran across it. The windows had +neither shutters nor blinds but showed the panes of glass which +were greenish and full of bubbles. Some were open, and from them +hung checked mattresses and sheets to air. Lines were stretched +in front of others, on which the family wash was hung to +dry—men's shirts, women's chemises and children's breeches! +There was a look as if the dwellers under that roof found their +quarters too small and were oozing out at every crack and +aperture.</p> + +<p>For the convenience of each façade there was a narrow, +high doorway, from which a damp passage led to the rear, where +were four staircases with iron railings. These each had one of +the first four letters of the alphabet painted at the side.</p> + +<p>The <i>Rez de Chaussée</i> was divided into enormous +workshops and lit by windows black with dust. The forge of a +locksmith blazed in one; from another came the sound of a +carpenter's plane, while near the doorway a pink stream from a +dyeing establishment poured into the gutter. Pools of stagnant +water stood in the courtyard, all littered with shavings and +fragments of charcoal. A few pale tufts of grass struggled up +between the flat stones, and the whole courtyard was lit but +dimly.</p> + +<p>In the shade near the water faucet three small hens were +pecking with the vain hope of finding a worm, and Gervaise looked +about her, amazed at the enormous place which seemed like a +little world and as interested in the house as if it were a +living creature.</p> + +<p>"Are you looking for anyone?" asked the concierge, coming to +her door considerably puzzled.</p> + +<p>But the young woman explained that she was waiting for a +friend and then turned back toward the street. As Coupeau still +delayed, she returned to the courtyard, finding in it a strange +fascination.</p> + +<p>The house did not strike her as especially ugly. At some of +the windows were plants—a wallflower blooming in a +pot—a caged canary, who uttered an occasional warble, and +several shaving mirrors caught the light and shone like +stars.</p> + +<p>A cabinetmaker sang, accompanied by the regular whistling +sounds of his plane, while from the locksmith's quarters came a +clatter of hammers struck in cadence.</p> + +<p>At almost all the open windows the laughing, dirty faces of +merry children were seen, and women sat with their calm faces in +profile, bending over their work. It was the quiet +time—after the morning labors were over and the men were +gone to their work and the house was comparatively quiet, +disturbed only by the sounds of the various trades. The same +refrain repeated hour after hour has a soothing effect, Gervaise +thought.</p> + +<p>To be sure, the courtyard was a little damp. Were she to live +there, she should certainly prefer a room on the sunny side.</p> + +<p>She went in several steps and breathed that heavy odor of the +homes of the poor—an odor of old dust, of rancid dirt and +grease—but as the acridity of the smells from the dyehouse +predominated, she decided it to be far better than the +Hôtel Boncœur.</p> + +<p>She selected a window—a window in the corner on the +left, where there was a small box planted with scarlet beans, +whose slender tendrils were beginning to wind round a little +arbor of strings.</p> + +<p>"I have made you wait too long, I am afraid," said Coupeau, +whom she suddenly heard at her side. "They make a great fuss when +I do not dine there, and she did not like it today, especially as +my sister had bought veal. You are looking at this house," he +continued. "Think of it—it is always lit from top to +bottom. There are a hundred lodgers in it. If I had any furniture +I would have had a room in it long ago. It would be very nice +here, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," murmured Gervaise, "very nice indeed. At Plassans there +were not so many people in one whole street. Look up at that +window on the fifth floor—the window, I mean, where those +beans are growing. See how pretty that is!"</p> + +<p>He, with his usual recklessness, declared he would hire that +room for her, and they would live there together.</p> + +<p>She turned away with a laugh and begged him not to talk any +more nonsense. The house might stand or fall—they would +never have a room in it together.</p> + +<p>But Coupeau, all the same, was not reproved when he held her +hand longer than was necessary in bidding her farewell when they +reached Mme Fauconnier's laundry.</p> + +<p>For another month the kindly intercourse between Gervaise and +Coupeau continued on much the same footing. He thought her +wonderfully courageous, declared she was killing herself with +hard work all day and sitting up half the night to sew for the +children. She was not like the women he had known; she took life +too seriously, by far!</p> + +<p>She laughed and defended herself modestly. Unfortunately, she +said, she had not always been discreet. She alluded to her first +confinement when she was not more than fourteen and to the +bottles of anisette she had emptied with her mother, but she had +learned much from experience, she said. He was mistaken, however, +in thinking she was persevering and strong. She was, on the +contrary, very weak and too easily influenced, as she had +discovered to her cost. Her dream had always been to live in a +respectable way among respectable people, because bad company +knocks the life out of a woman. She trembled when she thought of +the future and said she was like a sou thrown up in the air, +falling, heads up or down, according to chance, on the muddy +pavement. All she had seen, the bad example spread before her +childish eyes, had given her valuable lessons. But Coupeau +laughed at these gloomy notions and brought back her courage by +attempting to put his arm around her waist. She slapped his +hands, and he cried out that "for a weak woman, she managed to +hurt a fellow considerably!"</p> + +<p>As for himself, he was always as merry as a grig, and no fool, +either. He parted his hair carefully on one side, wore pretty +cravats and patent-leather shoes on Sunday and was as saucy as +only a fine Parisian workman can be.</p> + +<p>They were of mutual use to each other at the Hôtel +Boncœur. Coupeau went for her milk, did many little errands for +her and carried home her linen to her customers and often took +the children out to walk. Gervaise, to return these courtesies, +went up to the tiny room where he slept and in his absence looked +over his clothes, sewed on buttons and mended his garments. They +grew to be very good and cordial friends. He was to her a +constant source of amusement. She listened to the songs he sang +and to their slang and nonsense, which as yet had for her much of +the charm of novelty. But he began to grow uneasy, and his smiles +were less frequent. He asked her whenever they met the same +question, "When shall it be?"</p> + +<p>She answered invariably with a jest but passed her days in a +fire of indelicate allusions, however, which did not bring a +flush to her cheek. So long as he was not rough and brutal, she +objected to nothing, but one day she was very angry when he, in +trying to steal a kiss, tore out a lock of her hair.</p> + +<p>About, the last of June Coupeau became absolutely morose, and +Gervaise was so much disturbed by certain glances he gave her +that she fairly barricaded her door at night. Finally one Tuesday +evening, when he had sulked from the previous Sunday, he came to +her door at eleven in the evening. At first she refused to open +it, but his voice was so gentle, so sad even, that she pulled +away the barrier she had pushed against the door for her better +protection. When he came in she was startled and thought him ill; +he was so deadly pale and his eyes were so bright. No, he was not +ill, he said, but things could not go on like this; he could not +sleep.</p> + +<p>"Listen, Madame Gervaise," he exclaimed with tears in his eyes +and a strange choking sensation in his throat. "We must be +married at once. That is all there is to be said about it."</p> + +<p>Gervaise was astonished and very grave.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Monsieur Coupeau, I never dreamed of this, as you know +very well, and you must not take such a step lightly."</p> + +<p>But he continued to insist; he was certainly fully determined. +He had come down to her then, without waiting until morning, +merely because he needed a good sleep. As soon as she said yes he +would leave her. But he would not go until he heard that +word.</p> + +<p>"I cannot say yes in such a hurry," remonstrated Gervaise. "I +do not choose to run the risk of your telling me at some future +day that I led you into this. You are making a great mistake, I +assure you. Suppose you should not see me for a week—you +would forget me entirely. Men sometimes marry for a fancy and in +twenty-four hours would gladly take it all back. Sit down here +and let us talk a little."</p> + +<p>They sat in that dingy room lit only by one candle, which they +forgot to snuff, and discussed the expediency of their marriage +until after midnight, speaking very low, lest they should disturb +the children, who were asleep with weir heads on the same +pillow.</p> + +<p>And Gervaise pointed them out to Coupeau. That was an odd sort +of dowry to carry a man, surely! How could she venture to go to +him with such encumbrances? Then, too, she was troubled about +another thing. People would laugh at him. Her story was known; +her lover had been seen, and there would be no end of talk if she +should marry now.</p> + +<p>To all these good and excellent reasons Coupeau answered with +a shrug of his shoulders. What did he care for talk and gossip? +He never meddled with the affairs of others; why should they +meddle with his?</p> + +<p>Yes, she had children, to be sure, and he would look out for +them with her. He had never seen a woman in his life who was so +good and so courageous and patient. Besides, that had nothing to +do with it! Had she been ugly and lazy, with a dozen dirty +children, he would have wanted her and only her.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he continued, tapping her on the knee, "you are the +woman I want, and none other. You have nothing to say against +that, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise melted by degrees. Her resolution forsook her, and a +weakness of her heart and her senses overwhelmed her in the face +of this brutal passion. She ventured only a timid objection or +two. Her hands lay loosely folded on her knees, while her face +was very gentle and sweet.</p> + +<p>Through the open window came the soft air of a fair June +night; the candle flickered in the wind; from the street came the +sobs of a child, the child of a drunken man who was lying just in +front of the door in the street. From a long distance the breeze +brought the notes of a violin playing at a restaurant for some +late marriage festival—a delicate strain it was, too, clear +and sweet as musical glasses.</p> + +<p>Coupeau, seeing that the young woman had exhausted all her +arguments, snatched her hands and drew her toward him. She was in +one of those moods which she so much distrusted, when she could +refuse no one anything. But the young man did not understand +this, and he contented himself with simply holding her hands +closely in his.</p> + +<p>"You say yes, do you not?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"How you tease," she replied. "You wish it—well then, +yes. Heaven grant that the day will not come when you will be +sorry for it."</p> + +<p>He started up, lifting her from her feet, and kissed her +loudly. He glanced at the children.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" he said. "We must not wake the boys. Good night."</p> + +<p>And he went out of the room. Gervaise, trembling from head to +foot, sat for a full hour on the side of her bed without +undressing. She was profoundly touched and thought Coupeau very +honest and very kind. The tipsy man in the street uttered a groan +like that of a wild beast, and the notes of the violin had +ceased.</p> + +<p>The next evening Coupeau urged Gervaise to go with him to call +on his sister. But the young woman shrank with ardent fear from +this visit to the Lorilleuxs'. She saw perfectly well that her +lover stood in dread of these people.</p> + +<p>He was in no way dependent on this sister, who was not the +eldest either. Mother Coupeau would gladly give her consent, for +she had never been known to contradict her son. In the family, +however, the Lorilleuxs were supposed to earn ten francs per day, +and this gave them great weight. Coupeau would never venture to +marry unless they agreed to accept his wife.</p> + +<p>"I have told them about you," he said. "Gervaise—good +heavens, what a baby you are! Come there tonight with me; you +will find my sister a little stiff, and Lorilleux is none too +amiable. The truth is they are much vexed, because, you see, if I +marry I shall no longer dine with them—and that is their +great economy. But that makes no odds; they won't put you out of +doors. Do what I ask, for it is absolutely necessary."</p> + +<p>These words frightened Gervaise nearly out of her wits. One +Saturday evening, however, she consented. Coupeau came for her at +half-past eight. She was all ready, wearing a black dress, a +shawl with printed palm leaves in yellow and a white cap with +fluted ruffles. She had saved seven francs for the shawl and two +francs fifty centimes for the cap; the dress was an old one, +cleaned and made over.</p> + +<p>"They expect you," said Coupeau as they walked along the +street, "and they have become accustomed to the idea of seeing me +married. They are really quite amiable tonight. Then, too, if you +have never seen a gold chain made you will be much amused in +watching it. They have an order for Monday."</p> + +<p>"And have they gold in these rooms?" asked Gervaise.</p> + +<p>"I should say so! It is on the walls, on the +floors—everywhere!"</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the door and had entered the +courtyard. The Lorilleuxs lived on the sixth +floor—staircase B. Coupeau told her with a laugh to keep +tight hold of the iron railing and not let it go.</p> + +<p>She looked up, half shutting her eyes, and gasped as she saw +the height to which the staircase wound. The last gas burner, +higher up, looked like a star trembling in a black sky, while two +others on alternate floors cast long, slanting rays down the +interminable stairs.</p> + +<p>"Aha!" cried the young man as they stopped a moment on the +second landing. "I smell onion soup; somebody has evidently been +eating onion soup about here, and it smells good too."</p> + +<p>It is true. Staircase B, dirty and greasy, both steps and +railing with plastering knocked off and showing the laths +beneath, was permeated with the smell of cooking. From each +landing ran narrow corridors, and on either side were half-open +doors painted yellow and black, with finger marks about the lock +and handles, and through the open window came the damp, +disgusting smell of sinks and sewers mingling with the odor of +onions.</p> + +<p>Up to the sixth floor came the noises from the +rez-de-chaussée—the rattling of dishes being washed, +the scraping of saucepans, and all that sort of thing. On one +floor Gervaise saw through an open door on which were the words +DESIGNER AND DRAUGHTSMAN in large letters two men seated at a +table covered with a varnished cloth; they were disputing +violently amid thick clouds of smoke from their pipes. The second +and third floors were the quietest. Here through the open doors +came the sound of a cradle rocking, the wail of a baby, a woman's +voice, the rattle of a spoon against a cup. On one door she read +a placard, MME GAUDRON, CARDER; on the next, M. MADINIER, +MANUFACTURER OF BOXES.</p> + +<p>On the fourth there was a great quarrel going on—blows +and oaths—which did not prevent the neighbors opposite from +playing cards with their door wide open for the benefit of the +air. When Gervaise reached the fifth floor she was out of breath. +Such innumerable stairs were a novelty to her. These winding +railings made her dizzy. One family had taken possession of the +landing; the father was washing plates in a small earthen pan +near the sink, while the mother was scrubbing the baby before +putting it to sleep. Coupeau laughingly bade Gervaise keep up her +courage, and at last they reached the top, and she looked around +to see whence came the clear, shrill voice which she had heard +above all other sounds ever since her foot touched the first +stair. It was a little old woman who sang as she worked, and her +work was dressing dolls at three cents apiece. Gervaise clung to +the railing, all out of breath, and looked down into the depths +below—the gas burner now looked like a star at the bottom +of a deep well. The smells, the turbulent life of this great +house, seemed to rush over her in one tremendous gust. She gasped +and turned pale.</p> + +<p>"We have not got there yet," said Coupeau; "we have much +farther to go." And he turned to the left and then to the right +again. The corridor stretched out before them, faintly lit by an +occasional gas burner; a succession of doors, like those of a +prison or a convent, continued to appear, nearly all wide open, +showing the sordid interiors. Finally they reached a corridor +that was entirely dark.</p> + +<p>"Here we are," said the tinworker. "Isn't it a journey? Look +out for three steps. Hold onto the wall."</p> + +<p>And Gervaise moved cautiously for ten paces or more. She +counted the three steps, and then Coupeau pushed open a door +without knocking. A bright light streamed forth. They went +in.</p> + +<p>It was a long, narrow apartment, almost like a prolongation of +the corridor; a woolen curtain, faded and spotted, drawn on one +side, divided the room in two.</p> + +<p>One compartment, the first, contained a bed pushed under the +corner of the mansard roof; a stove, still warm from the cooking +of the dinner; two chairs, a table and a wardrobe. To place this +last piece of furniture where it stood, between the bed and the +door, had necessitated sawing away a portion of the ceiling.</p> + +<p>The second compartment was the workshop. At the back, a tiny +forge with bellows; on the right, a vice screwed against the wall +under an étagère, where were iron tools piled up; +on the left, in front of the window, was a small table covered +with pincers, magnifying glasses, tiny scales and +shears—all dirty and greasy.</p> + +<p>"We have come!" cried Coupeau, going as far as the woolen +curtain.</p> + +<p>But he was not answered immediately.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, much agitated by the idea that she was entering a +place filled with gold, stood behind her friend and did not know +whether to speak or retreat.</p> + +<p>The bright light which came from a lamp and also from a +brazier of charcoal in the forge added to her trouble. She saw +Mme Lorilleux, a small, dark woman, agile and strong, drawing +with all the vigor of her arms—assisted by a pair of +pincers—a thread of black metal, which she passed through +the holes of a drawplate held by the vice. Before the desk or +table in front of the window sat Lorilleux, as short as his wife, +but with broader shoulders. He was managing a tiny pair of +pincers and doing some work so delicate that it was almost +imperceptible. It was he who first looked up and lifted his head +with its scanty yellow hair. His face was the color of old wax, +was long and had an expression of physical suffering.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you, is it? Well! Well! But we are in a hurry, you +understand. We have an order to fill. Don't come into the +workroom. Remain in the chamber." And he returned to his work; +his face was reflected in a ball filled with water, through which +the lamp sent on his work a circle of the brightest possible +light.</p> + +<p>"Find chairs for yourselves," cried Mme Lorilleux. "This is +the lady, I suppose. Very well! Very well!"</p> + +<p>She rolled up her wire and carried it to the forge, and then +she fanned the coals a little to quicken the heat.</p> + +<p>Coupeau found two chairs and made Gervaise seat herself near +the curtain. The room was so narrow that he could not sit beside +her, so he placed his chair a little behind and leaned over her +to give her the information he deemed desirable.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, astonished by the strange reception given her by +these people and uncomfortable under their sidelong glances, had +a buzzing in her ears which prevented her from hearing what was +said.</p> + +<p>She thought the woman very old looking for her thirty years +and also extremely untidy, with her hair tumbling over her +shoulders and her dirty camisole.</p> + +<p>The husband, not more than a year older, seemed to Gervaise +really an old man with thin, compressed lips and bowed figure. He +was in his shirt sleeves, and his naked feet were thrust into +slippers down at the heel.</p> + +<p>She was infinitely astonished at the smallness of the atelier, +at the blackened walls and at the terrible heat.</p> + +<p>Tiny drops bedewed the waxed forehead of Lorilleux himself, +while Mme Lorilleux threw off her sack and stood in bare arms and +chemise half slipped off.</p> + +<p>"And the gold?" asked Gervaise softly.</p> + +<p>Her eager eyes searched the corners, hoping to discover amid +all the dirt something of the splendor of which she had +dreamed.</p> + +<p>But Coupeau laughed.</p> + +<p>"Gold?" he said. "Look! Here it is—and here—and +here again, at your feet."</p> + +<p>He pointed in succession to the fine thread with which his +sister was busy and at another package of wire hung against the +wall near the vice; then falling down on his hands and knees, he +gathered up from the floor, on the tip of his moistened finger, +several tiny specks which looked like needle points.</p> + +<p>Gervaise cried out, "That surely is not gold! That black metal +which looks precisely like iron!"</p> + +<p>Her lover laughed and explained to her the details of the +manufacture in which his brother-in-law was engaged. The wire was +furnished them in coils, just as it hung against the wall, and +then they were obliged to heat and reheat it half a dozen times +during their manipulations, lest it should break. Considerable +strength and a vast deal of skill were needed, and his sister had +both. He had seen her draw out the gold until it was like a hair. +She would never let her husband do it because he always had a +cough.</p> + +<p>All this time Lorilleux was watching Gervaise stealthily, and +after a violent fit of coughing he said with an air as if he were +speaking to himself:</p> + +<p>"I make columns."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Coupeau in an explanatory voice, "there are four +different kinds of chains, and his style is called a column."</p> + +<p>Lorilleux uttered a little grunt of satisfaction, all the time +at work, with the tiny pincers held between very dirty nails.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Cadet-Cassis," he said. "This very morning I made +a little calculation. I began my work when I was only twelve +years old. How many yards do you think I have made up to this +day?"</p> + +<p>He lifted his pale face.</p> + +<p>"Eight thousand! Do you understand? Eight thousand! Enough to +twist around the necks of all the women in this +<i>Quartier</i>."</p> + +<p>Gervaise returned to her chair, entirely disenchanted. She +thought it was all very ugly and uninteresting. She smiled in +order to gratify the Lorilleuxs, but she was annoyed and troubled +at the profound silence they preserved in regard to her marriage, +on account of which she had called there that evening. These +people treated her as if she were simply a spectator whose +curiosity had induced Coupeau to bring her to see their work.</p> + +<p>They began to talk; it was about the lodgers in the house. Mme +Lorilleux asked her brother if he had not heard those Benard +people quarreling as he came upstairs. She said the husband +always came home tipsy. Then she spoke of the designer, who was +overwhelmed with debts, always smoking and always quarreling. The +landlord was going to turn out the Coquets, who owed three +quarters now and who would put their furnace out on the landing, +which was very dangerous. Mlle Remanjon, as she was going +downstairs with a bundle of dolls, was just in time to rescue one +of the children from being burned alive.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was beginning to find the place unendurable. The heat +was suffocating; the door could not be opened, because the +slightest draft gave Lorilleux a cold. As they ignored the +marriage question utterly, she pulled her lover's sleeve to +signify her wish to depart. He understood and was himself annoyed +at this affectation of silence.</p> + +<p>"We are going," he said coldly, "We do not care to interrupt +your work any longer."</p> + +<p>He lingered a moment, hoping for a word or an allusion. +Suddenly he decided to begin the subject himself.</p> + +<p>"We rely on you, Lorilleux. You will be my wife's witness," he +said.</p> + +<p>The man lifted his head in affected surprise, while his wife +stood still in the center of the workshop.</p> + +<p>"Are you in earnest?" he murmured, and then continued as if +soliloquizing, "It is hard to know when this confounded +Cadet-Cassis is in earnest."</p> + +<p>"We have no advice to give," interrupted his wife. "It is a +foolish notion, this marrying, and it never succeeds. +Never—no—never."</p> + +<p>She drawled out these last words, examining Gervaise from head +to foot as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"My brother is free to do as he pleases, of course," she +continued. "Of course his family would have liked—But then +people always plan, and things turn out so different. Of course +it is none of my business. Had he brought me the lowest of the +low, I should have said, 'Marry her and let us live in peace!' He +was very comfortable with us, nevertheless. He has considerable +flesh on his bones and does not look as if he had been starved. +His soup was always ready to the minute. Tell me, Lorilleux, +don't you think that my brother's friend looks like +Thérèse—you know whom I mean—that woman +opposite, who died of consumption?"</p> + +<p>"She certainly does," answered the chainmaker +contemplatively.</p> + +<p>"And you have two children, madame? I said to my brother I +could not understand how he could marry a woman with two +children. You must not be angry if I think of his interests; it +is only natural. You do not look very strong. Say, Lorilleux, +don't you think that Madame looks delicate?"</p> + +<p>This courteous pair made no allusion to her lameness, but +Gervaise felt it to be in their minds. She sat stiff and still +before them, her thin shawl with its yellow palm leaves wrapped +closely about her, and answered in monosyllables, as if before +her judges. Coupeau, realizing her sufferings, cried out:</p> + +<p>"This is all nonsense you are talking! What I want to know is +if the day will suit you, July twenty-ninth."</p> + +<p>"One day is the same as another to us," answered his sister +severely. "Lorilleux can do as he pleases in regard to being your +witness. I only ask for peace."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, in her embarrassment, had been pushing about with +her feet some of the rubbish on the floor; then fearing she had +done some harm, she stooped to ascertain. Lorilleux hastily +approached her with a lamp and looked at her fingers with evident +suspicion.</p> + +<p>"Take care," he said. "Those small bits of gold stick to the +shoes sometimes and are carried off without your knowing it."</p> + +<p>This was a matter of some importance, of course, for his +employers weighed what they entrusted to him. He showed the +hare's-foot with which he brushed the particles of gold from the +table and the skin spread on his knees to receive them. Twice +each week the shop was carefully brushed; all the rubbish was +kept and burned, and the ashes were examined, where were found +each month twenty-five or thirty francs of gold.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux did not take her eyes from the shoes of her +guest.</p> + +<p>"If Mademoiselle would be so kind," she murmured with an +amiable smile, "and would just look at her soles herself. There +is no cause for offense, I am sure!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise, indignant and scarlet, reseated herself and held up +her shoes for examination. Coupeau opened the door with a gay +good night, and she followed him into the corridor after a word +or two of polite farewell.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs turned to their work at the end of their room +where the tiny forge still glittered. The woman with her chemise +slipped off her shoulder which was red with the reflection from +the brazier, was drawing out another wire, the muscles in her +throat swelling with her exertions.</p> + +<p>The husband, stooping under the green light of the ball of +water, was again busy with his pincers, not stopping even to wipe +the sweat from his brow.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise emerged from the narrow corridors on the sixth +landing she said with tears in her eyes:</p> + +<p>"This certainly does not promise very well!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau shook his head angrily. Lorilleux should pay for this +evening! Was there ever such a miser? To care if one carried off +three grains of gold in the dust on one's shoes. All the stories +his sister told were pure fictions and malice. His sister never +meant him to marry; his eating with them saved her at least four +sous daily. But he did not care whether they appeared on the +twenty-ninth of July or not; he could get along without them +perfectly well.</p> + +<p>But Gervaise, as she descended the staircase, felt her heart +swell with pain and fear. She did not like the strange shadows on +the dimly lit stairs. From behind the doors, now closed, came the +heavy breathing of sleepers who had gone to their beds on rising +from the table. A faint laugh was heard from one room, while a +slender thread of light filtered through the keyhole of the old +lady who was still busy with her dolls, cutting out the gauze +dresses with squeaking scissors. A child was crying on the next +floor, and the smell from the sinks was worse than ever and +seemed something tangible amid this silent darkness. Then in the +courtyard, while Coupeau pulled the cord, Gervaise turned and +examined the house once more. It seemed enormous as it stood +black against the moonless sky. The gray facades rose tall and +spectral; the windows were all shut. No clothes fluttered in the +breeze; there was literally not the smallest look of life, except +in the few windows that were still lighted. From the damp corner +of the courtyard came the drip-drip of the fountain. Suddenly it +seemed to Gervaise as if the house were striding toward her and +would crush her to the earth. A moment later she smiled at her +foolish fancy.</p> + +<p>"Take care!" cried Coupeau.</p> + +<p>And as she passed out of the courtyard she was compelled to +jump over a little sea which had run from the dyer's. This time +the water was blue, as blue as the summer sky, and the reflection +of the lamps carried by the concierge was like the stars +themselves. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER III<br/> +A MARRIAGE OF THE PEOPLE</h2> + +<p>Gervaise did not care for any great wedding. Why should they +spend their money so foolishly? Then, too, she felt a little +ashamed and did not care to parade their marriage before the +whole <i>Quartier</i>. But Coupeau objected. It would never do +not to have some festivities—a little drive and a supper, +perhaps, at a restaurant; he would ask for nothing more. He vowed +that no one should drink too much and finally obtained the young +woman's consent and organized a picnic at five francs per head at +the Moulin d'Argent, Boulevard de la Chapelle. He was a small +wine merchant who had a garden back of his restaurant. He made +out a list. Among others appeared the names of two of his +comrades, Bibi-la-Grillade and Mes-Bottes. It was true that +Mes-Bottes crooked his elbow, but he was so deliciously funny +that he was always invited to picnics. Gervaise said she, in her +turn, would bring her employer, Mme Fauconnier—all told, +there would be fifteen at the table. That was quite enough.</p> + +<p>Now as Coupeau was literally penniless, he borrowed fifty +francs from his employer. He first bought his wedding ring; it +cost twelve francs out of the shop, but his brother-in-law +purchased it for him for nine at the factory. He then ordered an +overcoat, pantaloons and vest from a tailor to whom he paid +twenty-five francs on account. His patent-leather shoes and his +bolivar could last awhile longer. Then he put aside his ten +francs for the picnic, which was what he and Gervaise must pay, +and they had precisely six francs remaining, the price of a Mass +at the altar of the poor. He had no liking for those black +frocks, and it broke his heart to give these beloved francs to +them. But a marriage without a Mass, he had heard, was really no +marriage at all.</p> + +<p>He went to the church to see if he could not drive a better +bargain, and for an hour he fought with a stout little priest in +a dirty soutane who, finally declaring that God could never bless +such a union, agreed that the Mass should cost only five francs. +Thus Coupeau had twenty sous in hand with which to begin the +world!</p> + +<p>Gervaise, in her turn, had made her preparations, had worked +late into the night and laid aside thirty francs. She had set her +heart on a silk mantelet marked thirteen francs, which she had +seen in a shopwindow. She paid for it and bought for ten francs +from the husband of a laundress who had died in Mme Fauconnier's +house a delaine dress of a deep blue, which she made over +entirely. With the seven francs that remained she bought a rose +for her cap, a pair of white cotton gloves and shoes for Claude. +Fortunately both the boys had nice blouses. She worked for four +days mending and making; there was not a hole or a rip in +anything. At last the evening before the important day arrived; +Gervaise and Coupeau sat together and talked, happy that matters +were so nearly concluded. Their arrangements were all made. They +were to go to the mayor's office—the two sisters of Coupeau +declared they would remain at home, their presence not being +necessary there. Then Mother Coupeau began to weep, saying she +wished to go early and hide in a corner, and they promised to +take her.</p> + +<p>The hour fixed for the party to assemble at the Moulin +d'Argent was one o'clock sharp. From then they were to seek an +appetite on the Plaine-St-Denis and return by rail. Saturday +morning, as he dressed, Coupeau thought with some anxiety of his +scanty funds; he supposed he ought to offer a glass of wine and a +slice of ham to his witnesses while waiting for dinner; +unexpected expenses might arise; no, it was clear that twenty +sous was not enough. He consequently, after taking Claude and +Etienne to Mlle Boche, who promised to appear with them at +dinner, ran to his brother-in-law and borrowed ten francs; he did +it with reluctance, and the words stuck in his throat, for he +half expected a refusal. Lorilleux grumbled and growled but +finally lent the money. But Coupeau heard his sister mutter under +her breath, "That is a good beginning."</p> + +<p>The civil marriage was fixed for half-past ten. The day was +clear and the sun intensely hot. In order not to excite +observation the bridal pair, the mother and the four witnesses, +separated—Gervaise walked in front, having the arm of +Lorilleux, while M. Madinier gave his to Mamma Coupeau; on the +opposite sidewalk were Coupeau, Boche and Bibi-la-Grillade. These +three wore black frock coats and walked with their arms dangling +from their rounded shoulders. Boche wore yellow pantaloons. +Bibi-la-Grillade's coat was buttoned to the chin, as he had no +vest, and a wisp of a cravat was tied around his neck.</p> + +<p>M. Madinier was the only one who wore a dress coat, a superb +coat with square tails, and people stared as he passed with the +stout Mamma Coupeau in a green shawl and black bonnet with black +ribbons. Gervaise was very sweet and gentle, wearing her blue +dress and her trim little silk mantle. She listened graciously to +Lorilleux, who, in spite of the warmth of the day, was nearly +lost in the ample folds of a loose overcoat. Occasionally she +would turn her head and glance across the street with a little +smile at Coupeau, who was none too comfortable in his new +clothes. They reached the mayor's office a half-hour too early, +and their turn was not reached until nearly eleven. They sat in +the corner of the office, stiff and uneasy, pushing back their +chairs a little out of politeness each time one of the clerks +passed them, and when the magistrate appeared they all rose +respectfully. They were bidden to sit down again, which they did, +and were the spectators of three marriages—the brides in +white and the bridesmaids in pink and blue, quite fine and +stylish.</p> + +<p>When their own turn came Bibi-la-Grillade had disappeared, and +Boche hunted him up in the square, where he had gone to smoke a +pipe. All the forms were so quickly completed that the party +looked at each other in dismay, feeling as if they had been +defrauded of half the ceremony. Gervaise listened with tears in +her eyes, and the old lady wept audibly.</p> + +<p>Then they turned to the register and wrote their names in big, +crooked letters—all but the newly made husband, who, not +being able to write, contented himself with making a cross.</p> + +<p>Then the clerk handed the certificate to Coupeau. He, +admonished by a touch of his wife's elbow, presented him with +five sous.</p> + +<p>It was quite a long walk from the mayor's office to the +church. The men stopped midway to take a glass of beer, and +Gervaise and Mamma Coupeau drank some cassis with water. There +was not a particle of shade, for the sun was directly above their +heads. The beadle awaited them in the empty church; he hurried +them toward a small chapel, asking them indignantly if they were +not ashamed to mock at religion by coming so late. A priest came +toward them with an ashen face, faint with hunger, preceded by a +boy in a dirty surplice. He hurried through the service, gabbling +the Latin phrases with sidelong glances at the bridal party. The +bride and bridegroom knelt before the altar in considerable +embarrassment, not knowing when it was necessary to kneel and +when to stand and not always understanding the gestures made by +the clerk.</p> + +<p>The witnesses thought it more convenient to stand all the +time, while Mamma Coupeau, overcome by her tears again, shed them +on a prayer book which she had borrowed from a neighbor.</p> + +<p>It was high noon. The last Mass was said, and the church was +noisy with the movements of the sacristans, who were putting the +chairs in their places. The center altar was being prepared for +some fete, for the hammers were heard as the decorations were +being nailed up. And in the choking dust raised by the broom of +the man who was sweeping the corner of the small altar the priest +laid his cold and withered hand on the heads of Gervaise and +Coupeau with a sulky air, as if he were uniting them as a mere +matter of business or to occupy the time between the two +Masses.</p> + +<p>When the signatures were again affixed to the register in the +vestry and the party stood outside in the sunshine, they had a +sensation as if they had been driven at full speed and were glad +to rest.</p> + +<p>"I feel as if I had been at the dentist's. We had no time to +cry out before it was all over!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," muttered Lorilleux, "they take less than five minutes +to do what can't be undone in all one's life! Poor +Cadet-Cassis!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise kissed her new mother with tears in her eyes but with +smiling lips. She answered the old woman gently:</p> + +<p>"Do not be afraid. I will do my best to make him happy. If +things turn out ill it shall not be my fault."</p> + +<p>The party went at once to the Moulin d'Argent. Coupeau now +walked with his wife some little distance in advance of the +others. They whispered and laughed together and seemed to see +neither the people nor the houses nor anything that was going on +about them.</p> + +<p>At the restaurant Coupeau ordered at once some bread and ham; +then seeing that Boche and Bibi-la-Grillade were really hungry, +he ordered more wine and more meat. His mother could eat nothing, +and Gervaise, who was dying of thirst, drank glass after glass of +water barely reddened with wine.</p> + +<p>"This is my affair," said Coupeau, going to the counter where +he paid four francs, five sous.</p> + +<p>The guests began to arrive. Mme Fauconnier, stout and +handsome, was the first. She wore a percale gown, ecru ground +with bright figures, a rose-colored cravat and a bonnet laden +with flowers. Then came Mlle Remanjon in her scanty black dress, +which seemed so entirely a part of herself that it was doubtful +if she laid it aside at night. The Gaudron household followed. +The husband, enormously stout, looked as if his vest would burst +at the least movement, and his wife, who was nearly as huge as +himself, was dressed in a delicate shade of violet which added to +her apparent size.</p> + +<p>"Ah," cried Mme Lerat as she entered, "we are going to have a +tremendous shower!" And she bade them all look out the window to +see how black the clouds were.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat, Coupeau's eldest sister, was a tall, thin woman, +very masculine in appearance and talking through her nose, +wearing a puce-colored dress that was much too loose for her. It +was profusely trimmed with fringe, which made her look like a +lean dog just coming out of the water. She brandished an umbrella +as she talked, as if it had been a walking stick. As she kissed +Gervaise she said:</p> + +<p>"You have no idea how the wind blows, and it is as hot as a +blast from a furnace!"</p> + +<p>Everybody at once declared they had felt the storm coming all +the morning. Three days of extreme heat, someone said, always +ended in a gust.</p> + +<p>"It will blow over," said Coupeau with an air of confidence, +"but I wish my sister would come, all the same."</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux, in fact, was very late. Mme Lerat had called +for her, but she had not then begun to dress. "And," said the +widow in her brother's ear, "you never saw anything like the +temper she was in!"</p> + +<p>They waited another half-hour. The sky was growing blacker and +blacker. Clouds of dust were rising along the street, and down +came the rain. And it was in the first shower that Mme Lorilleux +arrived, out of temper and out of breath, struggling with her +umbrella, which she could not close.</p> + +<p>"I had ten minds," she exclaimed, "to turn back. I wanted you +to wait until next Saturday. I knew it would rain today—I +was certain of it!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau tried to calm her, but she quickly snubbed him. Was it +he, she would like to know, who was to pay for her dress if it +were spoiled?</p> + +<p>She wore black silk, so tight that the buttonholes were burst +out, and it showed white on the shoulders,—while the skirt +was so scant that she could not take a long step.</p> + +<p>The other women, however, looked at her silk with envy.</p> + +<p>She took no notice of Gervaise, who sat by the side of her +mother-in-law. She called to Lorilleux and with his aid carefully +wiped every drop of rain from her dress with her +handkerchief.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the shower ceased abruptly, but the storm was +evidently not over, for sharp flashes of lightning darted through +the black clouds.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the rain poured down again. The men stood in front of +the door with their hands in their pockets, dismally +contemplating the scene. The women crouched together with their +hands over their eyes. They were in such terror they could not +talk; when the thunder was heard farther off they all plucked up +their spirits and became impatient, but a fine rain was falling +that looked interminable.</p> + +<p>"What are we to do?" cried Mme Lorilleux crossly.</p> + +<p>Then Mile Remanjon timidly observed that the sun perhaps would +soon be out, and they might yet go into the country; upon this +there was one general shout of derision.</p> + +<p>"Nice walking it would be! And how pleasant the grass would be +to sit upon!"</p> + +<p>Something must be done, however, to get rid of the time until +dinner. Bibi-la-Grillade proposed cards; Mme Lerat suggested +storytelling. To each proposition a thousand objections were +offered. Finally when Lorilleux proposed that the party should +visit the tomb of Abelard and Heloise his wife's indignation +burst forth.</p> + +<p>She had dressed in her best only to be drenched in the rain +and to spend the day in a wineshop, it seemed! She had had enough +of the whole thing and she would go home. Coupeau and Lorilleux +held the door, she exclaiming violently:</p> + +<p>"Let me go; I tell you I will go!"</p> + +<p>Her husband having induced her to listen to reason, Coupeau +went to Gervaise, who was calmly conversing with her +mother-in-law and Mme Fauconnier.</p> + +<p>"Have you nothing to propose?" he asked, not venturing to add +any term of endearment.</p> + +<p>"No," she said with a smile, "but I am ready to do anything +you wish. I am very well suited as I am."</p> + +<p>Her face was indeed as sunny as a morning in May. She spoke to +everyone kindly and sympathetically. During the storm she had sat +with her eyes riveted on the clouds, as if by the light of those +lurid flashes she was reading the solemn book of the future.</p> + +<p>M. Madinier had proposed nothing; he stood leaning against the +counter with a pompous air; he spat upon the ground, wiped his +mouth with the back of his hand and rolled his eyes about.</p> + +<p>"We could go to the Musée du Louvre, I suppose," and he +smoothed his chin while awaiting the effect of this +proposition.</p> + +<p>"There are antiquities there—statues, pictures, lots of +things. It is very instructive. Have any of you been there?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>They all looked at each other. Gervaise had never even heard +of the place, nor had Mme Fauconnier nor Boche. Coupeau thought +he had been there one Sunday, but he was not sure, but Mme +Lorilleux, on whom Madinier's air of importance had produced a +profound impression, approved of the idea. The day was wasted +anyway; therefore, if a little instruction could be got it would +be well to try it. As the rain was still falling, they borrowed +old umbrellas of every imaginable hue from the establishment and +started forth for the Musée du Louvre.</p> + +<p>There were twelve of them, and they walked in couples, Mme +Lorilleux with Madinier, to whom she grumbled all the way.</p> + +<p>"We know nothing about her," she said, "not even where he +picked her up. My husband has already lent them ten francs, and +whoever heard of a bride without a single relation? She said she +had a sister in Paris. Where is she today, I should like to +know!"</p> + +<p>She checked herself and pointed to Gervaise, whose lameness +was very perceptible as she descended the hill.</p> + +<p>"Just look at her!" she muttered. "Wooden legs!"</p> + +<p>This epithet was heard by Mme Fauconnier, who took up the +cudgels for Gervaise who, she said, was as neat as a pin and +worked like a tiger.</p> + +<p>The wedding party, coming out of La Rue St-Denis, crossed the +boulevard under their umbrellas amid the pouring rain, driving +here and there among the carriages. The drivers, as they pulled +up their horses, shouted to them to look out, with an oath. On +the gray and muddy sidewalk the procession was very +conspicuous—the blue dress of the bride, the canary-colored +breeches of one of the men, Madinier's square-tailed +coat—all gave a carnivallike air to the group. But it was +the hats of the party that were the most amusing, for they were +of all heights, sizes and styles. The shopkeepers on the +boulevard crowded to their windows to enjoy the drollery of the +sight. The wedding procession, quite undisturbed by the +observation it excited, went gaily on. They stopped for a moment +on the Place des Victoires—the bride's shoestring was +untied—she fastened it at the foot of the statue of Louis +XIV, her friends waiting as she did so.</p> + +<p>Finally they reached the Louvre. Here Madinier politely asked +permission to take the head of the party; the place was so large, +he said, that it was a very easy thing to lose oneself; he knew +the prettiest rooms and the things best worth seeing, because he +had often been there with an artist, a very intelligent fellow, +from whom a great manufacturer of pasteboard boxes bought +pictures.</p> + +<p>The party entered the museum of Assyrian antiquities. They +shivered and walked about, examining the colossal statues, the +gods in black marble, strange beasts and monstrosities, half cats +and half women. This was not amusing, and an inscription in +Phoenician characters appalled them. Who on earth had ever read +such stuff as that? It was meaningless nonsense!</p> + +<p>But Madinier shouted to them from the stairs, "Come on! That +is nothing! Much more interesting things up here, I assure +you!"</p> + +<p>The severe nudity of the great staircase cast a gloom over +their spirits; an usher in livery added to their awe, and it was +with great respect and on the tips of their toes they entered the +French gallery.</p> + +<p>How many statues! How many pictures! They wished they had all +the money they had cost.</p> + +<p>In the Gallerie d'Apollon the floor excited their admiration; +it was smooth as glass; even the feet of the sofas were reflected +in it. Madinier bade them look at the ceiling and at its many +beauties of decoration, but they said they dared not look up. +Then before entering the Salon Carré he pointed to the +window and said:</p> + +<p>"That is the balcony where Charles IX fired on the +people!"</p> + +<p>With a magnificent gesture he ordered his party to stand still +in the center of the Salon Carré.</p> + +<p>"There are only chefs-d'oeuvres here," he whispered as +solemnly as if he had been in a church.</p> + +<p>They walked around the salon. Gervaise asked the meaning of +one of the pictures, the <i>Noces de Cana</i>; Coupeau stopped +before <i>La Joconde</i>, declaring that it was like one of his +aunts.</p> + +<p>Boche and Bibi-la-Grillade snickered and pushed each other at +the sight of the nude female figures, and the Gaudrons, husband +and wife, stood open-mouthed and deeply touched before Murillo's +Virgin.</p> + +<p>When they had been once around the room Madinier, who was +quite attentive to Mme Lorilleux on account of her silk gown, +proposed they should do it over again; it was well worth it, he +said.</p> + +<p>He never hesitated in replying to any question which she +addressed to him in her thirst for information, and when she +stopped before Titian's Mistress, whose yellow hair struck her as +like her own, he told her it was a mistress of Henri IV, who was +the heroine of a play then running at the Ambigu.</p> + +<p>The wedding party finally entered the long gallery devoted to +the Italian and Flemish schools of art. The pictures were all +meaningless to them, and their heads were beginning to ache. They +felt a thrill of interest, however, in the copyists with their +easels, who painted without being disturbed by spectators. The +artists scattered through the rooms had heard that a primitive +wedding party was making a tour of the Louvre and hurried with +laughing faces to enjoy the scene, while the weary bride and +bridegroom, accompanied by their friends, clumsily moved about +over the shining, resounding floors much like cattle let loose +and with quite as keen an appreciation of the marvelous beauties +about them.</p> + +<p>The women vowed their backs were broken standing so long, and +Madinier, declaring he knew the way, said they would leave after +he had shown them a certain room to which he could go with his +eyes shut. But he was very much mistaken. Salon succeeded to +salon, and finally the party went up a flight of stairs and found +themselves among cannons and other instruments of war. Madinier, +unwilling to confess that he had lost himself, wandered +distractedly about, declaring that the doors had been changed. +The party began to feel that they were there for life, when +suddenly to their great joy they heard the cry of the janitors +resounding from room to room.</p> + +<p>"Time to close the doors!"</p> + +<p>They meekly followed one of them, and when they were outside +they uttered a sigh of relief as they put up their umbrellas once +more, but one and all affected great pleasure at having been to +the Louvre.</p> + +<p>The clock struck four. There were two hours to dispose of +before dinner. The women would have liked to rest, but the men +were more energetic and proposed another walk, during which so +tremendous a shower fell that umbrellas were useless and dresses +were irretrievably ruined. Then M. Madinier suggested that they +should ascend the column on the Place Vendôme.</p> + +<p>"It is not a bad idea," cried the men. And the procession +began the ascent of the spiral staircase, which Boche said was so +old that he could feel it shake. This terrified the ladies, who +uttered little shrieks, but Coupeau said nothing; his arm was +around his wife's waist, and just as they emerged upon the +platform he kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Upon my word!" cried Mme Lorilleux, much scandalized.</p> + +<p>Madinier again constituted himself master of ceremonies and +pointed out all the monuments, but Mme Fauconnier would not put +her foot outside the little door; she would not look down on that +pavement for all the world, she said, and the party soon tired of +this amusement and descended the stairs. At the foot Madinier +wished to pay, but Coupeau interfered and put into the hand of +the guard twenty-four sous-two for each person. It was now +half-past five; they had just time to get to the restaurant, but +Coupeau proposed a glass of vermouth first, and they entered a +cabaret for that purpose.</p> + +<p>When they returned to the Moulin d'Argent they found Mme Boche +with the two children, talking to Mamma Coupeau near the table, +already spread and waiting. When Gervaise saw Claude and Etienne +she took them both on her knees and kissed them lovingly.</p> + +<p>"Have they been good?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I should think Coupeau would feel rather queer!" said Mme +Lorilleux as she looked on grimly.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had been calm and smiling all day, but she had +quietly watched her husband with the Lorilleuxs. She thought +Coupeau was afraid of his sister—cowardly, in fact. The +evening previous he had said he did not care a sou for their +opinion on any subject and that they had the tongues of vipers, +but now he was with them, he was like a whipped hound, hung on +their words and anticipated their wishes. This troubled his wife, +for it augured ill, she thought, for their future happiness.</p> + +<p>"We won't wait any longer for Mes-Bottes," cried Coupeau. "We +are all here but him, and his scent is good! Surely he can't be +waiting for us still at St-Denis!"</p> + +<p>The guests, in good spirits once more, took their seats with a +great clatter of chairs.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was between Lorilleux and Madinier, and Coupeau +between Mme Fauconnier and his sister Mme Lorilleux. The others +seated themselves.</p> + +<p>"No one has asked a blessing," said Boche as the ladies pulled +the tablecloth well over their skirts to protect them from +spots.</p> + +<p>But Mme Lorilleux frowned at this poor jest. The vermicelli +soup, which was cold and greasy, was eaten with noisy haste. Two +garçons served them, wearing aprons of a very doubtful +white and greasy vests.</p> + +<p>Through the four windows, open on the courtyard and its +acacias, streamed the light, soft and warm, after the storm. The +trees, bathed in the setting sun, imparted a cool, green tinge to +the dingy room, and the shadows of the waving branches and +quivering leaves danced over the cloth.</p> + +<p>There were two fly-specked mirrors at either end of the room, +which indefinitely lengthened the table spread with thick china. +Every time the <i>garçons</i> opened the door into the +kitchen there came a strong smell of burning fat.</p> + +<p>"Don't let us all talk at once!" said Boche as a dead silence +fell on the room, broken by the abrupt entrance of +Mes-Bottes.</p> + +<p>"You are nice people!" he exclaimed. "I have been waiting for +you until I am wet through and have a fishpond in each +pocket."</p> + +<p>This struck the circle as the height of wit, and they all +laughed while he ordered the <i>garçon</i> to and fro. He +devoured three plates of soup and enormous slices of bread. The +head of the establishment came and looked in in considerable +anxiety; a laugh ran around the room. Mes-Bottes recalled to +their memories a day when he had eaten twelve hard-boiled eggs +and drunk twelve glasses of wine while the clock was striking +twelve.</p> + +<p>There was a brief silence. A waiter placed on the table a +rabbit stew in a deep dish. Coupeau turned round.</p> + +<p>"Say, boy, is that a gutter rabbit? It mews still."</p> + +<p>And the low mewing of a cat seemed, indeed, to come from the +dish. This delicate joke was perpetrated by Coupeau in the +throat, without the smallest movement of his lips. This feat +always met with such success that he never ordered a meal +anywhere without a rabbit stew. The ladies wiped their eyes with +their napkins because they laughed so much.</p> + +<p>Mme Fauconnier begged for the head—she adored the +head—and Boche asked especially for onions.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat compressed her lips and said morosely:</p> + +<p>"Of course. I might have known that!"</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat was a hard-working woman. No man had ever put his +nose within her door since her widowhood, and yet her instincts +were thoroughly bad; every word uttered by others bore to her +ears a double meaning, a coarse allusion sometimes so deeply +veiled that no one but herself could grasp its meaning.</p> + +<p>Boche leaned over her with a sensual smile and entreated an +explanation. She shook her head.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she repeated. "Onions! I knew it!"</p> + +<p>Everybody was talking now, each of his own trade. Madinier +declared that boxmaking was an art, and he cited the New Year +bonbon boxes as wonders of luxury. Lorilleux talked of his +chains, of their delicacy and beauty. He said that in former +times jewelers wore swords at their sides. Coupeau described a +weathercock made by one of his comrades out of tin. Mme Lerat +showed Bibi-la-Grillade how a rose stem was made by rolling the +handle of her knife between her bony fingers, and Mme Fauconnier +complained loudly of one of her apprentices who the night before +had badly scorched a pair of linen sheets.</p> + +<p>"It is no use to talk!" cried Lorilleux, striking his fist on +the table. "Gold is gold!"</p> + +<p>A profound silence followed the utterance of this truism, amid +which arose from the other end of the table the piping tones of +Mlle Remanjon's voice as she said:</p> + +<p>"And then I sew on the skirt. I stick a pin in the head to +hold on the cap, and it is done. They sell for three cents."</p> + +<p>She was describing her dolls to Mes-Bottes, whose jaws worked +steadily, like machinery.</p> + +<p>He did not listen, but he nodded at intervals, with his eyes +fixed on the <i>garçons</i> to see that they carried away +no dishes that were not emptied.</p> + +<p>There had been veal cutlets and string beans served. As a +<i>roti,</i> two lean chickens on a bed of water cresses were +brought in. The room was growing very warm; the sun was lingering +on the tops of the acacias, but the room was growing dark. The +men threw off their coats and ate in their shirt sleeves.</p> + +<p>"Mme Boche," cried Gervaise, "please don't let those children +eat so much."</p> + +<p>But Mme Coupeau interposed and declared that for once in a +while a little fit of indigestion would do them no harm.</p> + +<p>Mme Boche accused her husband of holding Mme Lerat's hand +under the table.</p> + +<p>Madinier talked politics. He was a Republican, and +Bibi-la-Grillade and himself were soon in a hot discussion.</p> + +<p>"Who cares," cried Coupeau, "whether we have a king, an +emperor or a president, so long as we earn our five francs per +day!"</p> + +<p>Lorilleux shook his head. He was born on the same day as the +Comte de Chambord, September 29, 1820, and this coincidence dwelt +in his mind. He seemed to feel that there was a certain +connection between the return of the king to France and his own +personal fortunes. He did not say distinctly what he expected, +but it was clear that it was something very agreeable.</p> + +<p>The dessert was now on the table—a floating island +flanked by two plates of cheese and two of fruit. The floating +island was a great success. Mes-Bottes ate all the cheese and +called for more bread. And then as some of the custard was left +in the dish, he pulled it toward him and ate it as if it had been +soup.</p> + +<p>"How extraordinary!" said Madinier, filled with +admiration.</p> + +<p>The men rose to light their pipes and, as they passed +Mes-Bottes, asked him how he felt.</p> + +<p>Bibi-la-Grillade lifted him from the floor, chair and all.</p> + +<p>"Zounds!" he cried. "The fellow's weight has doubled!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau declared his friend had only just begun his night's +work, that he would eat bread until dawn. The waiters, pale with +fright, disappeared. Boche went downstairs on a tour of +inspection and stated that the establishment was in a state of +confusion, that the proprietor, in consternation, had sent out to +all the bakers in the neighborhood, that the house, in fact, had +an utterly ruined aspect.</p> + +<p>"I should not like to take you to board," said Mme +Gaudron.</p> + +<p>"Let us have a punch," cried Mes-Bottes.</p> + +<p>But Coupeau, seeing his wife's troubled face, interfered and +said no one should drink anything more. They had all had +enough.</p> + +<p>This declaration met with the approval of some of the party, +but the others sided with Mes-Bottes.</p> + +<p>"Those who are thirsty are thirsty," he said. "No one need +drink that does not wish to do so, I am sure." And he added with +a wink, "There will be all the more for those who do!"</p> + +<p>Then Coupeau said they would settle the account, and his +friend could do as he pleased afterward.</p> + +<p>Alas! Mes-Bottes could produce only three francs; he had +changed his five-franc piece, and the remainder had melted away +somehow on the road from St-Denis. He handed over the three +francs, and Coupeau, greatly indignant, borrowed the other two +from his brother-in-law, who gave the money secretly, being +afraid of his wife.</p> + +<p>M. Madinier had taken a plate. The ladies each laid down their +five francs quietly and timidly, and then the men retreated to +the other end of the room and counted up the amount, and each man +added to his subscription five sous for the +<i>garçon</i>.</p> + +<p>But when M. Madinier sent for the proprietor the little +assembly were shocked at hearing him say that this was not all; +there were "extras."</p> + +<p>As this was received with exclamations of rage, he went into +explanations. He had furnished twenty-five liters of wine instead +of twenty, as he agreed. The floating island was an addition, on +seeing that the dessert was somewhat scanty, whereupon ensued a +formidable quarrel. Coupeau declared he would not pay a sou of +the extras.</p> + +<p>"There is your money," he said; "take it, and never again will +one of us step a foot under your roof!"</p> + +<p>"I want six francs more," muttered the man.</p> + +<p>The women gathered about in great indignation; not a centime +would they give, they declared.</p> + +<p>Mme Fauconnier had had a wretched dinner; she said she could +have had a better one at home for forty sous. Such arrangements +always turned out badly, and Mme Gaudron declared aloud that if +people wanted their friends at their weddings they usually +invited them out and out.</p> + +<p>Gervaise took refuge with her mother-in-law in a distant +window, feeling heartily ashamed of the whole scene.</p> + +<p>M. Madinier went downstairs with the man, and low mutterings +of the storm reached the party. At the end of a half-hour he +reappeared, having yielded to the extent of paying three francs, +but no one was satisfied, and they all began a discussion in +regard to the extras.</p> + +<p>The evening was spoiled, as was Mme Lerat's dress; there was +no end to the chapter of accidents.</p> + +<p>"I know," cried Mme Lorilleux, "that the <i>garçon</i> +spilled gravy from the chickens down my back." She twisted and +turned herself before the mirror until she succeeded in finding +the spot.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I knew it," she cried, "and he shall pay for it, as true +as I live. I wish I had remained at home!"</p> + +<p>She left in a rage, and Lorilleux at her heels.</p> + +<p>When Coupeau saw her go he was in actual consternation, and +Gervaise saw that it was best to make a move at once. Mme Boche +had agreed to keep the children with her for a day or two.</p> + +<p>Coupeau and his wife hurried out in the hope of overtaking Mme +Lorilleux which they soon did. Lorilleux, with the kindly desire +of making all smooth said:</p> + +<p>"We will go to your door with you."</p> + +<p>"Your door, indeed!" cried his wife, and then pleasantly went +on to express her surprise that they did not postpone their +marriage until they had saved enough to buy a little furniture +and move away from that hole up under the roof.</p> + +<p>"But I have given up that room," said her brother. "We shall +have the one Gervaise occupies; it is larger."</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux forgot herself; she wheeled around suddenly.</p> + +<p>"What!" she exclaimed. "You are going to live in Wooden Legs' +room?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise turned pale. This name she now heard for the first +time, and it was like a slap in the face. She heard much more in +her sister-in-law's exclamation than met the ear. That room to +which allusion was made was the one where she had lived with +Lantier for a whole month, where she had wept such bitter tears, +but Coupeau did not understand that; he was only wounded by the +name applied to his wife.</p> + +<p>"It is hardly wise of you," he said sullenly, "to nickname +people after that fashion, as perhaps you are not aware of what +you are called in your <i>Quartier</i>. Cow's-Tail is not a very +nice name, but they have given it to you on account of your hair. +Why should we not keep that room? It is a very good one."</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux would not answer. Her dignity was sadly +disturbed at being called Cow's-Tail.</p> + +<p>They walked on in silence until they reached the Hôtel +Boncœur, and just as Coupeau gave the two women a push toward +each other and bade them kiss and be friends, a man who wished to +pass them on the right gave a violent lurch to the left and came +between them.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" cried Lorilleux. "It is Father Bazonge. He is +pretty full tonight."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, in great terror, flew toward the door. Father +Bazonge was a man of fifty; his clothes were covered with mud +where he had fallen in the street.</p> + +<p>"You need not be afraid," continued Lorilleux; "he will do you +no harm. He is a neighbor of ours—the third room on the +left in our corridor."</p> + +<p>But Father Bazonge was talking to Gervaise. "I am not going to +eat you, little one," he said. "I have drunk too much, I know +very well, but when the work is done the machinery should be +greased a little now and then."</p> + +<p>Gervaise retreated farther into the doorway and with +difficulty kept back a sob. She nervously entreated Coupeau to +take the man away.</p> + +<p>Bazonge staggered off, muttering as he did so:</p> + +<p>"You won't mind it so much one of these days, my dear. I know +something about women. They make a great fuss, but they get used +to it all the same." +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV<br/> +A HAPPY HOME</h2> + +<p>Four years of hard and incessant toil followed this day. +Gervaise and Coupeau were wise and prudent. They worked hard and +took a little relaxation on Sundays. The wife worked twelve hours +of the twenty-four with Mme Fauconnier and yet found time to keep +her own home like waxwork. The husband was never known to be +tipsy but brought home his wages and smoked his pipe at his own +window at night before going to bed. They were the bright and +shining lights, the good example of the whole <i>Quartier</i>, +and as they made jointly about nine francs per day, it was easy +to see they were putting by money.</p> + +<p>But in the first few months of their married life they were +obliged to trim their sails closely and had some trouble to make +both ends meet. They took a great dislike to the Hôtel +Boncœur. They longed for a home of their own with their own +furniture. They estimated the cost over and over again and +decided that for three hundred and fifty francs they could +venture, but they had little hope of saving such a sum in less +than two years, when a stroke of good luck befell them.</p> + +<p>An old gentleman in Plassans sent for Claude to place him at +school. He was a very eccentric old gentleman, fond of pictures +and art. Claude was a great expense to his mother, and when +Etienne alone was at home they saved the three hundred and fifty +francs in seven months. The day they purchased their furniture +they took a long and happy walk together, for it was an important +step they had taken—important not only in their own eyes +but in those of the people around them.</p> + +<p>For two months they had been looking for an apartment. They +wished, of all things, to take one in the old house where Mme +Lorilleux lived, but there was not one single room to be rented, +and they were compelled to relinquish the idea. Gervaise was +reconciled to this more easily, since she did not care to be +thrown in any closer contact with the Lorilleuxs. They looked +further. It was essential that Gervaise should be near her friend +and employer Mme Fauconnier, and they finally succeeded in their +search and were indeed in wonderful luck, for they obtained a +large room with a kitchen and tiny bedroom just opposite the +establishment of the laundress. It was a small house, two +stories, with one steep staircase, and was divided into two +lodgings—the one on the right, the other on the left, while +the lower floor was occupied by a carriage maker.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was delighted. It seemed to her that she was once +more in the country—no neighbors, no gossip, no +interference—and from the place where she stood and ironed +all day at Mme Fauconnier's she could see the windows of her own +room.</p> + +<p>They moved in the month of April. Gervaise was then near her +confinement, but it was she who cleaned and put in order her new +home. Every penny as of consequence, she said with pride, now +that they would soon have another other mouth to feed. She rubbed +her furniture, which was of old mahogany, good, but secondhand, +until it shone like glass and was quite brokenhearted when she +discovered a scratch. She held her breath if she knocked it when +sweeping. The commode was her especial pride; it was so dignified +and stately. Her pet dream, which, however, she kept to herself, +was someday to have a clock to put in the center of the marble +slab. If there had not been a baby in prospect she would have +purchased this much-coveted article at once, but she sighed and +dismissed the thought.</p> + +<p>Etienne's bed was placed in the tiny room, almost a closet, +and there was room for the cradle by its side. The kitchen was +about as big as one's hand and very dark, but by leaving the door +open one could see pretty well, and as Gervaise had no big +dinners to get she managed comfortably. The large room was her +pride. In the morning the white curtains of the alcove were +drawn, and the bedroom was transformed into a lovely dining room, +with its table in the middle, the commode and a wardrobe opposite +each other. A tiny stove kept them warm in cold weather for seven +sous per day.</p> + +<p>Coupeau ornamented the walls with several engravings—one +of a marshal of France on a spirited steed, with his baton in his +hand. Above the commode were the photographs of the family, +arranged in two lines, with an antique china +<i>bénitier</i> between. On the corners of the commode a +bust of Pascal faced another of Béranger—one grave, +the other smiling. It was, indeed, a fair and pleasant home.</p> + +<p>"How much do you think we pay here?" Gervaise would ask of +each new visitor.</p> + +<p>And when too high an estimate was given she was charmed.</p> + +<p>"One hundred and fifty francs—not a penny more," she +would exclaim. "Is it not wonderful?"</p> + +<p>No small portion of the woman's satisfaction arose from an +acacia which grew in her courtyard, one of whose branches crossed +her window, and the scanty foliage was a whole wilderness to +her.</p> + +<p>Her baby was born one afternoon. She would not allow her +husband to be sent for, and when he came gaily into the room he +was welcomed by his pale wife, who whispered to him as he stooped +over her:</p> + +<p>"My dear, it is a girl."</p> + +<p>"All right!" said the tinworker, jesting to hide his real +emotion. "I ordered a girl. You always do just what I want!"</p> + +<p>He took up the child.</p> + +<p>"Let us have a good look at you, young lady! The down on the +top of your head is pretty black, I think. Now you must never +squall but be as good and reasonable always as your papa and +mamma."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, with a faint smile and sad eyes, looked at her +daughter. She shook her head. She would have preferred a boy, +because boys run less risks in a place like Paris. The nurse took +the baby from the father's hands and told Gervaise she must not +talk. Coupeau said he must go and tell his mother and sister the +news, but he was famished and must eat something first. His wife +was greatly disturbed at seeing him wait upon himself, and she +tossed about a little and complained that she could not make him +comfortable.</p> + +<p>"You must be quiet," said the nurse again.</p> + +<p>"It is lucky you are here, or she would be up and cutting my +bread for me," said Coupeau.</p> + +<p>He finally set forth to announce the news to his family and +returned in an hour with them all.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs, under the influence of the prosperity of their +brother and his wife, had become extremely amiable toward them +and only lifted their eyebrows in a significant sort of way, as +much as to say that they could tell something if they +pleased.</p> + +<p>"You must not talk, you understand," said Coupeau, "but they +would come and take a peep at you, and I am going to make them +some coffee."</p> + +<p>He disappeared into the kitchen, and the women discussed the +size of the baby and whom it resembled. Meanwhile Coupeau was +heard banging round in the kitchen, and his wife nervously called +out to him and told him where the things were that he wanted, but +her husband rose superior to all difficulties and soon appeared +with the smoking coffeepot, and they all seated themselves around +the table, except the nurse, who drank a cup standing and then +departed; all was going well, and she was not needed. If she was +wanted in the morning they could send for her.</p> + +<p>Gervaise lay with a faint smile on her lips. She only half +heard what was said by those about her. She had no strength to +speak; it seemed to her that she was dead. She heard the word +baptism. Coupeau saw no necessity for the ceremony and was quite +sure, too, that the child would take cold. In his opinion, the +less one had to do with priests, the better. His mother was +horrified and called him a heathen, while the Lorilleuxs claimed +to be religious people also.</p> + +<p>"It had better be on Sunday," said his sister in a decided +tone, and Gervaise consented with a little nod. Everybody kissed +her and then the baby, addressing it with tender epithets, as if +it could understand, and departed.</p> + +<p>When Coupeau was alone with his wife he took her hand and held +it while he finished his pipe.</p> + +<p>"I could not help their coming," he said, "but I am sure they +have given you the headache." And the rough, clumsy man kissed +his wife tenderly, moved by a great pity for all she had borne +for his sake.</p> + +<p>And Gervaise was very happy. She told him so and said her only +anxiety now was to be on her feet again as soon as possible, for +they had another mouth to feed. He soothed her and asked if she +could not trust him to look out for their little one.</p> + +<p>In the morning when he went to his work he sent Mme Boche to +spend the day with his wife, who at night told him she never +could consent to lie still any longer and see a stranger going +about her room, and the next day she was up and would not be +taken care of again. She had no time for such nonsense! She said +it would do for rich women but not for her, and in another week +she was at Mme Fauconnier's again at work.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux, who was the baby's godmother, appeared on +Saturday evening with a cap and baptismal robe, which she had +bought cheap because they had lost their first freshness. The +next day Lorilleux, as godfather, gave Gervaise six pounds of +sugar. They flattered themselves they knew how to do things +properly and that evening, at the supper given by Coupeau, did +not appear empty-handed. Lorilleux came with a couple of bottles +of wine under each arm, and his wife brought a large custard +which was a specialty of a certain restaurant.</p> + +<p>Yes, they knew how to do things, these people, but they also +liked to tell of what they did, and they told everyone they saw +in the next month that they had spent twenty francs, which came +to the ears of Gervaise, who was none too well pleased.</p> + +<p>It was at this supper that Gervaise became acquainted with her +neighbors on the other side of the house. These were Mme Goujet, +a widow, and her son. Up to this time they had exchanged a good +morning when they met on the stairs or in the street, but as Mme +Goujet had rendered some small services on the first day of her +illness, Gervaise invited them on the occasion of the +baptism.</p> + +<p>These people were from the <i>Department du Nond</i>. The +mother repaired laces, while the son, a blacksmith by trade, +worked in a factory.</p> + +<p>They had lived in their present apartment for five years. +Beneath the peaceful calm of their lives lay a great sorrow. +Goujet, the husband and father, had killed a man in a fit of +furious intoxication and then, while in prison, had choked +himself with his pocket handkerchief. His widow and child left +Lille after this and came to Paris, with the weight of this +tragedy on their hearts and heads, and faced the future with +indomitable courage and sweet patience. Perhaps they were +overproud and reserved, for they held themselves aloof from those +about them. Mme Goujet always wore mourning, and her pale, serene +face was encircled with nunlike bands of white. Goujet was a +colossus of twenty-three with a clear, fresh complexion and +honest eyes. At the manufactory he went by the name of the +Gueule-d'Or on account of his beautiful blond beard.</p> + +<p>Gervaise took a great fancy to these people and when she first +entered their apartment and was charmed with the exquisite +cleanliness of all she saw. Mme Goujet opened the door into her +son's room to show it to her. It was as pretty and white as the +chamber of a young girl. A narrow iron bed, white curtains and +quilt, a dressing table and bookshelves made up the furniture. A +few colored engravings were pinned against the wall, and Mme +Goujet said that her son was a good deal of a boy still—he +liked to look at pictures rather than read. Gervaise sat for an +hour with her neighbor, watching her at work with her cushion, +its numberless pins and the pretty lace.</p> + +<p>The more she saw of her new friends the better Gervaise liked +them. They were frugal but not parsimonious. They were the +admiration of the neighborhood. Goujet was never seen with a hole +or a spot on his garments. He was very polite to all but a little +diffident, in spite of his height and broad shoulders. The girls +in the street were much amused to see him look away when they met +him; he did not fancy their ways—their forward boldness and +loud laughs. One day he came home tipsy. His mother uttered no +word of reproach but brought out a picture of his father which +was piously preserved in her wardrobe. And after that lesson +Goujet drank no more liquor, though he conceived no hatred for +wine.</p> + +<p>On Sunday he went out with his mother, who was his idol. He +went to her with all his troubles and with all his joys, as he +had done when little.</p> + +<p>At first he took no interest in Gervaise, but after a while he +began to like her and treated her like a sister, with abrupt +familiarity.</p> + +<p>Cadet-Cassis, who was a thorough Parisian, thought Gueule-d'Or +very stupid. What was the sense of turning away from all the +pretty girls he met in the street? But this did not prevent the +two young fellows from liking each other very heartily.</p> + +<p>For three years the lives of these people flowed tranquilly on +without an event. Gervaise had been elevated in the laundry where +she worked, had higher wages and decided to place Etienne at +school. Notwithstanding all her expenses of the household, they +were able to save twenty and thirty francs each month. When these +savings amounted to six hundred francs Gervaise could not rest, +so tormented was she by ambitious dreams. She wished to open a +small establishment herself and hire apprentices in her turn. She +hesitated, naturally, to take the definite steps and said they +would look around for a shop that would answer their purpose; +their money in the savings bank was quietly rolling up. She had +bought her clock, the object of her ambition; it was to be paid +for in a year—so much each month. It was a wonderful clock, +rosewood with fluted columns and gilt moldings and pendulum. She +kept her bankbook under the glass shade, and often when she was +thinking of her shop she stood with her eyes fixed on the clock, +as if she were waiting for some especial and solemn moment.</p> + +<p>The Coupeaus and the Goujets now went out on Sundays together. +It was an orderly party with a dinner at some quiet restaurant. +The men drank a glass or two of wine and came home with the +ladies and counted up and settled the expenditures of the day +before they separated. The Lorilleuxs were bitterly jealous of +these new friends of their brother's. They declared it had a very +queer look to see him and his wife always with strangers rather +than with his own family, and Mme Lorilleux began to say hateful +things again of Gervaise. Mme Lerat, on the contrary, took her +part, while Mamma Coupeau tried to please everyone.</p> + +<p>The day that Nana—which was the pet name given to the +little girl—was three years old Coupeau, on coming in, +found his wife in a state of great excitement. She refused to +give any explanation, saying, in fact, there really was nothing +the matter, but she finally became so abstracted that she stood +still with the plates in her hand as she laid the table for +dinner, and her husband insisted on an explanation.</p> + +<p>"If you must know," she said, "that little shop in La Rue de +la Goutte-d'Or is vacant. I heard so only an hour ago, and it +struck me all of a heap!"</p> + +<p>It was a very nice shop in the very house of which they had so +often thought. There was the shop itself—a back +room—and two others. They were small, to be sure, but +convenient and well arranged; only she thought it dear—five +hundred francs.</p> + +<p>"You asked the price then?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I asked it just out of curiosity," she answered with an +air of indifference, "but it is too dear, decidedly too dear. It +would be unwise, I think, to take it."</p> + +<p>But she could talk of nothing else the whole evening. She drew +the plan of the rooms on the margin of a newspaper, and as she +talked she measured the furniture, as if they were to move the +next day. Then Coupeau, seeing her great desire to have the +place, declared he would see the owner the next morning, for it +was possible he would take less than five hundred francs, but how +would she like to live so near his sister, whom she detested?</p> + +<p>Gervaise was displeased at this and said she detested no one +and even defended the Lorilleuxs, declaring they were not so bad, +after all. And when Coupeau was asleep her busy brain was at work +arranging the rooms which as yet they had not decided to +hire.</p> + +<p>The next day when she was alone she lifted the shade from the +clock and opened her bankbook. Just to think that her shop and +future prosperity lay between those dirty leaves!</p> + +<p>Before going to her work she consulted Mme Goujet, who +approved of the plan. With a husband like hers, who never drank, +she could not fail of success. At noon she called on her +sister-in-law to ask her advice, for she did not wish to have the +air of concealing anything from the family.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux was confounded. What, did Wooden Legs think of +having an establishment of her own? And with an envious heart she +stammered out that it would be very well, certainly, but when she +had recovered herself a little she began to talk of the dampness +of the courtyard and of the darkness of the +<i>rez-de-chaussée</i>. Oh yes, it was a capital place for +rheumatism, but of course if her mind was made up anything she +could say would make no difference.</p> + +<p>That night Gervaise told her husband that if he had thrown any +obstacles in the way of her taking the shop she believed she +should have fallen sick and died, so great was her longing. But +before they came to any decision they must see if a diminution of +the rent could be obtained.</p> + +<p>"We can go tomorrow if you say so," was her husband's reply; +"you can call for me at six o'clock."</p> + +<p>Coupeau was then completing the roof of a three-storied house +and was laying the very last sheets of zinc. It was May and a +cloudless evening. The sun was low in the horizon, and against +the blue sky the figure of Coupeau was clearly defined as he cut +his zinc as quietly as a tailor might have cut out a pair of +breeches in his workshop. His assistant, a lad of seventeen, was +blowing up the furnace with a pair of bellows, and at each puff a +great cloud of sparks arose.</p> + +<p>"Put in the irons, Zidore!" shouted Coupeau.</p> + +<p>The boy thrust the irons among the coals which showed only a +dull pink in the sunlight and then went to work again with his +bellows. Coupeau took up his last sheet of zinc. It was to be +placed on the edge of the roof, near the gutter. Just at that +spot the roof was very steep. The man walked along in his list +slippers much as if he had been at home, whistling a popular +melody. He allowed himself to slip a little and caught at the +chimney, calling to Zidore as he did so:</p> + +<p>"Why in thunder don't you bring the irons? What are you +staring at?"</p> + +<p>But Zidore, quite undisturbed, continued to stare at a cloud +of heavy black smoke that was rising in the direction of +Grenelle. He wondered if it were a fire, but he crawled with the +irons toward Coupeau, who began to solder the zinc, supporting +himself on the point of one foot or by one finger, not rashly, +but with calm deliberation and perfect coolness. He knew what he +could do and never lost his head. His pipe was in his mouth, and +he would occasionally turn to spit down into the street +below.</p> + +<p>"Hallo, Madame Boche!" he cried as he suddenly caught sight of +his old friend crossing the street. "How are you today?"</p> + +<p>She looked up, laughed, and a brisk conversation ensued +between the roof and the street. She stood with her hands under +her apron and her face turned up, while he, with one arm round a +flue, leaned over the side of the house.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen my wife?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"No indeed; is she anywhere round?"</p> + +<p>"She is coming for me. Is everyone well with you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, all well, thanks. I am going to a butcher near here who +sells cheaper than up our way."</p> + +<p>They raised their voices because a carriage was passing, and +this brought to a neighboring window a little old woman, who +stood in breathless horror, expecting to see the man fall from +the roof in another minute.</p> + +<p>"Well, good night," cried Mme Boche. "I must not detain you +from your work."</p> + +<p>Coupeau turned and took the iron Zidore held out to him. At +the same moment Mme Boche saw Gervaise coming toward her with +little Nana trotting at her side. She looked up to the roof to +tell Coupeau, but Gervaise closed her lips with an energetic +signal, and then as she reached the old concierge she said in a +low voice that she was always in deadly terror that her husband +would fall. She never dared look at him when he was in such +places.</p> + +<p>"It is not very agreeable, I admit," answered Mme Boche. "My +man is a tailor, and I am spared all this."</p> + +<p>"At first," continued Gervaise, "I had not a moment's peace. I +saw him in my dreams on a litter, but now I have got accustomed +to it somewhat."</p> + +<p>She looked up, keeping Nana behind her skirts, lest the child +should call out and startle her father, who was at that moment on +the extreme edge. She saw the soldering iron and the tiny flame +that rose as he carefully passed it along the edges of the zinc. +Gervaise, pale with suspense and fear, raised her hands +mechanically with a gesture of supplication. Coupeau ascended the +steep roof with a slow step, then glancing down, he beheld his +wife.</p> + +<p>"You are watching me, are you?" he cried gaily. "Ah, Madame +Boche, is she not a silly one? She was afraid to speak to me. +Wait ten minutes, will you?"</p> + +<p>The two women stood on the sidewalk, having as much as they +could do to restrain Nana, who insisted on fishing in the +gutter.</p> + +<p>The old woman still stood at the window, looking up at the +roof and waiting.</p> + +<p>"Just see her," said Mme Boche. "What is she looking at?"</p> + +<p>Coupeau was heard lustily singing; with the aid of a pair of +compasses he had drawn some lines and now proceeded to cut a +large fan; this he adroitly, with his tools, folded into the +shape of a pointed mushroom. Zidore was again heating the irons. +The sun was setting just behind the house, and the whole western +sky was flushed with rose, fading to a soft violet, and against +this sky the figures of the two men, immeasurably exaggerated, +stood clearly out, as well as the strange form of the zinc which +Coupeau was then manipulating.</p> + +<p>"Zidore! The irons!"</p> + +<p>But Zidore was not to be seen. His master, with an oath, +shouted down the scuttle window which was open near by and +finally discovered him two houses off. The boy was taking a walk, +apparently, with his scanty blond hair blowing all about his +head.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you are in the country?" cried Coupeau in a +fury. "You are another Béranger, perhaps—composing +verses! Will you have the kindness to give me my irons? Whoever +heard the like? Give me my irons, I say!"</p> + +<p>The irons hissed as he applied them, and he called to +Gervaise:</p> + +<p>"I am coming!"</p> + +<p>The chimney to which he had fitted this cap was in the center +of the roof. Gervaise stood watching him, soothed by his calm +self-possession. Nana clapped her little hands.</p> + +<p>"Papa! Papa!" she cried. "Look!"</p> + +<p>The father turned; his foot slipped; he rolled down the roof +slowly, unable to catch at anything.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" he said in a choked voice, and he fell; his body +turned over twice and crashed into the middle of the street with +the dull thud of a bundle of wet linen.</p> + +<p>Gervaise stood still. A shriek was frozen on her lips. Mme +Boche snatched Nana in her arms and hid her head that she might +not see, and the little old woman opposite, who seemed to have +waited for this scene in the drama, quietly closed her +windows.</p> + +<p>Four men bore Coupeau to a druggist's at the corner, where he +lay for an hour while a litter was sent for from the Hospital +Lariboisière. He was breathing still, but that was all. Gervaise +knelt at his side, hysterically sobbing. Every minute or two, in +spite of the prohibition of the druggist, she touched him to see +if he were still warm. When the litter arrived and they spoke of +the hospital, she started up, saying violently:</p> + +<p>"No—no! Not to the hospital—to our own home."</p> + +<p>In vain did they tell her that the expenses would be very +great if she nursed him at home.</p> + +<p>"No—no!" she said. "I will show them the way. He is my +husband, is he not? And I will take care of him myself."</p> + +<p>And Coupeau was carried home, and as the litter was borne +through the Quartier the women crowded together and extolled +Gervaise. She was a little lame, to be sure, but she was very +energetic, and she would save her man.</p> + +<p>Mme Boche took Nana home and then went about among her friends +to tell the story with interminable details.</p> + +<p>"I saw him fall," she said. "It was all because of the child; +he was going to speak to her, when down he went. Good lord! I +trust I may never see such another sight."</p> + +<p>For a week Coupeau's life hung on a thread. His family and his +friends expected to see him die from one hour to another. The +physician, an experienced physician whose every visit cost five +francs, talked of a lesion, and that word was in itself very +terrifying to all but Gervaise, who, pale from her vigils but +calm and resolute, shrugged her shoulders and would not allow +herself to be discouraged. Her man's leg was broken; that she +knew very well, "but he need not die for that!" And she watched +at his side night and day, forgetting her children and her home +and everything but him.</p> + +<p>On the ninth day, when the physician told her he would +recover, she dropped, half fainting, on a chair, and at night she +slept for a couple of hours with her head on the foot of his +bed.</p> + +<p>This accident to Coupeau brought all his family about him. His +mother spent the nights there, but she slept in her chair quite +comfortably. Mme Lerat came in every evening after work was over +to make inquiries.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs at first came three or four times each day and +brought an armchair for Gervaise, but soon quarrels and +discussions arose as to the proper way of nursing the invalid, +and Mme Lorilleux lost her temper and declared that had Gervaise +stayed at home and not gone to pester her husband when he was at +work the accident would not have happened.</p> + +<p>When she saw Coupeau out of danger Gervaise allowed his family +to approach him as they saw fit. His convalescence would be a +matter of months. This again was a ground of indignation for Mme +Lorilleux.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense it was," she said, "for Gervaise to take him +home! Had he gone to the hospital he would have recovered as +quickly again."</p> + +<p>And then she made a calculation of what these four months +would cost: First, there was the time lost, then the physician, +the medicines, the wines and finally the meat for beef tea. Yes, +it would be a pretty sum, to be sure! If they got through it on +their savings they would do well, but she believed that the end +would be that they would find themselves head over heels in debt, +and they need expect no assistance from his family, for none of +them was rich enough to pay for sickness at home!</p> + +<p>One evening Mme Lorilleux was malicious enough to say:</p> + +<p>"And your shop, when do you take it? The concierge is waiting +to know what you mean to do."</p> + +<p>Gervaise gasped. She had utterly forgotten the shop. She saw +the delight of these people when they believed that this plan was +given up, and from that day they never lost an occasion of +twitting her on her dream that had toppled over like a house of +cards, and she grew morbid and fancied they were pleased at the +accident to their brother which had prevented the realization of +their plans.</p> + +<p>She tried to laugh and to show them she did not grudge the +money that had been expended in the restoration of her husband's +health. She did not withdraw all her savings from the bank at +once, for she had a vague hope that some miracle would intervene +which would render the sacrifice unnecessary.</p> + +<p>Was it not a great comfort, she said to herself and to her +enemies, for as such she had begun to regard the Lorilleuxs, that +she had this money now to turn to in this emergency?</p> + +<p>Her neighbors next door had been very kind and thoughtful to +Gervaise all through her trouble and the illness of her +husband.</p> + +<p>Mme Goujet never went out without coming to inquire if there +was anything she could do, any commission she could execute. She +brought innumerable bowls of soup and, even when Gervaise was +particularly busy, washed her dishes for her. Goujet filled her +buckets every morning with fresh water, and this was an economy +of at least two sous, and in the evening came to sit with +Coupeau. He did not say much, but his companionship cheered and +comforted the invalid. He was tender and compassionate and was +thrilled by the sweetness of Gervaise's voice when she spoke to +her husband. Never had he seen such a brave, good woman; he did +not believe she sat in her chair fifteen minutes in the whole +day. She was never tired, never out of temper, and the young man +grew very fond of the poor woman as he watched her.</p> + +<p>His mother had found a wife for him. A girl whose trade was +the same as her own, a lace mender, and as he did not wish to go +contrary to her desires he consented that the marriage should +take place in September.</p> + +<p>But when Gervaise spoke of his future he shook his head.</p> + +<p>"All women are not like you, Madame Coupeau," he said. "If +they were I should like ten wives."</p> + +<p>At the end of two months Coupeau was on his feet again and +could move—with difficulty, of course—as far as the +window, where he sat with his leg on a chair. The poor fellow was +sadly shaken by his accident. He was no philosopher, and he swore +from morning until night. He said he knew every crack in the +ceiling. When he was installed in his armchair it was little +better. How long, he asked impatiently, was he expected to sit +there swathed like a mummy? And he cursed his ill luck. His +accident was a cursed shame. If his head had been disturbed by +drink it would have been different, but he was always sober, and +this was the result. He saw no sense in the whole thing!</p> + +<p>"My father," he said, "broke his neck. I don't say he deserved +it, but I do say there was a reason for it. But I had not drunk a +drop, and yet over I went, just because I spoke to my child! If +there be a Father in heaven, as they say, who watches over us +all, I must say He manages things strangely enough +sometimes!"</p> + +<p>And as his strength returned his trade grew strangely +distasteful to him. It was a miserable business, he said, roaming +along gutters like a cat. In his opinion there should be a law +which should compel every houseowner to tin his own roof. He +wished he knew some other trade he could follow, something that +was less dangerous.</p> + +<p>For two months more Coupeau walked with a crutch and after a +while was able to get into the street and then to the outer +boulevard, where he sat on a bench in the sun. His gaiety +returned; he laughed again and enjoyed doing nothing. For the +first time in his life he felt thoroughly lazy, and indolence +seemed to have taken possession of his whole being. When he got +rid of his crutches he sauntered about and watched the buildings +which were in the process of construction in the vicinity, and he +jested with the men and indulged himself in a general abuse of +work. Of course he intended to begin again as soon as he was +quite well, but at present the mere thought made him feel ill, he +said.</p> + +<p>In the afternoons Coupeau often went to his sister's +apartment; she expressed a great deal of compassion for him and +showed every attention. When he was first married he had escaped +from her influence, thanks to his affection for his wife and hers +for him. Now he fell under her thumb again; they brought him back +by declaring that he lived in mortal terror of his wife. But the +Lorilleuxs were too wise to disparage her openly; on the +contrary, they praised her extravagantly, and he told his wife +that they adored her and begged her, in her turn, to be just to +them.</p> + +<p>The first quarrel in their home arose on the subject of +Etienne. Coupeau had been with his sister. He came in late and +found the children fretting for their dinner. He cuffed Etienne's +ears, bade him hold his tongue and scolded for an hour. He was +sure he did not know why he let that boy stay in the house; he +was none of his; until that day he had accepted the child as a +matter of course.</p> + +<p>Three days after this he gave the boy a kick, and it was not +long before the child, when he heard him coming, ran into the +Goujets', where there was always a corner at the table for +him.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had long since resumed her work. She no longer lifted +the globe of her clock to take out her bankbook; her savings were +all gone, and it was necessary to count the sous pretty closely, +for there were four mouths to feed, and they were all dependent +on the work of her two hands. When anyone found fault with +Coupeau and blamed him she always took his part.</p> + +<p>"Think how much he has suffered," she said with tears in her +eyes. "Think of the shock to his nerves! Who can wonder that he +is a little sour? Wait awhile, though, until he is perfectly +well, and you will see that his temper will be as sweet as it +ever was."</p> + +<p>And if anyone ventured to observe that he seemed quite well +and that he ought to go to work she would exclaim:</p> + +<p>"No indeed, not yet. It would never do." She did not want him +down in his bed again. She knew what the doctor had said, and she +every day begged him to take his own time. She even slipped a +little silver, into his vest pocket. All this Coupeau accepted as +a matter of course. He complained of all sorts of pains and aches +to gain a little longer period of indolence and at the end of six +months had begun to look upon himself as a confirmed invalid.</p> + +<p>He almost daily dropped into a wineshop with a friend; it was +a place where he could chat a little, and where was the harm? +Besides, whoever heard of a glass of wine killing a man? But he +swore to himself that he would never touch anything but +wine—not a drop of brandy should pass his lips. Wine was +good for one—prolonged one's life, aided +digestion—but brandy was a very different matter. +Notwithstanding all these wise resolutions, it came to pass more +than once that he came in, after visiting a dozen different +cabarets, decidedly tipsy. On these occasions Gervaise locked her +doors and declared she was ill, to prevent the Goujets from +seeing her husband.</p> + +<p>The poor woman was growing very sad. Every night and morning +she passed the shop for which she had so ardently longed. She +made her calculations over and over again until her brain was +dizzy. Two hundred and fifty francs for rent, one hundred and +fifty for moving and the apparatus she needed, one hundred francs +to keep things going until business began to come in. No, it +could not be done under five hundred francs.</p> + +<p>She said nothing of this to anyone, deterred only by the fear +of seeming to regret the money she had spent for her husband +during his illness. She was pale and dispirited at the thought +that she must work five years at least before she could save that +much money.</p> + +<p>One evening Gervaise was alone. Goujet entered, took a chair +in silence and looked at her as he smoked his pipe. He seemed to +be revolving something in his mind. Suddenly he took his pipe +from his mouth.</p> + +<p>"Madame Gervaise," he said, "will you allow me to lend you the +money you require?"</p> + +<p>She was kneeling at a drawer, laying some towels in a neat +pile. She started up, red with surprise. He had seen her standing +that very morning for a good ten minutes, looking at the shop, so +absorbed that she had not seen him pass.</p> + +<p>She refused his offer, however. No, she could never borrow +money when she did not know how she could return it, and when he +insisted she replied:</p> + +<p>"But your marriage? This is the money you have saved for +that."</p> + +<p>"Don't worry on that account," he said with a heightened +color. "I shall not marry. It was an idea of my mother's, and I +prefer to lend you the money."</p> + +<p>They looked away from each other. Their friendship had a +certain element of tenderness which each silently recognized.</p> + +<p>Gervaise accepted finally and went with Goujet to see his +mother, whom he had informed of his intentions. They found her +somewhat sad, with her serene, pale face bent over her work. She +did not wish to thwart her son, but she no longer approved of the +plan, and she told Gervaise why. With kind frankness she pointed +out to her that Coupeau had fallen into evil habits and was +living on her labors and would in all probability continue to do +so. The truth was that Mme Goujet had not forgiven Coupeau for +refusing to read during all his long convalescence; this and many +other things had alienated her and her son from him, but they had +in no degree lost their interest in Gervaise.</p> + +<p>Finally it was agreed she should have five hundred francs and +should return the money by paying each month twenty francs on +account.</p> + +<p>"Well, well!" cried Coupeau as he heard of this financial +transaction. "We are in luck. There is no danger with us, to be +sure, but if he were dealing with knaves he might never see hide +or hair of his cash again!"</p> + +<p>The next day the shop was taken, and Gervaise ran about with +such a light heart that there was a rumor that she had been cured +of her lameness by an operation. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER V<br/> +AMBITIOUS DREAMS</h2> + +<p>The Boche couple, on the first of April, moved also and took +the loge of the great house in the Rue de la Goutte-d'Or. Things +had turned out very nicely for Gervaise who, having always got on +very comfortably with the concierge in the house in Rue Neuve, +dreaded lest she should fall into the power of some tyrant who +would quarrel over every drop of water that was spilled and a +thousand other trifles like that. But with Mme Boche all would go +smoothly.</p> + +<p>The day the lease was to be signed and Gervaise stood in her +new home her heart swelled with joy. She was finally to live in +that house like a small town, with its intersecting corridors +instead of streets.</p> + +<p>She felt a strange timidity—a dread of +failure—when she found herself face to face with her +enterprise. The struggle for bread was a terrible and an +increasing one, and it seemed to her for a moment that she had +been guilty of a wild, foolhardy act, like throwing herself into +the jaws of a machine, for the planes in the cabinetmaker's shop +and the hammers in the locksmith's were dimly grasped by her as a +part of a great whole.</p> + +<p>The water that ran past the door that day from the dyer's was +pale green. She smiled as she stepped over it, accepting this +color as a happy augury. She, with her husband, entered the loge, +where Mme Boche and the owner of the building, M. Marescot, were +talking on business.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, with a thrill of pain, heard Boche advise the +landlord to turn out the dressmaker on the third floor who was +behindhand with her rent. She wondered if she would ever be +turned out and then wondered again at the attitude assumed by +these Boche people, who did not seem to have ever seen her +before. They had eyes and ears only for the landlord, who shook +hands with his new tenants but, when they spoke of repairs, +professed to be in such haste that morning that it would be +necessary to postpone the discussion. They reminded him of +certain verbal promises he had made, and finally he consented to +examine the premises.</p> + +<p>The shop stood with its four bare walls and blackened ceiling. +The tenant who had been there had taken away his own counters and +cases. A furious discussion took place. M. Marescot said it was +for them to embellish the shop.</p> + +<p>"That may be," said Gervaise gently, "but surely you cannot +call putting on a fresh paper, instead of this that hangs in +strips, an embellishment. Whitening the curbing, too, comes +under, the head of necessary repairs." She only required these +two things.</p> + +<p>Finally Marescot, with a desperate air, plunged his hands deep +in his pockets, shrugged his shoulders and gave his consent to +the repairs on the ceiling and to the paper, on condition that +she would pay for half the paper, and then he hurried away.</p> + +<p>When he had departed Boche clapped Coupeau on the shoulder. +"You may thank me for that!" he cried and then went on to say +that he was the real master of the house, that he settled the +whole business of the establishment, and it was a nod and look +from him that had influenced M. Marescot. That evening Gervaise, +considering themselves in debt to Boche, sent him some wine.</p> + +<p>In four days the shop should have been ready for them, but the +repairs hung on for three weeks. At first they intended simply to +have the paint scrubbed, but it was so shabby and worn that +Gervaise repainted at her own expense. Coupeau went every +morning, not to work, but to inspect operations, and Boche +dropped the vest or pantaloons on which he was working and gave +the benefit of his advice, and the two men spent the whole day +smoking and spitting and arguing over each stroke of the brush. +Some days the painters did not appear at all; on others they came +and walked off in an hour's time, not to return again.</p> + +<p>Poor Gervaise wrung her hands in despair. But finally, after +two days of energetic labor, the whole thing was done, and the +men walked off with their ladders, singing lustily.</p> + +<p>Then came the moving, and finally Gervaise called herself +settled in her new home and was pleased as a child. As she came +up the street she could see her sign afar off:</p> + +<p class="center"> +CLEAR STARCHER<br/> +LACES AND EMBROIDERIES<br/> +DONE UP WITH ESPECIAL CARE</p> + +<p>The twofirst words were painted in large yellow letters on a pale +blue ground.</p> + +<p>In the recessed window shut in at the back by muslin curtains +lay men's shirts, delicate handkerchiefs and cuffs; all these +were on blue paper, and Gervaise was charmed. When she entered +the door all was blue there; the paper represented a golden +trellis and blue morning-glories. In the center was a huge table +draped with blue-bordered cretonne to hide the trestles.</p> + +<p>Gervaise seated herself and looked round, happy in the +cleanliness of all about her. Her first glance, however, was +directed to her stove, a sort of furnace whereon ten irons could +be heated at once. It was a source of constant anxiety lest her +little apprentice should fill it too full of coal and so injure +it.</p> + +<p>Behind the shop was her bedroom and her kitchen, from which a +door opened into the court. Nana's bed stood in a little room at +the right, and Etienne was compelled to share his with the +baskets of soiled clothes. It was all very well, except that the +place was very damp and that it was dark by three o'clock in the +afternoon in winter.</p> + +<p>The new shop created a great excitement in the neighborhood. +Some people declared that the Coupeaus were on the road to ruin; +they had, in fact, spent the whole five hundred francs and were +penniless, contrary to their intentions. The morning that +Gervaise first took down her shutters she had only six francs in +the world, but she was not troubled, and at the end of a week she +told her husband after two hours of abstruse calculations that +they had taken in enough to cover their expenses.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs were in a state of rage, and one morning when +the apprentice was emptying, on the sly, a bowl of starch which +she had burned in making, just as Mme Lorilleux was passing, she +rushed in and accused her sister-in-law of insulting her. After +this all friendly relations were at an end.</p> + +<p>"It all looks very strange to me," sniffed Mme Lorilleux. "I +can't tell where the money comes from, but I have my suspicions." +And she went on to intimate that Gervaise and Goujet were +altogether too intimate. This was the groundwork of many fables; +she said Wooden Legs was so mild and sweet that she had deceived +her to the extent that she had consented to become Nana's +godmother, which had been no small expense, but now things were +very different. If Gervaise were dying and asked her for a glass +of water she would not give it. She could not stand such people. +As to Nana, it was different; they would always receive her. The +child, of course, was not responsible for her mother's crimes. +Coupeau should take a more decided stand and not put up with his +wife's vile conduct.</p> + +<p>Boche and his wife sat in judgment on the quarrel and gave as +their opinion that the Lorilleuxs were much to blame. They were +good tenants, of course. They paid regularly. "But," added Mme +Boche, "I never could abide jealousy. They are mean people and +were never known to offer a glass of wine to a friend."</p> + +<p>Mother Coupeau visited her son and daughter successive days, +listened to the tales of each and said never a word in reply.</p> + +<p>Gervaise lived a busy life and took no notice of all this +foolish gossip and strife. She greeted her friends with a smile +from the door of her shop, where she went for a breath of fresh +air. All the people in the neighborhood liked her and would have +called her a great beauty but for her lameness. She was +twenty-eight and had grown plump. She moved more slowly, and when +she took a chair to wait for her irons to heat she rose with +reluctance. She was growing fond of good living—that she +herself admitted—but she did not regard it as a fault. She +worked hard and had a right to good food. Why should she live on +potato parings? Sometimes she worked all night when she had a +great deal of work on hand.</p> + +<p>She did the washing for the whole house and for some Parisian +ladies and had several apprentices, besides two laundresses. She +was making money hand over fist, and her good luck would have +turned a wiser head than her own. But hers was not turned; she +was gentle and sweet and hated no one except her sister-in-law. +She judged everybody kindly, particularly after she had eaten a +good breakfast. When people called her good she laughed. Why +should she not be good? She had seen all her dreams realized. She +remembered what she once said—that she wanted to work hard, +have plenty to eat, a home to herself, where she could bring up +her children, not be beaten and die in her bed! As to dying in +her bed, she added she wanted that still, but she would put it +off as long as possible, "if you please!" It was to Coupeau +himself that Gervaise was especially sweet. Never a cross or an +impatient word had he heard from her lips, and no one had ever +known her complain of him behind his back. He had finally resumed +his trade, and as the shop where he worked was at the other end +of Paris, she gave him every morning forty sous for his +breakfast, his wine and tobacco. Two days out of six, however, +Coupeau would meet a friend, drink up his forty sous and return +to breakfast. Once, indeed, he sent a note, saying that his +account at the cabaret exceeded his forty sous. He was in pledge, +as it were; would his wife send the money? She laughed and +shrugged her shoulders. Where was the harm in her husband's +amusing himself a little? A woman must give a man a long rope if +she wished to live in peace and comfort. It was not far from +words to blows—she knew that very well.</p> + +<p>The hot weather had come. One afternoon in June the ten irons +were heating on the stove; the door was open into the street, but +not a breath of air came in.</p> + +<p>"What a melting day!" said Gervaise, who was stooping over a +great bowl of starch. She had rolled up her sleeves and taken off +her sack and stood in her chemise and white skirt; the soft hair +in her neck was curling on her white throat. She dipped each cuff +in the starch, the fronts of the shirts and the whole of the +skirts. Then she rolled up the pieces tightly and placed them +neatly in a square basket after having sprinkled with clear water +all those portions which were not starched.</p> + +<p>"This basket is for you, Madame Putois," she said, "and you +will have to hurry, for they dry so fast in this weather."</p> + +<p>Mine Putois was a thin little woman who looked cool and +comfortable in her tightly buttoned dress. She had not taken her +cap off but stood at the table, moving her irons to and fro with +the regularity of an automaton. Suddenly she exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Put on your sack, Clémence; there are three men +looking in, and I don't like such things."</p> + +<p>Clémence grumbled and growled. What did she care what +she liked? She could not and would not roast to suit anybody.</p> + +<p>"Clémence, put on your sack," said Gervaise. "Madame +Putois is right—it is not proper."</p> + +<p>Clémence muttered but obeyed and consoled herself by +giving the apprentice, who was ironing hose and towels by her +side, a little push. Gervaise had a cap belonging to Mme Boche in +her hand and was ironing the crown with a round ball, when a +tall, bony woman came in. She was a laundress.</p> + +<p>"You have come too soon, Madame Bijard!" cried Gervaise. "I +said tonight. It is very inconvenient for me to attend to you at +this hour." At the same time, however, Gervaise amiably laid down +her work and went for the dirty clothes, which she piled up in +the back shop. It took the two women nearly an hour to sort them +and mark them with a stitch of colored cotton.</p> + +<p>At this moment Coupeau entered.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" he said. "The sun beats down on one's head like a +hammer." He caught at the table to sustain himself; he had been +drinking; a spider web had caught in his dark hair, where many a +white thread was apparent. His under jaw dropped a little, and +his smile was good natured but silly.</p> + +<p>Gervaise asked her husband if he had seen the Lorilleuxs in +rather a severe tone; when he said no she smiled at him without a +word of reproach.</p> + +<p>"You had best go and lie down," she said pleasantly. "We are +very busy, and you are in our way. Did I say thirty-two +handkerchiefs, Madame Bijard? Here are two more; that makes +thirty-four."</p> + +<p>But Coupeau was not sleepy, and he preferred to remain where +he was. Gervaise called Clémence and bade her to count the +linen while she made out the list. She glanced at each piece as +she wrote. She knew many of them by the color. That pillow slip +belonged to Mme Boche because it was stained with the pomade she +always used, and so on through the whole. Gervaise was seated +with these piles of soiled linen about her. Augustine, whose +great delight was to fill up the stove, had done so now, and it +was red hot. Coupeau leaned toward Gervaise.</p> + +<p>"Kiss me," he said. "You are a good woman."</p> + +<p>As he spoke he gave a sudden lurch and fell among the +skirts.</p> + +<p>"Do take care," said Gervaise impatiently. "You will get them +all mixed again." And she gave him a little push with her foot, +whereat all the other women cried out.</p> + +<p>"He is not like most men," said Mme Putois; "they generally +wish to beat you when they come in like this."</p> + +<p>Gervaise already regretted her momentary vexation and assisted +her husband to his feet and then turned her cheek to him with a +smile, but he put his arm round her and kissed her neck. She +pushed him aside with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"You ought to be ashamed!" she said but yielded to his +embrace, and the long kiss they exchanged before these people, +amid the sickening odor of the soiled linen and the alcoholic +fumes of his breath, was the first downward step in the slow +descent of their degradation.</p> + +<p>Mme Bijard tied up the linen and staggered off under their +weight while Gervaise turned back to finish her cap. Alas! The +stove and the irons were alike red hot; she must wait a quarter +of an hour before she could touch the irons, and Gervaise covered +the fire with a couple of shovelfuls of cinders. She then hung a +sheet before the window to keep out the sun. Coupeau took a place +in the corner, refusing to budge an inch, and his wife and all +her assistants went to work on each side of the square table. +Each woman had at her right a flat brick on which to set her +iron. In the center of the table a dish of water with a rag and a +brush in it and also a bunch of tall lilies in a broken jar.</p> + +<p>Mme Putois had attacked the basket of linen prepared by +Gervaise, and Augustine was ironing her towels, with her nose in +the air, deeply interested in a fly that was buzzing about. As to +Clémence, she was polishing off her thirty-fifth shirt; as +she boasted of this great feat Coupeau staggered toward her.</p> + +<p>"Madame," she called, "please keep him away; he will bother +me, and I shall scorch my shirt."</p> + +<p>"Let her be," said Gervaise without any especial energy. "We +are in a great hurry today!"</p> + +<p>Well, that was not his fault; he did not mean to touch the +girl; he only wanted to see what she was about.</p> + +<p>"Really," said his wife, looking up from her fluting iron, "I +think you had best go to bed."</p> + +<p>He began to talk again.</p> + +<p>"You need not make such a fuss, Clémence; it is only +because these women are here, and—"</p> + +<p>But he could say no more; Gervaise quietly laid one hand on +his mouth and the other on his shoulder and pushed him toward his +room. He struggled a little and with a silly laugh asked if +Clémence was not coming too.</p> + +<p>Gervaise undressed her husband and tucked him up in bed as if +he had been a child and then returned to her fluting irons in +time to still a grand dispute that was going on about an iron +that had not been properly cleaned.</p> + +<p>In the profound silence that followed her appearance she could +hear her husband's thick voice:</p> + +<p>"What a silly wife I've got! The idea of putting me to bed in +broad daylight!"</p> + +<p>Suddenly he began to snore, and Gervaise uttered a sigh of +relief. She used her fluting iron for a minute and then said +quietly:</p> + +<p>"There is no need of being offended by anything a man does +when he is in this state. He is not an accountable being. He did +not intend to insult you. Clémence, you know what a tipsy +man is—he respects neither father nor mother."</p> + +<p>She uttered these words in an indifferent, matter-of-fact way, +not in the least disturbed that he had forgotten the respect due +to her and to her roof and really seeing no harm in his +conduct.</p> + +<p>The work now went steadily on, and Gervaise calculated they +would be finished by eleven o'clock. The heat was intense; the +smell of charcoal deadened the air, while the branch of white +lilies slowly faded and filled the room with their sweetness.</p> + +<p>The day after all this Coupeau had a frightful headache and +did not rise until late, too late to go to his work. About noon +he began to feel better, and toward evening was quite himself. +His wife gave him some silver and told him to go out and take the +air, which meant with him taking some wine.</p> + +<p>One glass washed down another, but he came home as gay as a +lark and quite disgusted with the men he had seen who were +drinking themselves to death.</p> + +<p>"Where is your lover?" he said to his wife as he entered the +shop. This was his favorite joke. "I never see him nowadays and +must hunt him up."</p> + +<p>He meant Goujet, who came but rarely, lest the gossips in the +neighborhood should take it upon themselves to gabble. Once in +about ten days he made his appearance in the evening and +installed himself in a corner in the back shop with his pipe. He +rarely spoke but laughed at all Gervaise said.</p> + +<p>On Saturday evenings the establishment was kept open half the +night. A lamp hung from the ceiling with the light thrown down by +a shade. The shutters were put up at the usual time, but as the +nights were very warm the door was left open, and as the hours +wore on the women pulled their jackets open a little more at the +throat, and he sat in his corner and looked on as if he were at a +theater.</p> + +<p>The silence of the street was broken by a passing carriage. +Two o'clock struck—no longer a sound from outside. At +half-past two a man hurried past the door, carrying with him a +vision of flying arms, piles of white linen and a glow of yellow +light.</p> + +<p>Goujet, wishing to save Etienne from Coupeau's rough +treatment, had taken him to the place where he was employed to +blow the bellows, with the prospect of becoming an apprentice as +soon as he was old enough, and Etienne thus became another tie +between the clearstarcher and the blacksmith.</p> + +<p>All their little world laughed and told Gervaise that her +friend worshiped the very ground she trod upon. She colored and +looked like a girl of sixteen.</p> + +<p>"Dear boy," she said to herself, "I know he loves me, but +never has he said or will he say a word of the kind to me!" And +she was proud of being loved in this way. When she was disturbed +about anything her first thought was to go to him. When by chance +they were left alone together they were never disturbed by +wondering if their friendship verged on love. There was no harm +in such affection.</p> + +<p>Nana was now six years old and a most troublesome little +sprite. Her mother took her every morning to a school in the Rue +Polonçeau, to a certain Mlle Josse. Here she did all +manner of mischief. She put ashes into the teacher's snuffbox, +pinned the skirts of her companions together. Twice the young +lady was sent home in disgrace and then taken back again for the +sake of the six francs each month. As soon as school hours were +over Nana revenged herself for the hours of enforced quiet she +had passed by making the most frightful din in the courtyard and +the shop.</p> + +<p>She found able allies in Pauline and Victor Boche. The whole +great house resounded with the most extraordinary +noises—the thumps of children falling downstairs, little +feet tearing up one staircase and down another and bursting out +on the sidewalk like a band of pilfering, impudent sparrows.</p> + +<p>Mme Gaudron alone had nine—dirty, unwashed and unkempt, +their stockings hanging over their shoes and the slits in their +garments showing the white skin beneath. Another woman on the +fifth floor had seven, and they came out in twos and threes from +all the rooms. Nana reigned over this band, among which there +were some half grown and others mere infants. Her prime ministers +were Pauline and Victor; to them she delegated a little of her +authority while she played mamma, undressed the youngest only to +dress them again, cuffed them and punished them at her own sweet +will and with the most fantastic disposition. The band pranced +and waded through the gutter that ran from the dyehouse and +emerged with blue or green legs. Nana decorated herself and the +others with shavings from the cabinetmaker's, which they stole +from under the very noses of the workmen.</p> + +<p>The courtyard belonged to all of these children, apparently, +and resounded with the clatter of their heels. Sometimes this +courtyard, however, was not enough for them, and they spread in +every direction to the infinite disgust of Mme Boche, who +grumbled all in vain. Boche declared that the children of the +poor were as plentiful as mushrooms on a dung heap, and his wife +threatened them with her broom.</p> + +<p>One day there was a terrible scene. Nana had invented a +beautiful game. She had stolen a wooden shoe belonging to Mme +Boche; she bored a hole in it and put in a string, by which she +could draw it like a cart. Victor filled it with apple parings, +and they started forth in a procession, Nana drawing the shoe in +front, followed by the whole flock, little and big, an imp about +the height of a cigar box at the end. They all sang a melancholy +ditty full of "ahs" and "ohs." Nana declared this to be always +the custom at funerals.</p> + +<p>"What on earth are they doing now?" murmured Mme Boche +suspiciously, and then she came to the door and peered out.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" she cried. "It is my shoe they have got."</p> + +<p>She slapped Nana, cuffed Pauline and shook Victor. Gervaise +was filling a bucket at the fountain, and when she saw Nana with +her nose bleeding she rushed toward the concierge and asked how +she dared strike her child.</p> + +<p>The concierge replied that anyone who had a child like that +had best keep her under lock and key. The end of this was, of +course, a complete break between the old friends.</p> + +<p>But, in fact, the quarrel had been growing for a month. +Gervaise, generous by nature and knowing the tastes of the Boche +people, was in the habit of making them constant +presents—oranges, a little hot soup, a cake or something of +the kind. One evening, knowing that the concierge would sell her +soul for a good salad, she took her the remains of a dish of +beets and chicory. The next day she was dumfounded at hearing +from Mlle Remanjon how Mme Boche had thrown the salad away, +saying that she was not yet reduced to eating the leavings of +other people! From that day forth Gervaise sent her nothing more. +The Boches had learned to look on her little offerings as their +right, and they now felt themselves to be robbed by the +Coupeaus.</p> + +<p>It was not long before Gervaise realized she had made a +mistake, for when she was one day late with her October rent Mme +Boche complained to the proprietor, who came blustering to her +shop with his hat on. Of course, too, the Lorilleuxs extended the +right hand of fellowship at once to the Boche people.</p> + +<p>There came a day, however, when Gervaise found it necessary to +call on the Lorilleuxs. It was on Mamma Coupeau's account, who +was sixty-seven years old, nearly blind and helpless. They must +all unite in doing something for her now. Gervaise thought it a +burning shame that a woman of her age, with three well-to-do +children, should be allowed for a moment to regard herself as +friendless and forsaken. And as her husband refused to speak to +his sister, Gervaise said she would.</p> + +<p>She entered the room like a whirlwind, without knocking. +Everything was just as it was on that night when she had been +received by them in a fashion which she had never forgotten or +forgiven. "I have come," cried Gervaise, "and I dare say you wish +to know why, particularly as we are at daggers drawn. Well then, +I have come on Mamma Coupeau's account. I have come to ask if we +are to allow her to beg her bread from door to door—"</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said Mme Lorilleux with a sneer, and she turned +away.</p> + +<p>But Lorilleux lifted his pale face.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" he asked, and as he had understood +perfectly, he went on:</p> + +<p>"What is this cry of poverty about? The old lady ate her +dinner with us yesterday. We do all we can for her, I am sure. We +have not the mines of Peru within our reach, but if she thinks +she is to run to and fro between our houses she is much mistaken. +I, for one, have no liking for spies." He then added as he took +up his microscope, "When the rest of you agree to give five +francs per month toward her support we will do the same." +Gervaise was calmer now; these people always chilled the very +marrow in her bones, and she went on to explain her views. Five +francs were not enough for each of the old lady's children to +pay. She could not live on fifteen francs per month.</p> + +<p>"And why not?" cried Lorilleux. "She ought to do so. She can +see well enough to find the best bits in a dish before her, and +she can do something toward her own maintenance." If he had the +means to indulge such laziness he should not consider it his duty +to do so, he added.</p> + +<p>Then Gervaise grew angry again. She looked at her +sister-in-law and saw her face set in vindictive firmness.</p> + +<p>"Keep your money," she cried. "I will take care of your +mother. I found a starving cat in the street the other night and +took it in. I can take in your mother too. She shall want for +nothing. Good heavens, what people!"</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux snatched up a saucepan.</p> + +<p>"Clear out," she said hoarsely. "I will never give one +sou—no, not one sou—toward her keep. I understand +you! You will make my mother work for you like a slave and put my +five francs in your pocket! Not if I know it, madame! And if she +goes to live under your roof I will never see her again. Be off +with you, I say!"</p> + +<p>"What a monster!" cried Gervaise as she shut the door with a +bang. On the very next day Mme Coupeau came to her. A large bed +was put in the room where Nana slept. The moving did not take +long, for the old lady had only this bed, a wardrobe, table and +two chairs. The table was sold and the chairs new-seated, and the +old lady the evening of her arrival washed the dishes and swept +up the room, glad to make herself useful. Mme Lerat had amused +herself by quarreling with her sister, to whom she had expressed +her admiration of the generosity evinced by Gervaise, and when +she saw that Mme Lorilleux was intensely exasperated she declared +she had never seen such eyes in anybody's head as those of the +clearstarcher. She really believed one might light paper at them. +This declaration naturally led to bitter words, and the sisters +parted, swearing they would never see each other again, and since +then Mme Lerat had spent most of her evenings at her +brother's.</p> + +<p>Three years passed away. There were reconciliations and new +quarrels. Gervaise continued to be liked by her neighbors; she +paid her bills regularly and was a good customer. When she went +out she received cordial greetings on all sides, and she was more +fond of going out in these days than of yore. She liked to stand +at the corners and chat. She liked to loiter with her arms full +of bundles at a neighbor's window and hear a little gossip. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI<br/> +GOUJET AT HIS FORGE</h2> + +<p>One autumnal afternoon Gervaise, who had been to carry a +basket of clothes home to a customer who lived a good way off, +found herself in La Rue des Poissonnièrs just as it was +growing dark. It had rained in the morning, and the air was close +and warm. She was tired with her walk and felt a great desire for +something good to eat. Just then she lifted her eyes and, seeing +the name of the street, she took it into her head that she would +call on Goujet at his forge. But she would ask for Etienne, she +said to herself. She did not know the number, but she could find +it, she thought. She wandered along and stood bewildered, looking +toward Montmartre; all at once she heard the measured click of +hammers and concluded that she had stumbled on the place at last. +She did not know where the entrance to the building was, but she +caught a gleam of a red light in the distance; she walked toward +it and was met by a workman.</p> + +<p>"Is it here, sir," she said timidly, "that my child—a +little boy, that is to say—works? A little boy by the name +of Etienne?"</p> + +<p>"Etienne! Etienne!" repeated the man, swaying from side to +side. The wind brought from him to her an intolerable smell of +brandy, which caused Gervaise to draw back and say timidly:</p> + +<p>"Is it here that Monsieur Goujet works?"</p> + +<p>"Ah, Goujet, yes. If it is Goujet you wish to see go to the +left."</p> + +<p>Gervaise obeyed his instructions and found herself in a large +room with the forge at the farther end. She spoke to the first +man she saw, when suddenly the whole room was one blaze of light. +The bellows had sent up leaping flames which lit every crevice +and corner of the dusty old building, and Gervaise recognized +Goujet before the forge with two other men. She went toward +him.</p> + +<p>"Madame Gervaise!" he exclaimed in surprise, his face radiant +with joy, and then seeing his companions laugh and wink, he +pushed Etienne toward his mother. "You came to see your boy," he +said; "he does his duty like a hero.</p> + +<p>"I am glad of it," she answered, "but what an awful place this +is to get at!"</p> + +<p>And she described her journey, as she called it, and then +asked why no one seemed to know Etienne there.</p> + +<p>"Because," said the blacksmith, "he is called Zou Zou here, as +his hair is cut short as a Zouave's."</p> + +<p>This visit paid by Gervaise to the forge was only the first of +many others. She often went on Saturdays when she carried the +clean linen to Mme Goujet, who still resided in the same house as +before. The first year Gervaise had paid them twenty francs each +month, or rather the difference between the amount of their +washing, seven or eight francs, and the twenty which she agreed +upon. In this way she had paid half the money she had borrowed, +when one quarter day, not knowing to whom to turn, as she had not +been able to collect her bills punctually, she ran to the +Goujets' and borrowed the amount of her rent from them. Twice +since she had asked a similar favor, so that the amount of her +indebtedness now stood at four hundred and twenty-five +francs.</p> + +<p>Now she no longer paid any cash but did their washing. It was +not that she worked less hard or that her business was falling +off. Quite the contrary; but money had a way of melting away in +her hands, and she was content nowadays if she could only make +both ends meet. What was the use of fussing, she thought? If she +could manage to live that was all that was necessary. She was +growing quite stout withal.</p> + +<p>Mme Goujet was always kind to Gervaise, not because of any +fear of losing her money, but because she really loved her and +was afraid of her going wrong in some way.</p> + +<p>The Saturday after the first visit paid by Gervaise to the +forge was also the first of the month. When she reached Mme +Goujet's her basket was so heavy that she panted for two good +minutes before she could speak. Every one knows how heavy shirts +and such things are.</p> + +<p>"Have you brought everything?" asked Mme Goujet, who was very +exacting on this point. She insisted on every piece being +returned each week. Another thing she exacted was that the +clothes should be brought back always on the same day and +hour.</p> + +<p>"Everything is here," answered Gervaise with a smile. "You +know I never leave anything behind."</p> + +<p>"That is true," replied the elder woman. "You have many +faults, my dear, but not that one yet."</p> + +<p>And while the laundress emptied her basket, laying the linen +on the bed, Mme Goujet paid her many compliments. She never +burned her clothes or ironed off the buttons or tore them, but +she did use a trifle too much bluing and made her shirts too +stiff.</p> + +<p>"Feel," she said; "it is like pasteboard. My son never +complains, but I know he does not like them so."</p> + +<p>"And they shall not be so again," said Gervaise. "No one ever +touches any of your things but myself, and I would do them over +ten times rather than see you dissatisfied."</p> + +<p>She colored as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"I have no intention of disparaging your work," answered Mme +Goujet. "I never saw anyone who did up laces and embroideries as +you do, and the fluting is simply perfect; the only trouble is a +little too much starch, my dear. Goujet does not care to look +like a fine gentleman."</p> + +<p>She took up her book and drew a pen through the pieces as she +spoke. Everything was there. She brought out the bundle of soiled +clothes. Gervaise put them in her basket and hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Madame Goujet," she said at last, "if you do not mind I +should like to have the money for this week's wash."</p> + +<p>The account this month was larger than usual, ten francs and +over. Mme Goujet looked at her gravely.</p> + +<p>"My child," she said slowly, "it shall be as you wish. I do +not refuse to give you the money if you desire it; only this is +not the way to get out of debt. I say this with no unkindness, +you understand. Only you must take care."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, with downcast eyes, received the lesson meekly. She +needed the ten francs to complete the amount due the coal +merchant, she said.</p> + +<p>But her friend heard this with a stern countenance and told +her she should reduce her expenses, but she did not add that she, +too, intended to do the same and that in future she should do her +washing herself, as she had formerly done, if she were to be out +of pocket thus.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise was on the staircase her heart was light, for +she cared little for the reproof now that she had the ten francs +in her hand; she was becoming accustomed to paying one debt by +contracting another.</p> + +<p>Midway on the stairs she met a tall woman coming up with a +fresh mackerel in her hand, and behold! it was Virginie, the girl +whom she had whipped in the lavatory. The two looked each other +full in the face. Gervaise instinctively closed her eyes, for she +thought the girl would slap her in the face with the mackerel. +But, no; Virginie gave a constrained smile. Then the laundress, +whose huge basket filled up the stairway and who did not choose +to be outdone in politeness, said:</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon—"</p> + +<p>"Pray don't apologize," answered Virginie in a stately +fashion.</p> + +<p>And they stood and talked for a few minutes with not the +smallest allusion, however, to the past.</p> + +<p>Virginie, then about twenty-nine, was really a +magnificent-looking woman, head well set on her shoulders and a +long, oval face crowned by bands of glossy black hair. She told +her history in a few brief words. She was married. Had married +the previous spring a cabinetmaker who had given up his trade and +was hoping to obtain a position on the police force. She had just +been out to buy this mackerel for him.</p> + +<p>"He adores them," she said, "and we women spoil our husbands, +I think. But come up. We are standing in a draft here."</p> + +<p>When Gervaise had, in her turn, told her story and added that +Virginie was living in the very rooms where she had lived and +where her child was born, Virginie became still more urgent that +she should go up. "It is always pleasant to see a place where one +has been happy," she said. She herself had been living on the +other side of the water but had got tired of it and had moved +into these rooms only two weeks ago. She was not settled yet. Her +name was Mme Poisson.</p> + +<p>"And mine," said Gervaise, "is Coupeau."</p> + +<p>Gervaise was a little suspicious of all this courtesy. Might +not some terrible revenge be hidden under it all? And she +determined to be well on her guard. But as Virginie was so polite +just now she must be polite in her turn.</p> + +<p>Poisson, the husband, was a man of thirty-five with a mustache +and imperial; he was seated at a table near the window, making +little boxes. His only tools were a penknife, a tiny saw and a +gluepot; he was executing the most wonderful and delicate +carving, however. He never sold his work but made presents of it +to his friends. It amused him while he was awaiting his +appointment.</p> + +<p>Poisson rose and bowed politely to Gervaise, whom his wife +called an old friend. But he did not speak, his conversational +powers not being his strong point. He cast a plaintive glance at +the mackerel, however, from time to time. Gervaise looked around +the room and described her furniture and where it had stood. How +strange it was, after losing sight of each other so long, that +they should occupy the same apartment! Virginie entered into new +details. He had a small inheritance from his aunt, and she +herself sewed a little, made a dress now and then. At the end of +a half-hour Gervaise rose to depart; Virginie went to the head of +the stairs with her, and there both hesitated. Gervaise fancied +that Virginie wished to say something about Lantier and +Adèle, but they separated without touching on these +disagreeable topics.</p> + +<p>This was the beginning of a great friendship. In another week +Virginie could not pass the shop without going in, and sometimes +she remained for two or three hours. At first Gervaise was very +uncomfortable; she thought every time Virginie opened her lips +that she would hear Lantier's name. Lantier was in her mind all +the time she was with Mme Poisson. It was a stupid thing to do, +after all, for what on earth did she care what had become of +Lantier or of Adèle? But she was, nonetheless, curious to +know something about them.</p> + +<p>Winter had come, the fourth winter that the Coupeaus had spent +in La Rue de la Goutte-d'Or. This year December and January were +especially severe, and after New Year's the snow lay three weeks +in the street without melting. There was plenty of work for +Gervaise, and her shop was delightfully warm and singularly +quiet, for the carriages made no noise in the snow-covered +streets. The laughs and shouts of the children were almost the +only sounds; they had made a long slide and enjoyed themselves +hugely.</p> + +<p>Gervaise took especial pleasure in her coffee at noon. Her +apprentices had no reason to complain, for it was hot and strong +and unadulterated by chicory. On the morning of Twelfth-day the +clock had struck twelve and then half past, and the coffee was +not ready. Gervaise was ironing some muslin curtains. +Clémence, with a frightful cold, was, as usual, at work on +a man's shirt. Mme Putois was ironing a skirt on a board, with a +cloth laid on the floor to prevent the skirt from being soiled. +Mamma Coupeau brought in the coffee, and as each one of the women +took a cup with a sigh of enjoyment the street door opened and +Virginie came in with a rush of cold air.</p> + +<p>"Heavens!" she cried. "It is awful! My ears are cut off!"</p> + +<p>"You have come just in time for a cup of hot coffee," said +Gervaise cordially.</p> + +<p>"And I shall be only too glad to have it!" answered Virginie +with a shiver. She had been waiting at the grocer's, she said, +until she was chilled through and through. The heat of that room +was delicious, and then she stirred her coffee and said she liked +the damp, sweet smell of the freshly ironed linen. She and Mamma +Coupeau were the only ones who had chairs; the others sat on +wooden footstools, so low that they seemed to be on the floor. +Virginie suddenly stooped down to her hostess and said with a +smile:</p> + +<p>"Do you remember that day at the lavatory?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise colored; she could not answer. This was just what she +had been dreading. In a moment she felt sure she would hear +Lantier's name. She knew it was coming. Virginie drew nearer to +her. The apprentices lingered over their coffee and told each +other as they looked stupidly into the street what they would do +if they had an income of ten thousand francs. Virginie changed +her seat and took a footstool by the side of Gervaise, who felt +weak and cowardly and helpless to change the conversation or to +stave off what was coming. She breathlessly awaited the next +words, her heart big with an emotion which she would not +acknowledge to herself.</p> + +<p>"I do not wish to give you any pain," said Virginie blandly. +"Twenty times the words have been on my lips, but I hesitated. +Pray don't think I bear you any malice."</p> + +<p>She tipped up her cup and drank the last drop of her coffee. +Gervaise, with her heart in her mouth, waited in a dull agony of +suspense, asking herself if Virginie could have forgiven the +insult in the lavatory. There was a glitter in the woman's eyes +she did not like.</p> + +<p>"You had an excuse," Virginie added as she placed her cup on +the table. "You had been abominably treated. I should have killed +someone." And then, dropping her little-affected tone, she +continued more rapidly:</p> + +<p>"They were not happy, I assure you, not at all happy. They +lived in a dirty street, where the mud was up to their knees. I +went to breakfast with them two days after he left you and found +them in the height of a quarrel. You know that Adèle is a +wretch. She is my sister, to be sure, but she is a wretch all the +same. As to Lantier—well, you know him, so I need not +describe him. But for a yes or a no he would not hesitate to +thresh any woman that lives. Oh, they had a beautiful time! Their +quarrels were heard all over the neighborhood. One day the police +were sent for, they made such a hubbub."</p> + +<p>She talked on and on, telling things that were enough to make +the hair stand up on one's head. Gervaise listened, as pale as +death, with a nervous trembling of her lips which might have been +taken for a smile. For seven years she had never heard Lantier's +name, and she would not have believed that she could have felt +any such overwhelming agitation. She could no longer be jealous +of Adèle, but she smiled grimly as she thought of the +blows she had received in her turn from Lantier, and she would +have listened for hours to all that Virginia had to tell, but she +did not ask a question for some time. Finally she said:</p> + +<p>"And do they still live in that same place?"</p> + +<p>"No indeed! But I have not told you all yet. They separated a +week ago."</p> + +<p>"Separated!" exclaimed the clearstarcher.</p> + +<p>"Who is separated?" asked Clémence, interrupting her +conversation with Mamma Coupeau.</p> + +<p>"No one," said Virginie, "or at least no one whom you +know."</p> + +<p>As she spoke she looked at Gervaise and seemed to take a +positive delight in disturbing her still more. She suddenly asked +her what she would do or say if Lantier should suddenly make his +appearance, for men were so strange; no one could ever tell what +they would do. Lantier was quite capable of returning to his old +love. Then Gervaise interrupted her and rose to the occasion. She +answered with grave dignity that she was married now and that if +Lantier should appear she would ask him to leave. There could +never be anything more between them, not even the most distant +acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"I know very well," she said, "that Etienne belongs to him, +and if Lantier desires to see his son I shall place no obstacle +in his way. But as to myself, Madame Poisson, he shall never +touch my little finger again! It is finished."</p> + +<p>As she uttered these last words she traced a cross in the air +to seal her oath, and as if desirous to put an end to the +conversation, she called out to her women:</p> + +<p>"Do you think the ironing will be done today if you sit still? +To work! To work!"</p> + +<p>The women did not move; they were lulled to apathy by the +heat, and Gervaise herself found it very difficult to resume her +labors. Her curtains had dried in all this time, and some coffee +had been spilled on them, and she must wash out the spots.</p> + +<p>"Au revoir!" said Virginie. "I came out to buy a half pound of +cheese. Poisson will think I am frozen to death!"</p> + +<p>The better part of the day was now gone, and it was this way +every day, for the shop was the refuge and haunt of all the +chilly people in the neighborhood. Gervaise liked the reputation +of having the most comfortable room in the <i>Quartier</i>, and +she held her receptions, as the Lorilleux and Boche clique said, +with a sniff of disdain. She would, in fact, have liked to bring +in the very poor whom she saw shivering outside. She became very +friendly toward a journeyman painter, an old man of seventy, who +lived in a loft of the house, where he shivered with cold and +hunger. He had lost his three sons in the Crimea, and for two +years his hand had been so cramped by rheumatism that he could +not hold a brush.</p> + +<p>Whenever Gervaise saw Father Bru she called him in, made a +place for him near the stove and gave him some bread and cheese. +Father Bru, with his white beard and his face wrinkled like an +old apple, sat in silent content for hours at a time, enjoying +the warmth and the crackling of the coke.</p> + +<p>"What are you thinking about?" Gervaise would say gaily.</p> + +<p>"Of nothing—of all sorts of things," he would reply with +a dazed air.</p> + +<p>The workwomen laughed and thought it a good joke to ask if he +were in love. He paid little heed to them but relapsed into +silent thought.</p> + +<p>From this time Virginie often spoke to Gervaise of Lantier, +and one day she said she had just met him. But as the +clearstarcher made no reply Virginie then said no more. But on +the next day she returned to the subject and told her that he had +talked long and tenderly of her. Gervaise was much troubled by +these whispered conversations in the corner of her shop. The name +of Lantier made her faint and sick at heart. She believed herself +to be an honest woman. She meant, in every way, to do right and +to shun the wrong, because she felt that only in doing so could +she be happy. She did not think much of Coupeau because she was +conscious of no shortcomings toward him. But she thought of her +friend at the forge, and it seemed to her that this return of her +interest in Lantier, faint and undecided as it was, was an +infidelity to Goujet and to that tender friendship which had +become so very precious to her. Her heart was much troubled in +these days. She dwelt on that time when her first lover left her. +She imagined another day when, quitting Adèle, he might +return to her—with that old familiar trunk.</p> + +<p>When she went into the street it was with a spasm of terror. +She fancied that every step behind her was Lantier's. She dared +not look around lest his hand should glide about her waist. He +might be watching for her at any time. He might come to her door +in the afternoon, and this idea brought a cold sweat to her +forehead, because he would certainly kiss her on her ear as he +had often teased her by doing in the years gone by. It was this +kiss she dreaded. Its dull reverberation deafened her to all +outside sounds, and she could hear only the beatings of her own +heart. When these terrors assailed her the forge was her only +asylum, from whence she returned smiling and serene, feeling that +Goujet, whose sonorous hammer had put all her bad dreams to +flight, would protect her always.</p> + +<p>What a happy season this was after all! The clearstarcher +always carried a certain basket of clothes to her customer each +week, because it gave her a pretext for going into the forge, as +it was on her way. As soon as she turned the corner of the street +in which it was situated she felt as lighthearted as if she were +going to the country. The black charcoal dust in the road, the +black smoke rising slowly from the chimneys, interested and +pleased her as much as a mossy path through the woods. Afar off +the forge was red even at midday, and her heart danced in time +with the hammers. Goujet was expecting her and making more noise +than usual, that she might hear him at a great distance. She gave +Etienne a light tap on his cheek and sat quietly watching these +two—this man and boy, who were so dear to her—for an +hour without speaking. When the sparks touched her tender skin +she rather enjoyed the sensation. He, in his turn, was fully +aware of the happiness she felt in being there, and he reserved +the work which required skill for the time when she could look on +in wonder and admiration. It was an idyl that they were +unconsciously enacting all that spring, and when Gervaise +returned to her home it was in a spirit of sweet content.</p> + +<p>By degrees her unreasonable fears of Lantier were conquered. +Coupeau was behaving very badly at this time, and one evening as +she passed the Assommoir she was certain she saw him drinking +with Mes-Bottes. She hurried on lest she should seem to be +watching him. But as she hastened she looked over her shoulder. +Yes, it was Coupeau who was tossing down a glass of liquor with +an air as if it were no new thing. He had lied to her then; he +did drink brandy. She was in utter despair, and all her old +horror of brandy returned. Wine she could have +forgiven—wine was good for a working man—liquor, on +the contrary, was his ruin and took from him all desire for the +food that nourished and gave him strength for his daily toil. Why +did not the government interfere and prevent the manufacture of +such pernicious things?</p> + +<p>When she reached her home she found the whole house in +confusion. Her employees had left their work and were in the +courtyard. She asked what the matter was.</p> + +<p>"It is Father Bijard beating his wife; he is as drunk as a +fool, and he drove her up the stairs to her room, where he is +murdering her. Just listen!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise flew up the stairs. She was very fond of Mme Bijard, +who was her laundress and whose courage and industry she greatly +admired. On the sixth floor a little crowd was assembled. Mme +Boche stood at an open door.</p> + +<p>"Have done!" she cried. "Have done, or the police will be +summoned."</p> + +<p>No one dared enter the room, because Bijard was well known to +be like a madman when he was tipsy. He was rarely thoroughly +sober, and on the occasional days when he condescended to work he +always had a bottle of brandy at his side. He rarely ate +anything, and if a match had been touched to his mouth he would +have taken fire like a torch.</p> + +<p>"Would you let her be killed?" exclaimed Gervaise, trembling +from head to foot, and she entered the attic room, which was very +clean and very bare, for the man had sold the very sheets off the +bed to satisfy his mad passion for drink. In this terrible +struggle for life the table had been thrown over, and the two +chairs also. On the floor lay the poor woman with her skirts +drenched as she had come from the washtub, her hair streaming +over her bloody face, uttering low groans at each kick the brute +gave her.</p> + +<p>The neighbors whispered to each other that she had refused to +give him the money she had earned that day. Boche called up the +staircase to his wife:</p> + +<p>"Come down, I say; let him kill her if he will. It will only +make one fool the less in the world!"</p> + +<p>Father Bru followed Gervaise into the room, and the two +expostulated with the madman. But he turned toward them, pale and +threatening; a white foam glistened on his lips, and in his faded +eyes there was a murderous expression. He grasped Father Bru by +the shoulder and threw him over the table and shook Gervaise +until her teeth chattered and then returned to his wife, who lay +motionless, with her mouth wide open and her eyes closed; and +during this frightful scene little Lalie, four years old, was in +the corner, looking on at the murder of her mother. The child's +arms were round her sister Henriette, a baby who had just been +weaned. She stood with a sad, solemn face and serious, melancholy +eyes but shed no tears.</p> + +<p>When Bijard slipped and fell Gervaise and Father Bru helped +the poor creature to her feet, who then burst into sobs. Lalie +went to her side, but she did not cry, for the child was already +habituated to such scenes. And as Gervaise went down the stairs +she was haunted by the strange look of resignation and courage in +Lalie's eyes; it was an expression belonging to maturity and +experience rather than to childhood.</p> + +<p>"Your husband is on the other side of the street," said +Clémence as soon as she saw Gervaise; "he is as tipsy as +possible!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau reeled in, breaking a square of glass with his +shoulder as he missed the doorway. He was not tipsy but drunk, +with his teeth set firmly together and a pinched expression about +the nose. And Gervaise instantly knew that it was the liquor of +the Assommoir which had vitiated his blood. She tried to smile +and coaxed him to go to bed. But he shook her off and as he +passed her gave her a blow.</p> + +<p>He was just like the other—the beast upstairs who was +now snoring, tired out by beating his wife. She was chilled to +the heart and desperate. Were all men alike? She thought of +Lantier and of her husband and wondered if there was no happiness +in the world. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII<br/> +A BIRTHDAY FÊTE</h2> + +<p>The nineteenth of June was the clearstarcher's birthday. There +was always an excuse for a fete in the Coupeau mansion; saints +were invented to serve as a pretext for idleness and festivities. +Virginie highly commended Gervaise for living luxuriously. What +was the use of her husband drinking up everything? Why should she +save for her husband to spend at all the wineshops in the +neighborhood? And Gervaise accepted this excuse. She was growing +very indolent and much stouter, while her lameness had +perceptibly increased.</p> + +<p>For a whole month they discussed the preparation for this +fete; they talked over dishes and licked their lips. They must +have something out of the common way. Gervaise was much troubled +as to whom she should invite. She wanted exactly twelve at table, +not one more or one less. She, her husband, her mother-in-law and +Mme Lerat were four. The Goujets and Poissons were four more. At +first she thought she would not ask her two women, Mme Putois and +Clémence, lest it should make them too familiar, but as +the entertainment was constantly under discussion before them she +ended by inviting them too. Thus there were ten; she must have +two more. She decided on a reconciliation with the Lorilleuxs, +who had extended the olive branch several times lately. Family +quarrels were bad things, she said. When the Boche people heard +of this they showed several little courtesies to Gervaise, who +felt obliged to urge them to come also. This made fourteen +without counting the children. She had never had a dinner like +this, and she was both triumphant and terrified.</p> + +<p>The nineteenth fell on a Monday, and Gervaise thought it very +fortunate, as she could begin her cooking on Sunday afternoon. On +Saturday, while the women hurried through their work, there was +an endless discussion as to what the dishes should be. In the +last three weeks only one thing had been definitely decided +upon—a roast goose stuffed with onions. The goose had been +purchased, and Mme Coupeau brought it in that Mme Putois might +guess its weight. The thing looked enormous, and the fat seemed +to burst from its yellow skin.</p> + +<p>"Soup before that, of course," said Gervaise, "and we must +have another dish."</p> + +<p>Clémence proposed rabbits, but Gervaise wanted +something more distinguished. Mme Putois suggested a +<i>blanquette du veau</i>.</p> + +<p>That was a new idea. Veal was always good too. Then Mme +Coupeau made an allusion to fish, which no one seconded. +Evidently fish was not in favor. Gervaise proposed a sparerib of +pork and potatoes, which brightened all their faces, just as +Virginie came in like a whirlwind.</p> + +<p>"You are just in season. Mamma Coupeau, show her the goose," +cried Gervaise.</p> + +<p>Virginie admired it, guessed the weight and laid it down on +the ironing table between an embroidered skirt and a pile of +shirts. She was evidently thinking of something else. She soon +led Gervaise into the back shop.</p> + +<p>"I have come to warn you," she said quickly. "I just met +Lantier at the very end of this street, and I am sure he followed +me, and I naturally felt alarmed on your account, my dear."</p> + +<p>Gervaise turned very pale. What did he want of her? And why on +earth should he worry her now amid all the busy preparations for +the fete? It seemed as if she never in her life had set her heart +on anything that she was not disappointed. Why was it that she +could never have a minute's peace?</p> + +<p>But Virginie declared that she would look out for her. If +Lantier followed her she would certainly give him over to the +police. Her husband had been in office now for a month, and +Virginie was very dictatorial and aggressive and talked of +arresting everyone who displeased her. She raised her voice as +she spoke, but Gervaise implored her to be cautious, because her +women could hear every word. They went back to the front shop, +and she was the first to speak.</p> + +<p>"We have said nothing of vegetables," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Peas, with a bit of pork," said Virginie authoritatively.</p> + +<p>This was agreed upon with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>The next day at three Mamma Coupeau lighted the two furnaces +belonging to the house and a third one borrowed from Mme Boche, +and at half-past three the soup was gently simmering in a large +pot lent by the restaurant at the corner. They had decided to +cook the veal and the pork the day previous, as those two dishes +could be warmed up so well, and would leave for Monday only the +goose to roast and the vegetables. The back shop was ruddy with +the glow from the three furnaces—sauces were bubbling with +a strong smell of browned flour. Mamma Coupeau and Gervaise, each +with large white aprons, were washing celery and running hither +and thither with pepper and salt or hurriedly turning the veal +with flat wooden sticks made for the purpose. They had told +Coupeau pleasantly that his room was better than his company, but +they had plenty of people there that afternoon. The smell of the +cooking found its way out into the street and up through the +house, and the neighbors, impelled by curiosity, came down on all +sorts of pretexts, merely to discover what was going on.</p> + +<p>About five Virginie made her appearance. She had seen Lantier +twice. Indeed, it was impossible nowadays to enter the street and +not see him. Mme Boche, too, had spoken to him on the corner +below. Then Gervaise, who was on the point of going for a sou's +worth of fried onions to season her soup, shuddered from head to +foot and said she would not go out ever again. The concierge and +Virginie added to her terror by a succession of stories of men +who lay in wait for women, with knives and pistols hidden in +their coats.</p> + +<p>Such things were read every day in the papers! When such a +scamp as Lantier found a woman happy and comfortable, he was +always wretched until he had made her so too. Virginie said she +would go for the onions. "Women," she observed sententiously, +"should protect each other, as well as serve each other, in such +matters." When she returned she reported that Lantier was no +longer there. The conversation around the stove that evening +never once drifted from that subject. Mme Boche said that she, +under similar circumstances, should tell her husband, but +Gervaise was horror-struck at this and begged her never to +breathe one single word about it. Besides, she fancied her +husband had caught a glimpse of Lantier from something he had +muttered amid a volley of oaths two or three nights before. She +was filled with dread lest these two men should meet. She knew +Coupeau so well that she had long since discovered that he was +still jealous of Lantier, and while the four women discussed the +imminent danger of a terrible tragedy the sauces and the meats +hissed and simmered on the furnaces, and they ended by each +taking a cup of soup to discover what improvement was +desirable.</p> + +<p>Monday arrived. Now that Gervaise had invited fourteen to +dine, she began to be afraid there would not be room and finally +decided to lay the table in the shop. She was uncertain how to +place the table, which was the ironing table on trestles. In the +midst of the hubbub and confusion a customer arrived and made a +scene because her linen had not come home on the Friday previous. +She insisted on having every piece that moment—clean or +dirty, ironed or rough-dry.</p> + +<p>Then Gervaise, to excuse herself, told a lie with wonderful +sang-froid. It was not her fault. She was cleaning her rooms. Her +women would be at work again the next day, and she got rid of her +customer, who went away soothed by the promise that her wash +would be sent to her early the following morning.</p> + +<p>But Gervaise lost her temper, which was not a common thing +with her, and as soon as the woman's back was turned called her +by an opprobrious name and declared that if she did as people +wished she could not take time to eat and vowed she would not +have an iron heated that day or the next in her establishment. +No! Not if the Grand Turk himself should come and entreat her on +his knees to do up a collar for him. She meant to enjoy herself a +little occasionally!</p> + +<p>The entire morning was consumed in making purchases. Three +times did Gervaise go out and come in, laden with bundles. But +when she went the fourth time for the wine she discovered that +she had not money enough. She could have got the wine on credit, +but she could not be without money in the house, for a thousand +little unexpected expenses arise at such times, and she and her +mother-in-law racked their brains to know what they should do to +get the twenty francs they considered necessary. Mme Coupeau, who +had once been housekeeper for an actress, was the first to speak +of the Mont-de-Piété. Gervaise laughed gaily.</p> + +<p>"To be sure! Why had she not thought of it before?"</p> + +<p>She folded her black silk dress and pinned it in a napkin; +then she hid the bundle under her mother-in-law's apron and bade +her keep it very flat, lest the neighbors, who were so terribly +inquisitive, should find it out, and then she watched the old +woman from the door to see that no one followed her.</p> + +<p>But when Mamma Coupeau had gone a few steps Gervaise called +her back into the shop and, taking her wedding ring from her +finger, said:</p> + +<p>"Take this, too, for we shall need all the money we can get +today."</p> + +<p>And when the old woman came back with twenty-five francs she +clapped her hands with joy. She ordered six bottles of wine with +seals to drink with the roast. The Lorilleuxs would be green with +envy. For a fortnight this had been her idea, to crush the +Lorilleuxs, who were never known to ask a friend to their table; +who, on the contrary, locked their doors when they had anything +special to eat. Gervaise wanted to give her a lesson and would +have liked to offer the strangers who passed her door a seat at +her table. Money was a very good thing and mighty pretty to look +at, but it was good for nothing but to spend.</p> + +<p>Mamma Coupeau and Gervaise began to lay their table at three +o'clock. They had hung curtains before the windows, but as the +day was warm the door into the street was open. The two women did +not put on a plate or salt spoon without the avowed intention of +worrying the Lorilleuxs. They had given them seats where the +table could be seen to the best advantage, and they placed before +them the real china plates.</p> + +<p>"No, no, Mamma," cried Gervaise, "not those napkins. I have +two which are real damask."</p> + +<p>"Well! Well! I declare!" murmured the old woman. "What will +they say to all this?"</p> + +<p>And they smiled as they stood at opposite sides of this long +table with its glossy white cloth and its places for fourteen +carefully laid. They worshiped there as if it had been a chapel +erected in the middle of the shop.</p> + +<p>"How false they are!" said Gervaise. "Do you remember how she +declared she had lost a piece of one of the chains when she was +carrying them home? That was only to get out of giving you your +five francs."</p> + +<p>"Which I have never had from them but just twice," muttered +the old woman.</p> + +<p>"I will wager that next month they will invent another tale. +That is one reason why they lock their doors when they have a +rabbit. They think people might say, 'If you can eat rabbits you +can give five francs to your mother!' How mean they are! What do +they think would have become of you if I had not asked you to +come and live here?"</p> + +<p>Her mother-in-law shook her head. She was rather severe in her +judgment of the Lorilleuxs that day, inasmuch as she was +influenced by the gorgeous entertainment given by the Coupeaus. +She liked the excitement; she liked to cook. She generally lived +pretty well with Gervaise, but on those days which occur in all +households, when the dinner was scanty and unsatisfactory, she +called herself a most unhappy woman, left to the mercy of a +daughter-in-law. In the depths of her heart she still loved Mme +Lorilleux; she was her eldest child.</p> + +<p>"You certainly would have weighed some pounds less with her," +continued Gervaise. "No coffee, no tobacco, no sweets. And do you +imagine that they would have put two mattresses on your bed?"</p> + +<p>"No indeed," answered the old woman, "but I wish to see them +when they first come in—just to see how they look!"</p> + +<p>At four o'clock the goose was roasted, and Augustine, seated +on a little footstool, was given a long-handled spoon and bidden +to watch and baste it every few minutes. Gervaise was busy with +the peas, and Mamma Coupeau, with her head a little confused, was +waiting until it was time to heat the veal and the pork. At five +the guests began to arrive. Clémence and Mme Putois, +gorgeous to behold in their Sunday rig, were the first.</p> + +<p>Clémence wore a blue dress and had some geraniums in +her hand; Madame was in black, with a bunch of heliotrope. +Gervaise, whose hands were covered with flour, put them behind +her back, came forward and kissed them cordially.</p> + +<p>After them came Virginie in scarf and hat, though she had only +to cross the street; she wore a printed muslin and was as +imposing as any lady in the land. She brought a pot of red +carnations and put both her arms around her friend and kissed +her.</p> + +<p>The offering brought by Boche was a pot of pansies, and his +wife's was mignonette; Mme Lerat's, a lemon verbena. The three +furnaces filled the room with an overpowering heat, and the +frying potatoes drowned their voices. Gervaise was very sweet and +smiling, thanking everyone for the flowers, at the same time +making the dressing for the salad. The perfume of the flowers was +perceived above all the smell of cooking.</p> + +<p>"Can't I help you?" said Virginie. "It is a shame to have you +work so hard for three days on all these things that we shall +gobble up in no time."</p> + +<p>"No indeed," answered Gervaise; "I am nearly through."</p> + +<p>The ladies covered the bed with their shawls and bonnets and +then went into the shop that they might be out of the way and +talked through the open door with much noise and loud +laughing.</p> + +<p>At this moment Goujet appeared and stood timidly on the +threshold with a tall white rosebush in his arms whose flowers +brushed against his yellow beard. Gervaise ran toward him with +her cheeks reddened by her furnaces. She took the plant, +crying:</p> + +<p>"How beautiful!"</p> + +<p>He dared not kiss her, and she was compelled to offer her +cheek to him, and both were embarrassed. He told her in a +confused way that his mother was ill with sciatica and could not +come. Gervaise was greatly disappointed, but she had no time to +say much just then: she was beginning to be anxious about +Coupeau—he ought to be in—then, too, where were the +Lorilleuxs? She called Mme Lerat, who had arranged the +reconciliation, and bade her go and see.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat put on her hat and shawl with excessive care and +departed. A solemn hush of expectation pervaded the room.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat presently reappeared. She had come round by the +street to give a more ceremonious aspect to the affair. She held +the door open while Mme Lorilleux, in a silk dress, stood on the +threshold. All the guests rose, and Gervaise went forward to meet +her sister and kissed her, as had been agreed upon.</p> + +<p>"Come in! Come in!" she said. "We are friends again."</p> + +<p>"And I hope for always," answered her sister-in-law +severely.</p> + +<p>After she was ushered in the same program had to be followed +out with her husband. Neither of the two brought any flowers. +They had refused to do so, saying that it would look as if they +were bowing down to Wooden Legs. Gervaise summoned Augustine and +bade her bring some wine and then filled glasses for all the +party, and each drank the health of the family.</p> + +<p>"It is a good thing before soup," muttered Boche.</p> + +<p>Mamma Coupeau drew Gervaise into the next room.</p> + +<p>"Did you see her?" she said eagerly. "I was watching her, and +when she saw the table her face was as long as my arm, and now +she is gnawing her lips; she is so mad!"</p> + +<p>It was true the Lorilleuxs could not stand that table with its +white linen, its shining glass and square piece of bread at each +place. It was like a restaurant on the boulevard, and Mme +Lorilleux felt of the cloth stealthily to ascertain if it were +new.</p> + +<p>"We are all ready," cried Gervaise, reappearing and pulling +down her sleeves over her white arms.</p> + +<p>"Where can Coupeau be?" she continued.</p> + +<p>"He is always late! He always forgets!" muttered his sister. +Gervaise was in despair. Everything would be spoiled. She +proposed that someone should go out and look for him. Goujet +offered to go, and she said she would accompany him. Virginie +followed, all three bareheaded. Everyone looked at them, so gay +and fresh on a week-day. Virginie in her pink muslin and Gervaise +in a white cambric with blue spots and a gray silk handkerchief +knotted round her throat. They went to one wineshop after +another, but no Coupeau. Suddenly, as they went toward the +boulevard, his wife uttered an exclamation.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" asked Goujet.</p> + +<p>The clearstarcher was very pale and so much agitated that she +could hardly stand. Virginie knew at once and, leaning over her, +looked in at the restaurant and saw Lantier quietly dining.</p> + +<p>"I turned my foot," said Gervaise when she could speak. +Finally at the Assommoir they found Coupeau and Poisson. They +were standing in the center of an excited crowd. Coupeau, in a +gray blouse, was quarreling with someone, and Poisson, who was +not on duty that day, was listening quietly, his red mustache and +imperial giving him, however, quite a formidable aspect.</p> + +<p>Goujet left the women outside and, going in, placed his hand +on Coupeau's shoulder, who, when he saw his wife and Virginie, +fell into a great rage.</p> + +<p>No, he would not move! He would not stand being followed about +by women in this way! They might go home and eat their rubbishy +dinner themselves! He did not want any of it!</p> + +<p>To appease him Goujet was compelled to drink with him, and +finally he persuaded him to go with him. But when he was outside +he said to Gervaise:</p> + +<p>"I am not going home; you need not think it!"</p> + +<p>She did not reply. She was trembling from head to foot. She +had been speaking of Lantier to Virginie and begged the other to +go on in front, while the two women walked on either side of +Coupeau to prevent him from seeing Lantier as they passed the +open window where he sat eating his dinner.</p> + +<p>But Coupeau knew that Lantier was there, for he said:</p> + +<p>"There's a fellow I know, and you know him too!"</p> + +<p>He then went on to accuse her, with many a coarse word, of +coming out to look, not for him, but for her old lover, and then +all at once he poured out a torrent of abuse upon Lantier, who, +however, never looked up or appeared to hear it.</p> + +<p>Virginie at last coaxed Coupeau on, whose rage disappeared +when they turned the corner of the street. They returned to the +shop, however, in a very different mood from the one in which +they had left it and found the guests, with very long faces, +awaiting them.</p> + +<p>Coupeau shook hands with the ladies in succession, with +difficulty keeping his feet as he did so, and Gervaise, in a +choked voice, begged them to take their seats. But suddenly she +perceived that Mme Goujet not having come, there was an empty +seat next to Mme Lorilleux.</p> + +<p>"We are thirteen," she said, much disturbed, as she fancied +this to be an additional proof of the misfortune which for some +time she had felt to be hanging over them.</p> + +<p>The ladies, who were seated, started up. Mme Putois offered to +leave because, she said, no one should fly in the face of +Destiny; besides, she was not hungry. As to Boche, he laughed, +and said it was all nonsense.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" cried Gervaise. "I will arrange it."</p> + +<p>And rushing out on the sidewalk, she called to Father Bru, who +was crossing the street, and the old man followed her into the +room.</p> + +<p>"Sit there," said the clearstarcher. "You are willing to dine +with us, are you not?"</p> + +<p>He nodded acquiescence.</p> + +<p>"He will do as well as another," she continued in a low voice. +"He rarely, if ever, had as much as he wanted to eat, and it will +be a pleasure to us to see him enjoy his dinner."</p> + +<p>Goujet's eyes were damp, so much was he touched by the kind +way in which Gervaise spoke, and the others felt that it would +bring them good luck. Mme Lorilleux was the only one who seemed +displeased. She drew her skirts away and looked down with +disgusted mien upon the patched blouse at her side.</p> + +<p>Gervaise served the soup, and the guests were just lifting +their spoons to their mouths when Virginie noticed that Coupeau +had disappeared. He had probably returned to the more congenial +society at the Assommoir, and someone said he might stay in the +street; certainly no one would go after him, but just as they had +swallowed the soup Coupeau appeared bearing two pots, one under +each arm—a balsam and a wallflower. All the guests clapped +their hands. He placed them on either side of Gervaise and, +kissing her, he said:</p> + +<p>"I forgot you, my dear, but all the same I loved you very +much."</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Coupeau is very amiable tonight; he has taken just +enough to make him good natured," whispered one of the +guests.</p> + +<p>This little act on the part of the host brought back the +smiles to the faces around the table. The wine began to +circulate, and the voices of the children were heard in the next +room. Etienne, Nana, Pauline and little Victor Fauconnier were +installed at a small table and were told to be very good.</p> + +<p>When the <i>blanquette du veau</i> was served the guests were +moved to enthusiasm. It was now half-past seven. The door of the +shop was shut to keep out inquisitive eyes, and curtains hung +before the windows. The veal was a great success; the sauce was +delicious and the mushrooms extraordinarily good. Then came the +sparerib of pork. Of course all these good things demanded a +large amount of wine.</p> + +<p>In the next room at the children's table Nana was playing the +mistress of the household. She was seated at the head of the +table and for a while was quite dignified, but her natural +gluttony made her forget her good manners when she saw Augustine +stealing the peas from the plate, and she slapped the girl +vehemently.</p> + +<p>"Take care, mademoiselle," said Augustine sulkily, "or I will +tell your mother that I heard you ask Victor to kiss you."</p> + +<p>Now was the time for the goose. Two lamps were placed on the +table, one at each end, and the disorder was very apparent: the +cloth was stained and spotted. Gervaise left the table to +reappear presently, bearing the goose in triumph. Lorilleux and +his wife exchanged a look of dismay.</p> + +<p>"Who will cut it?" said the clearstarcher. "No, not I. It is +too big for me to manage!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau said he could do it. After all, it was a simple thing +enough—he should just tear it to pieces.</p> + +<p>There was a cry of dismay.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat had an inspiration.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Poisson is the man," she said; "of course he +understands the use of arms." And she handed the sergeant the +carving knife. Poisson made a stiff inclination of his whole body +and drew the dish toward him and went to work in a slow, +methodical fashion. As he thrust his knife into the breast +Lorilleux was seized with momentary patriotism, and he +exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"If it were only a Cossack!"</p> + +<p>At last the goose was carved and distributed, and the whole +party ate as if they were just beginning their dinner. Presently +there was a grand outcry about the heat, and Coupeau opened the +door into the street. Gervaise devoured large slices of the +breast, hardly speaking, but a little ashamed of her own gluttony +in the presence of Goujet. She never forgot old Bru, however, and +gave him the choicest morsels, which he swallowed unconsciously, +his palate having long since lost the power of distinguishing +flavors. Mamma Coupeau picked a bone with her two remaining +teeth.</p> + +<p>And the wine! Good heavens, how much they drank! A pile of +empty bottles stood in the corner. When Mme Putois asked for +water Coupeau himself removed the carafes from the table. No one +should drink water, he declared, in his house—did she want +to swallow frogs and live things?—and he filled up all the +glasses. Hypocrites might talk as much as they pleased; the juice +of the grape was a mighty good thing and a famous invention!</p> + +<p>The guests all laughed and approved; working people must have +their wine, they said, and Father Noah had planted the vine for +them especially. Wine gave courage and strength for work; and if +it chanced that a man sometimes took a drop too much, in the end +it did him no harm, and life looked brighter to him for a time. +Goujet himself, who was usually so prudent and abstemious, was +becoming a little excited. Boche was growing red, and the +Lorilleux pair very pale, while Poisson assumed a solemn and +severe aspect. The men were all more or less tipsy, and the +ladies—well, the less we say of the ladies, the better.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Gervaise remembered the six bottles of sealed wine +she had omitted to serve with the goose as she had intended. She +produced them amid much applause. The glasses were filled anew, +and Poisson rose and proposed the health of their hostess.</p> + +<p>"And fifty more birthdays!" cried Virginie.</p> + +<p>"No, no," answered Gervaise with a smile that had a touch of +sadness in it. "I do not care to live to be very old. There comes +a time when one is glad to go!"</p> + +<p>A little crowd had collected outside and smiled at the scene, +and the smell of the goose pervaded the whole street. The clerks +in the grocery opposite licked their lips and said it was good +and curiously estimated the amount of wine that had been +consumed.</p> + +<p>None of the guests were annoyed by being the subjects of +observation, although they were fully aware of it and, in fact, +rather enjoyed it. Coupeau, catching sight of a familiar face, +held up a bottle, which, being accepted with a nod, he sent it +out with a glass. This established a sort of fraternity with the +street.</p> + +<p>In the next room the children were unmanageable. They had +taken possession of a saucepan and were drumming on it with +spoons. Mamma Coupeau and Father Bru were talking earnestly. The +old man was speaking of his two sons who had died in the Crimea. +Ah, had they but lived, he would have had bread to eat in his old +age!</p> + +<p>Mme Coupeau, whose tongue was a little thick, said:</p> + +<p>"Yes, but one has a good deal of unhappiness with children. +Many an hour have I wept on account of mine."</p> + +<p>Father Bru hardly heard what she said but talked on, half to +himself.</p> + +<p>"I can't get any work to do. I am too old. When I ask for any +people laugh and ask if it was I who blacked Henri Quatre's +boots. Last year I earned thirty sous by painting a bridge. I had +to lie on my back all the time, close to the water, and since +then I have coughed incessantly." He looked down at his poor +stiff hands and added, "I know I am good for nothing. I wish I +was by the side of my boys. It is a great pity that one can't +kill one's self when one begins to grow old."</p> + +<p>"Really," said Lorilleux, "I cannot see why the government +does not do something for people in your condition. Men who are +disabled—"</p> + +<p>"But workmen are not soldiers," interrupted Poisson, who +considered it his duty to espouse the cause of the government. +"It is foolish to expect them to do impossibilities."</p> + +<p>The dessert was served. In the center was a pyramid of +spongecake in the form of a temple with melonlike sides, and on +the top was an artificial rose with a butterfly of silver paper +hovering over it, held by a gilt wire. Two drops of gum in the +heart of the rose stood for dew. On the left was a deep plate +with a bit of cheese, and on the other side of the pyramid was a +dish of strawberries, which had been sugared and carefully +crushed.</p> + +<p>In the salad dish there were a few leaves of lettuce left.</p> + +<p>"Madame Boche," said Gervaise courteously, "pray eat these. I +know how fond you are of salad."</p> + +<p>The concierge shook her head. There were limits even to her +capacities, and she looked at the lettuce with regret. +Clémence told how she had once eaten three quarts of water +cresses at her breakfast. Mme Putois declared that she enjoyed +lettuce with a pinch of salt and no dressing, and as they talked +the ladies emptied the salad bowl.</p> + +<p>None of the guests were dismayed at the dessert, although they +had eaten so enormously. They had the night before them too; +there was no need of haste. The men lit their pipes and drank +more wine while they watched Gervaise cut the cake. Poisson, who +prided himself on his knowledge of the habits of good society, +rose and took the rose from the top and presented it to the +hostess amid the loud applause of the whole party. She fastened +it just over her heart, and the butterfly fluttered at every +movement. A song was proposed—comic songs were a specialty +with Boche—and the whole party joined in the chorus. The +men kept time with their heels and the women with their knives on +their glasses. The windows of the shop jarred with the noise. +Virginie had disappeared twice, and the third time, when she came +back, she said to Gervaise:</p> + +<p>"My dear, he is still at the restaurant and pretends to be +reading his paper. I fear he is meditating some mischief."</p> + +<p>She spoke of Lantier. She had been out to see if he were +anywhere in the vicinity. Gervaise became very grave.</p> + +<p>"Is he tipsy?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No indeed, and that is what troubled me. Why on earth should +he stay there so long if he is not drinking? My heart is in my +mouth; I am so afraid something will happen."</p> + +<p>The clearstarcher begged her to say no more. Mme Putois +started up and began a fierce piratical song, standing stiff and +erect in her black dress, her pale face surrounded by her black +lace cap, and gesticulating violently. Poisson nodded approval. +He had been to sea, and he knew all about it.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, assisted by her mother-in-law, now poured out the +coffee. Her guests insisted on a song from her, declaring that it +was her turn. She refused. Her face was disturbed and pale, so +much so that she was asked if the goose disagreed with her.</p> + +<p>Finally she began to sing a plaintive melody all about dreams +and rest. Her eyelids half closed as she ended, and she peered +out into the darkness. Then followed a barcarole from Mme Boche +and a romance from Lorilleux, in which figured perfumes of Araby, +ivory throats, ebony hair, kisses, moonlight and guitars! +Clémence followed with a song which recalled the country +with its descriptions of birds and flowers. Virginie brought down +the house with her imitation of a vivandière, standing +with her hand on her hip and a wineglass in her hand, which she +emptied down her throat as she finished.</p> + +<p>But the grand success of the evening was Goujet, who sang in +his rich bass the <i>"Adieux d'Abd-et-Kader."</i> The words +issued from his yellow beard like the call of a trumpet and +thrilled everyone around the table.</p> + +<p>Virginie whispered to Gervaise:</p> + +<p>"I have just seen Lantier pass the door. Good heavens! There +he is again, standing still and looking in."</p> + +<p>Gervaise caught her breath and timidly turned around. The +crowd had increased, attracted by the songs. There were soldiers +and shopkeepers and three little girls, five or six years old, +holding each other by the hand, grave and silent, struck with +wonder and admiration.</p> + +<p>Lantier was directly in front of the door. Gervaise met his +eyes and felt the very marrow of her bones chilled; she could not +move hand or foot.</p> + +<p>Coupeau called for more wine, and Clémence helped +herself to more strawberries. The singing ceased, and the +conversation turned upon a woman who had hanged herself the day +before in the next street.</p> + +<p>It was now Mme Lerat's turn to amuse the company, but she +needed to make certain preparations.</p> + +<p>She dipped the corner of her napkin into a glass of water and +applied it to her temples because she was too warm. Then she +asked for a teaspoonful of brandy and wiped her lips.</p> + +<p>"I will sing <i>'L'Enfant du Bon Dieu,'</i>" she said +pompously.</p> + +<p>She stood up, with her square shoulders like those of a man, +and began:</p> + +<p class="poem"> +"L'Enfant perdu que sa mère abandonne,<br/> +Troue toujours un asile au Saint lieu,<br/> +Dieu qui le voit, le defend de son trone,<br/> +L'Enfant perdu, c'est L'Enfant du bon Dieu."</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes to heaven and placed one hand on her +heart; her voice was not without a certain sympathetic quality, +and Gervaise, already quivering with emotion caused by the +knowledge of Lantier's presence, could no longer restrain her +tears. It seemed to her that she was the deserted child whom +<i>le bon Dieu</i> had taken under His care. Clémence, who +was quite tipsy, burst into loud sobs. The ladies took out their +handkerchiefs and pressed them to their eyes, rather proud of +their tenderness of heart.</p> + +<p>The men felt it their duty to respect the feeling shown by the +women and were, in fact, somewhat touched themselves. The wine +had softened their hearts apparently.</p> + +<p>Gervaise and Virginie watched the shadows outside. Mme Boche, +in her turn, now caught a glimpse of Lantier and uttered an +exclamation as she wiped away her fast-falling tears. The three +women exchanged terrified, anxious glances.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" muttered Virginie. "Suppose Coupeau should +turn around. There would be a murder, I am convinced." And the +earnestness of their fixed eyes became so apparent that finally +he said:</p> + +<p>"What are you staring at?"</p> + +<p>And leaning forward, he, too, saw Lantier.</p> + +<p>"This is too much," he muttered, "the dirty ruffian! It is too +much, and I won't have it!"</p> + +<p>As he started to his feet with an oath, Gervaise put her hand +on his arm imploringly.</p> + +<p>"Put down that knife," she said, "and do not go out, I entreat +of you."</p> + +<p>Virginie took away the knife that Coupeau had snatched from +the table, but she could not prevent him from going into the +street. The other guests saw nothing, so entirely absorbed were +they in the touching words which Mme Lerat was still singing.</p> + +<p>Gervaise sat with her hands clasped convulsively, breathless +with fear, expecting to hear a cry of rage from the street and +see one of the two men fall to the ground. Virginie and Mme Boche +had something of the same feeling. Coupeau had been so overcome +by the fresh air that when he rushed forward to take Lantier by +the collar he missed his footing and found himself seated quietly +in the gutter.</p> + +<p>Lantier moved aside a little without taking his hands from his +pockets.</p> + +<p>Coupeau staggered to his feet again, and a violent quarrel +commenced. Gervaise pressed her hands over her eyes; suddenly all +was quiet, and she opened her eyes again and looked out.</p> + +<p>To her intense astonishment she saw Lantier and her husband +talking in a quiet, friendly manner.</p> + +<p>Gervaise exchanged a look with Mme Boche and Virginie. What +did this mean?</p> + +<p>As the women watched them the two men began to walk up and +down in front of the shop. They were talking earnestly. Coupeau +seemed to be urging something, and Lantier refusing. Finally +Coupeau took Lantier's arm and almost dragged him toward the +shop.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, you must!" he cried. "You shall drink a glass of +wine with us. Men will be men all the world over. My wife and I +know that perfectly well."</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat had finished her song and seated herself with the +air of being utterly exhausted. She asked for a glass of wine. +When she sang that song, she said, she was always torn to pieces, +and it left her nerves in a terrible state.</p> + +<p>Lantier had been placed at the table by Coupeau and was eating +a piece of cake, leisurely dipping it into his glass of wine. +With the exception of Mme Boche and Virginie, no one knew +him.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs looked at him with some suspicion, which, +however, was very far from the mark. An awkward silence followed, +broken by Coupeau, who said simply:</p> + +<p>"He is a friend of ours!"</p> + +<p>And turning to his wife, he added:</p> + +<p>"Can't you move round a little? Perhaps there is a cup of hot +coffee!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise looked from one to the other. She was literally +dazed. When her husband first appeared with her former lover she +had clasped her hands over her forehead with that instinctive +gesture with which in a great storm one waits for the approach of +the thunderclap.</p> + +<p>It did not seem possible that the walls would not fall and +crush them all. Then seeing the two men calmly seated together, +it all at once seemed perfectly natural to her. She was tired of +thinking about it and preferred to accept it. Why, after all, +should she worry? No one else did. Everyone seemed to be +satisfied; why should not she be also?</p> + +<p>The children had fallen asleep in the back room, Pauline with +her head on Etienne's shoulder. Gervaise started as her eyes fell +on her boy. She was shocked at the thought of his father sitting +there eating cake without showing the least desire to see his +child. She longed to awaken him and show him to Lantier. And then +again she had a feeling of passing wonder at the manner in which +things settled themselves in this world.</p> + +<p>She would not disturb the serenity of matters now, so she +brought in the coffeepot and poured out a cup for Lantier, who +received it without even looking up at her as he murmured his +thanks.</p> + +<p>"Now it is my turn to sing!" shouted Coupeau.</p> + +<p>His song was one familiar to them all and even to the street, +for the little crowd at the door joined in the chorus. The guests +within were all more or less tipsy, and there was so much noise +that the policemen ran to quell a riot, but when they saw Poisson +they bowed respectfully and passed on.</p> + +<p>No one of the party ever knew how or at what hour the +festivities terminated. It must have been very late, for there +was not a human being in the street when they departed. They +vaguely remembered having joined hands and danced around the +table. Gervaise remembered that Lantier was the last to leave, +that he passed her as she stood in the doorway. She felt a breath +on her cheek, but whether it was his or the night air she could +not tell.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat had refused to return to Batignolles so late, and a +mattress was laid on the floor in the shop near the table. She +slept there amid the debris of the feast, and a neighbor's cat +profited by an open window to establish herself by her side, +where she crunched the bones of the goose all night between her +fine, sharp teeth. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII<br/> +AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE</h2> + +<p>The following Saturday Coupeau, who had not been home to +dinner, came in with Lantier about ten o'clock. They had been +eating pigs' feet at a restaurant at Montmarte.</p> + +<p>"Don't scold, wife," said Coupeau; "we have not been drinking, +you see; we can walk perfectly straight." And he went on to say +how they had met each other quite by accident in the street and +how Lantier had refused to drink with him, saying that when a man +had married a nice little woman he had no business to throw away +his money in that way. Gervaise listened with a faint smile; she +had no idea of scolding. Oh no, it was not worth the trouble, but +she was much agitated at seeing the two men together so soon +again, and with trembling hands she knotted up her loosened +hair.</p> + +<p>Her workwomen had been gone some time. Nana and Mamma Coupeau +were in bed, and Gervaise, who was just closing her shutters when +her husband appeared, brought out some glasses and the remains of +a bottle of brandy. Lantier did not sit down and avoided +addressing her directly.</p> + +<p>When she served him, however, he exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"A drop, madame; a mere drop!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau looked at them for a moment and then expressed his +mind fully. They were no fools, he said, nor were they children. +The past was the past. If people kept up their enmities for nine +or ten years no one would have a soul to speak to soon. As for +himself, he was made differently. He knew they were honest +people, and he was sure he could trust them.</p> + +<p>"Of course," murmured Gervaise, hardly knowing what she said, +"of course."</p> + +<p>"I regard her as a sister," said Lantier, "only as a +sister."</p> + +<p>"Give us your hand on that," cried Coupeau, "and let us be +good friends in the future. After all, a good heart is better +than gold, and I estimate friendship as above all price."</p> + +<p>And he gave himself a little tap on his breast and looked +about for applause, as if he had uttered rather a noble +sentiment.</p> + +<p>Then the three silently drank their brandy. Gervaise looked at +Lantier and saw him for the first time, for on the night of the +fete she had seen him, as it were, through a glass, darkly.</p> + +<p>He had grown very stout, and his arms and legs very heavy. But +his face was still handsome, although somewhat bloated by liquor +and good living. He was dressed with care and did not look any +older than his years. He was thirty-five. He wore gray pantaloons +and a dark blue frock coat, like any gentleman, and had a watch +and a chain on which hung a ring—a souvenir, +apparently.</p> + +<p>"I must go," he said presently.</p> + +<p>He was at the door when Coupeau recalled him to say that he +must never pass without coming in to say, "How do you do?"</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Gervaise, who had disappeared, returned, pushing +Etienne before her. The boy was half asleep but smiled as he +rubbed his eyes. When he saw Lantier he stared and looked +uneasily from him to Coupeau.</p> + +<p>"Do you know this gentleman?" said his mother.</p> + +<p>The child looked away and did not answer, but when his mother +repeated the question he made a little sign that he remembered +him. Lantier, grave and silent, stood still. When Etienne went +toward him he stooped and kissed the child, who did not look at +him but burst into tears, and when he was violently reproached by +Coupeau he rushed away.</p> + +<p>"It is excitement," said his mother, who was herself very +pale.</p> + +<p>"He is usually very good and very obedient," said Coupeau. "I +have brought him up well, as you will find out. He will soon get +used to you. He must learn something of life, you see, and will +understand one of these days that people must forget and forgive, +and I would cut off my head sooner than prevent a father from +seeing his child!"</p> + +<p>He then proposed to finish the bottle of brandy. They all +three drank together again. Lantier was quite undisturbed, and +before he left he insisted on aiding Coupeau to shut up the shop. +Then as he dusted his hands with his handkerchief he wished them +a careless good night.</p> + +<p>"Sleep well. I am going to try and catch the omnibus. I will +see you soon again."</p> + +<p>Lantier kept his word and was seen from that time very often +in the shop. He came only when Coupeau was home and asked for him +before he crossed the threshold. Then seated near the window, +always wearing a frock coat, fresh linen and carefully shaved, he +kept up a conversation like a man who had seen something of the +world. By degrees Coupeau learned something of his life. For the +last eight years he had been at the head of a hat manufactory, +and when he was asked why he had given it up he said vaguely that +he was not satisfied with his partner; he was a rascal, and so +on.</p> + +<p>But his former position still imparted to him a certain air of +importance. He said, also, that he was on the point of concluding +an important matter—that certain business houses were in +process of establishing themselves, the management of which would +be virtually in his hands. In the meantime he had absolutely not +one thing to do but to walk about with his hands in his +pockets.</p> + +<p>Any day he pleased, however, he could start again. He had only +to decide on some house. Coupeau did not altogether believe this +tale and insisted that he must be doing something which he did +not choose to tell; otherwise how did he live?</p> + +<p>The truth was that Lantier, excessively talkative in regard to +other people's affairs, was very reticent about his own. He lied +quite as often as he spoke the truth and would never tell where +he resided. He said he was never at home, so it was of no use for +anyone to come and see him.</p> + +<p>"I am very careful," he said, "in making an engagement. I do +not choose to bind myself to a man and find, when it is too late, +that he intends to make a slave of me. I went one Monday to +Champion at Monrouge. That evening Champion began a political +discussion. He and I differed entirely, and on Tuesday I threw up +the situation. You can't blame me, I am sure, for not being +willing to sell my soul and my convictions for seven francs per +day!"</p> + +<p>It was now November. Lantier occasionally brought a bunch of +violets to Gervaise. By degrees his visits became more frequent. +He seemed determined to fascinate the whole house, even the +<i>Quartier</i>, and he began by ingratiating himself with +Clémence and Mme Putois, showing them both the greatest +possible attention.</p> + +<p>These two women adored him at the end of a month. Mme Boche, +whom he flattered by calling on her in her loge, had all sorts of +pleasant things to say about him.</p> + +<p>As to the Lorilleuxs, they were furious when they found out +who he was and declared that it was a sin and a disgrace for +Gervaise to bring him into her house. But one fine day Lantier +bearded them in their den and ordered a chain made for a lady of +his acquaintance and made himself so agreeable that they begged +him to sit down and kept him an hour. After this visit they +expressed their astonishment that a man so distinguished could +ever have seen anything in Wooden Legs to admire. By degrees, +therefore, people had become accustomed to seeing him and no +longer expressed their horror or amazement. Goujet was the only +one who was disturbed. If Lantier came in while he was there he +at once departed and avoided all intercourse with him.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was very unhappy. She was conscious of a returning +inclination for Lantier, and she was afraid of herself and of +him. She thought of him constantly; he had taken entire +possession of her imagination. But she grew calmer as days passed +on, finding that he never tried to see her alone and that he +rarely looked at her and never laid the tip of his finger on +her.</p> + +<p>Virginie, who seemed to read her through and through, asked +her what she feared. Was there ever a man more respectful?</p> + +<p>But out of mischief or worse, the woman contrived to get the +two into a corner one day and then led the conversation into a +most dangerous direction. Lantier, in reply to some question, +said in measured tones that his heart was dead, that he lived now +only for his son. He never thought of Claude, who was away. He +embraced Etienne every night but soon forgot he was in the room +and amused himself with Clémence.</p> + +<p>Then Gervaise began to realize that the past was dead. Lantier +had brought back to her the memory of Plassans and the +Hôtel Boncœur. But this faded away again, and, seeing him +constantly, the past was absorbed in the present. She shook off +these memories almost with disgust. Yes, it was all over, and +should he ever dare to allude to former years she would complain +to her husband.</p> + +<p>She began again to think of Goujet almost unconsciously.</p> + +<p>One morning Clémence said that the night before she had +seen Lantier walking with a woman who had his arm. Yes, he was +coming up La Rue Notre-Dame de Lorette; the woman was a blonde +and no better than she should be. Clémence added that she +had followed them until the woman reached a house where she went +in. Lantier waited in the street until there was a window opened, +which was evidently a signal, for he went into the house at +once.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was ironing a white dress; she smiled slightly and +said that she believed a Provencal was always crazy after women, +and at night when Lantier appeared she was quite amused at +Clémence, who at once attacked him. He seemed to be, on +the whole, rather pleased that he had been seen. The person was +an old friend, he said, one whom he had not seen for some +time—a very stylish woman, in fact—and he told +Clémence to smell of his handkerchief on which his friend +had put some of the perfume she used. Just then Etienne came in, +and his father became very grave and said that he was in +jest—that his heart was dead.</p> + +<p>Gervaise nodded approval of this sentiment, but she did not +speak.</p> + +<p>When spring came Lantier began to talk of moving into that +neighborhood. He wanted a furnished, clean room. Mme Boche and +Gervaise tried to find one for him. But they did not meet with +any success. He was altogether too fastidious in his +requirements. Every evening at the Coupeaus' he wished he could +find people like themselves who would take a lodger.</p> + +<p>"You are very comfortable here, I am sure," he would say +regularly.</p> + +<p>Finally one night when he had uttered this phrase, as usual, +Coupeau cried out:</p> + +<p>"If you like this place so much why don't you stay here? We +can make room for you."</p> + +<p>And he explained that the linen room could be so arranged that +it would be very comfortable, and Etienne could sleep on a +mattress in the corner.</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Lantier; "it would trouble you too much. I know +that you have the most generous heart in the world, but I cannot +impose upon you. Your room would be a passageway to mine, and +that would not be agreeable to any of us."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," said Coupeau. "Have we no invention? There are two +windows; can't one be cut down to the floor and used as a door? +In that case you would enter from the court and not through the +shop. You would be by yourself, and we by ourselves."</p> + +<p>There was a long silence, broken finally by Lantier.</p> + +<p>"If this could be done," he said, "I should like it, but I am +afraid you would find yourselves too crowded."</p> + +<p>He did not look at Gervaise as he spoke, but it was clear that +he was only waiting for a word from her. She did not like the +plan at all; not that the thought of Lantier living under their +roof disturbed her, but she had no idea where she could put the +linen as it came in to be washed and again when it was +rough-dry.</p> + +<p>But Coupeau was enchanted with the plan. The rent, he said, +had always been heavy to carry, and now they would gain twenty +francs per month. It was not dear for him, and it would help them +decidedly. He told his wife that she could have two great boxes +made in which all the linen of the <i>Quartier</i> could be +piled.</p> + +<p>Gervaise still hesitated, questioning Mamma Coupeau with her +eyes. Lantier had long since propitiated the old lady by bringing +her gumdrops for her cough.</p> + +<p>"If we could arrange it I am sure—" said Gervaise +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"You are too kind," remonstrated Lantier. "I really feel that +it would be an intrusion."</p> + +<p>Coupeau flamed out. Why did she not speak up, he should like +to know? Instead of stammering and behaving like a fool?</p> + +<p>"Etienne! Etienne!" he shouted.</p> + +<p>The boy was asleep with his head on the table. He started +up.</p> + +<p>"Listen to me. Say to this gentleman, 'I wish it.' Say just +those words and nothing more."</p> + +<p>"I wish it!" stammered Etienne, half asleep.</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed. But Lantier almost instantly resumed his +solemn air. He pressed Coupeau's hand cordially.</p> + +<p>"I accept your proposition," he said. "It is a most friendly +one, and I thank you in my name and in that of my child."</p> + +<p>The next morning Marescot, the owner of the house, happening +to call, Gervaise spoke to him of the matter. At first he +absolutely refused and was as disturbed and angry as if she had +asked him to build on a wing for her especial accommodation. Then +after a minute examination of the premises he ended by giving his +consent, only on condition, however, that he should not be +required to pay any portion of the expense, and the Coupeaus +signed a paper, agreeing to put everything into its original +condition at the expiration of their lease.</p> + +<p>That same evening Coupeau brought in a mason, a painter and a +carpenter, all friends and boon companions of his, who would do +this little job at night, after their day's work was over.</p> + +<p>The cutting of the door, the painting and the cleaning would +come to about one hundred francs, and Coupeau agreed to pay them +as fast as his tenant paid him.</p> + +<p>The next question was how to furnish the room? Gervaise left +Mamma Coupeau's wardrobe in it. She added a table and two chairs +from her own room. She was compelled to buy a bed and dressing +table and divers other things, which amounted to one hundred and +thirty francs. This she must pay for ten francs each month. So +that for nearly a year they could derive no benefit from their +new lodger.</p> + +<p>It was early in June that Lantier took possession of his new +quarters. Coupeau had offered the night before to help him with +his trunk in order to avoid the thirty sous for a fiacre. But the +other seemed embarrassed and said his trunk was heavy, and it +seemed as if he preferred to keep it a secret even now where he +resided.</p> + +<p>He came about three o'clock. Coupeau was not there, and +Gervaise, standing at her shop door, turned white as she +recognized the trunk on the fiacre. It was their old one with +which they had traveled from Plassans. Now it was banged and +battered and strapped with cords.</p> + +<p>She saw it brought in as she had often seen it in her dreams, +and she vaguely wondered if it were the same fiacre which had +taken him and Adèle away. Boche welcomed Lantier +cordially. Gervaise stood by in silent bewilderment, watching +them place the trunk in her lodger's room. Then hardly knowing +what she said, she murmured:</p> + +<p>"We must take a glass of wine together—"</p> + +<p>Lantier, who was busy untying the cords on his trunk, did not +look up, and she added:</p> + +<p>"You will join us, Monsieur Boche!"</p> + +<p>And she went for some wine and glasses. At that moment she +caught sight of Poisson passing the door. She gave him a nod and +a wink which he perfectly understood: it meant, when he was on +duty, that he was offered a glass of wine. He went round by the +courtyard in order not to be seen. Lantier never saw him without +some joke in regard to his political convictions, which, however, +had not prevented the men from becoming excellent friends.</p> + +<p>To one of these jests Boche now replied:</p> + +<p>"Did you know," he said, "that when the emperor was in London +he was a policeman, and his special duty was to carry all the +intoxicated women to the station house?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise had filled three glasses on the table. She did not +care for any wine; she was sick at heart as she stood looking at +Lantier kneeling on the floor by the side of the trunk. She was +wild to know what it contained. She remembered that in one corner +was a pile of stockings, a shirt or two and an old hat. Were +those things still there? Was she to be confronted with those +tattered relics of the past?</p> + +<p>Lantier did not lift the lid, however; he rose and, going to +the table, held his glass high in his hands.</p> + +<p>"To your health, madame!" he said.</p> + +<p>And Poisson and Boche drank with him.</p> + +<p>Gervaise filled their glasses again. The three men wiped their +lips with the backs of their hands.</p> + +<p>Then Lantier opened his trunk. It was filled with a hodgepodge +of papers, books, old clothes and bundles of linen. He pulled out +a saucepan, then a pair of boots, followed by a bust of Ledru +Rollin with a broken nose, then an embroidered shirt and a pair +of ragged pantaloons, and Gervaise perceived a mingled and odious +smell of tobacco, leather and dust.</p> + +<p>No, the old hat was not in the left corner; in its place was a +pin cushion, the gift of some woman. All at once the strange +anxiety with which she had watched the opening of this trunk +disappeared, and in its place came an intense sadness as she +followed each article with her eyes as Lantier took them out and +wondered which belonged to her time and which to the days when +another woman filled his life.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Poisson," cried Lantier, pulling out a small book. +It was a scurrilous attack on the emperor, printed at Brussels, +entitled The Amours of Napoleon III.</p> + +<p>Poisson was aghast. He found no words with which to defend the +emperor. It was in a book—of course, therefore, it was +true. Lantier, with a laugh of triumph, turned away and began to +pile up his books and papers, grumbling a little that there were +no shelves on which to put them. Gervaise promised to buy some +for him. He owned Louis Blanc's <i>Histoire de Dix Ans</i>, all +but the first volume, which he had never had, Lamartine's <i>Les +Girondins, The Mysteries of Paris</i> and <i>The Wandering +Jew</i>, by Eugène Sue, without counting a pile of incendiary +volumes which he had picked up at bookstalls. His old newspapers +he regarded with especial respect. He had collected them with +care for years: whenever he had read an article at a cafe of +which he approved, he bought the journal and preserved it. He +consequently had an enormous quantity, of all dates and names, +tied together without order or sequence.</p> + +<p>He laid them all in a corner of the room, saying as he did +so:</p> + +<p>"If people would study those sheets and adopt the ideas +therein, society would be far better organized than it now is. +Your emperor and all his minions would come down a bit on the +ladder—"</p> + +<p>Here he was interrupted by Poisson, whose red imperial and +mustache irradiated his pale face.</p> + +<p>"And the army," he said, "what would you do with that?"</p> + +<p>Lantier became very much excited.</p> + +<p>"The army!" he cried. "I would scatter it to the four winds of +heaven! I want the military system of the country abolished! I +want the abolition of titles and monopolies! I want salaries +equalized! I want liberty for everyone. Divorces, too—"</p> + +<p>"Yes; divorces, of course," interposed Boche. "That is needed +in the cause of morality."</p> + +<p>Poisson threw back his head, ready for an argument, but +Gervaise, who did not like discussions, interfered. She had +recovered from the torpor into which she had been plunged by the +sight of this trunk, and she asked the men to take another glass. +Lantier was suddenly subdued and drank his wine, but Boche looked +at Poisson uneasily.</p> + +<p>"All this talk is between ourselves, is it not?" he said to +the policeman.</p> + +<p>Poisson did not allow him to finish: he laid his hand on his +heart and declared that he was no spy. Their words went in at one +ear and out at another. He had forgotten them already.</p> + +<p>Coupeau by this time appeared, and more wine was sent for. But +Poisson dared linger no longer, and, stiff and haughty, he +departed through the courtyard.</p> + +<p>From the very first Lantier was made thoroughly at home. +Lantier had his separate room, private entrance and key. But he +went through the shop almost always. The accumulation of linen +disturbed Gervaise, for her husband never arranged the boxes he +had promised, and she was obliged to stow it away in all sorts of +places, under the bed and in the corner. She did not like making +up Etienne's mattress late at night either.</p> + +<p>Goujet had spoken of sending the child to Lille to his own old +master, who wanted apprentices. The plan pleased her, +particularly as the boy, who was not very happy at home, was +impatient to become his own master. But she dared not ask +Lantier, who had come there to live ostensibly to be near his +son. She felt, therefore, that it was hardly a good plan to send +the boy away within a couple of weeks after his father's +arrival.</p> + +<p>When, however, she did make up her mind to approach the +subject he expressed warm approval of the idea, saying that +youths were far better in the country than in Paris.</p> + +<p>Finally it was decided that Etienne should go, and when the +morning of his departure arrived Lantier read his son a long +lecture and then sent him off, and the house settled down into +new habits.</p> + +<p>Gervaise became accustomed to seeing the dirty linen lying +about and to seeing Lantier coming in and going out. He still +talked with an important air of his business operations. He went +out daily, dressed with the utmost care and came home, declaring +that he was worn out with the discussions in which he had been +engaged and which involved the gravest and most important +interests.</p> + +<p>He rose about ten o'clock, took a walk if the day pleased him, +and if it rained he sat in the shop and read his paper. He liked +to be there. It was his delight to live surrounded by a circle of +worshiping women, and he basked indolently in the warmth and +atmosphere of ease and comfort, which characterized the +place.</p> + +<p>At first Lantier took his meals at the restaurant at the +corner, but after a while he dined three or four times a week +with the Coupeaus and finally requested permission to board with +them and agreed to pay them fifteen francs each Saturday. Thus he +was regularly installed and was one of the family. He was seen in +his shirt sleeves in the shop every morning, attending to any +little matters or receiving orders from the customers. He induced +Gervaise to leave her own wine merchant and go to a friend of his +own. Then he found fault with the bread and sent Augustine to the +Vienna bakery in a distant <i>faubourg</i>. He changed the grocer +but kept the butcher on account of his political opinions.</p> + +<p>At the end of a month he had instituted a change in the +cuisine. Everything was cooked in oil: being a Provencal, that +was what he adored. He made the omelets himself, which were as +tough as leather. He superintended Mamma Coupeau and insisted +that the beefsteaks should be thoroughly cooked, until they were +like the soles of an old shoe. He watched the salad to see that +nothing went in which he did not like. His favorite dish was +vermicelli, into which he poured half a bottle of oil. This he +and Gervaise ate together, for the others, being Parisians, could +not be induced to taste it.</p> + +<p>By degrees Lantier attended to all those affairs which fall to +the share of the master of the house and to various details of +their business, in addition. He insisted that if the five francs +which the Lorilleux people had agreed to pay toward the support +of Mamma Coupeau was not forthcoming they should go to law about +it. In fact, ten francs was what they ought to pay. He himself +would go and see if he could not make them agree to that. He went +up at once and asked them in such a way that he returned in +triumph with the ten francs. And Mme Lerat, too, did the same at +his representation. Mamma Coupeau could have kissed Lantier's +hands, who played the part, besides, of an arbiter in the +quarrels between the old woman and Gervaise.</p> + +<p>The latter, as was natural, sometimes lost patience with the +old woman, who retreated to her bed to weep. He would bluster +about and ask if they were simpletons, to amuse people with their +disagreements, and finally induced them to kiss and be friends +once more.</p> + +<p>He expressed his mind freely in regard to Nana also. In his +opinion she was brought up very badly, and here he was quite +right, for when her father cuffed her her mother upheld her, and +when, in her turn, the mother reproved, the father made a +scene.</p> + +<p>Nana was delighted at this and felt herself free to do much as +she pleased.</p> + +<p>She had started a new game at the farriery opposite. She spent +entire days swinging on the shafts of the wagons. She concealed +herself, with her troop of followers, at the back of the dark +court, redly lit by the forge, and then would make sudden rushes +with screams and whoops, followed by every child in the +neighborhood, reminding one of a flock of martins or +sparrows.</p> + +<p>Lantier was the only one whose scoldings had any effect. She +listened to him graciously. This child of ten years of age, +precocious and vicious, coquetted with him as if she had been a +grown woman. He finally assumed the care of her education. He +taught her to dance and to talk slang!</p> + +<p>Thus a year passed away. The whole neighborhood supposed +Lantier to be a man of means—otherwise how did the Coupeaus +live as they did? Gervaise, to be sure, still made money, but she +supported two men who did nothing, and the shop, of course, did +not make enough for that. The truth was that Lantier had never +paid one sou, either for board or lodging. He said he would let +it run on, and when it amounted to a good sum he would pay it all +at once.</p> + +<p>After that Gervaise never dared to ask him for a centime. She +got bread, wine and meat on credit; bills were running up +everywhere, for their expenditures amounted to three and four +francs every day. She had never paid anything, even a trifle on +account, to the man from whom she had bought her furniture or to +Coupeau's three friends who had done the work in Lantier's room. +The tradespeople were beginning to grumble and treated her with +less politeness.</p> + +<p>But she seemed to be insensible to this; she chose the most +expensive things, having thrown economy to the winds, since she +had given up paying for things at once. She always intended, +however, to pay eventually and had a vague notion of earning +hundreds of francs daily in some extraordinary way by which she +could pay all these people.</p> + +<p>About the middle of summer Clémence departed, for there +was not enough work for two women; she had waited for her money +for some weeks. Lantier and Coupeau were quite undisturbed, +however. They were in the best of spirits and seemed to be +growing fat over the ruined business.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Quartier</i> there was a vast deal of gossip. +Everybody wondered as to the terms on which Lantier and Gervaise +now stood. The Lorilleuxs viciously declared that Gervaise would +be glad enough to resume her old relations with Lantier but that +he would have nothing to do with her, for she had grown old and +ugly. The Boche people took a different view, but while everyone +declared that the whole arrangement was a most improper one, they +finally accepted it as quite a matter of course and altogether +natural.</p> + +<p>It is quite possible there were other homes which were quite +as open to invidious remarks within a stone's throw, but these +Coupeaus, as their neighbors said, were good, kind people. +Lantier was especially ingratiating. It was decided, therefore, +to let things go their own way undisturbed.</p> + +<p>Gervaise lived quietly indifferent to, and possibly entirely +unsuspicious of, all these scandals. By and by it came to pass +that her husband's own people looked on her as utterly heartless. +Mme Lerat made her appearance every evening, and she treated +Lantier as if he were utterly irresistible, into whose arms any +and every woman would be only too glad to fall. An actual league +seemed to be forming against Gervaise: all the women insisted on +giving her a lover.</p> + +<p>But she saw none of these fascinations in him. He had changed, +unquestionably, and the external changes were all in his favor. +He wore a frock coat and had acquired a certain polish. But she +who knew him so well looked down into his soul through his eyes +and shuddered at much she saw there. She could not understand +what others saw in him to admire. And she said so one day to +Virginie. Then Mme Lerat and Virginie vied with each other in the +stories they told of Clémence and himself—what they +did and said whenever her back was turned—and now they were +sure, since she had left the establishment, that he went +regularly to see her.</p> + +<p>"Well, what of it?" asked Gervaise, her voice trembling. "What +have I to do with that?"</p> + +<p>But she looked into Virginie's dark brown eyes, which were +specked with gold and emitted sparks as do those of cats. But the +woman put on a stupid look as she answered:</p> + +<p>"Why, nothing, of course; only I should think you would advise +him not to have anything to do with such a person."</p> + +<p>Lantier was gradually changing his manner to Gervaise. Now +when he shook hands with her he held her fingers longer than was +necessary. He watched her incessantly and fixed his bold eyes +upon her. He leaned over her so closely that she felt his breath +on her cheek. But one evening, being alone with her, he caught +her in both arms. At that moment Goujet entered. Gervaise +wrenched herself free, and the three exchanged a few words as if +nothing had happened. Goujet was very pale and seemed +embarrassed, supposing that he had intruded upon them and that +she had pushed Lantier aside only because she did not choose to +be embraced in public.</p> + +<p>The next day Gervaise was miserable, unhappy and restless. She +could not iron a handkerchief. She wanted to see Goujet and tell +him just what had happened, but ever since Etienne had gone to +Lille she had given up going to the forge, as she was quite +unable to face the knowing winks with which his comrades received +her. But this day she determined to go, and, taking an empty +basket on her arms, she started off, pretending that she was +going with skirts to some customers in La Rue des +Portes-Blanches.</p> + +<p>Goujet seemed to be expecting her, for she met him loitering +on the corner.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he said with a wan smile, "you are going home, I +presume?"</p> + +<p>He hardly knew what he was saying, and they both turned toward +Montmartre without another word. They merely wished to go away +from the forge. They passed several manufactories and soon found +themselves with an open field before them. A goat was tethered +near by and bleating as it browsed, and a dead tree was crumbling +away in the hot sun.</p> + +<p>"One might almost think oneself in the country," murmured +Gervaise.</p> + +<p>They took a seat under the dead tree. The clearstarcher set +the basket down at her feet. Before them stretched the heights of +Montmartre, with its rows of yellow and gray houses amid clumps +of trees, and when they threw back their heads a little they saw +the whole sky above, clear and cloudless, but the sunlight +dazzled them, and they looked over to the misty outlines of the +<i>faubourg</i> and watched the smoke rising from tall chimneys +in regular puffs, indicating the machinery which impelled it. +These great sighs seemed to relieve their own oppressed +breasts.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Gervaise after a long silence. "I have been on a +long walk, and I came out—"</p> + +<p>She stopped. After having been so eager for an explanation she +found herself unable to speak and overwhelmed with shame. She +knew that he as well as herself had come to that place with the +wish and intention of speaking on one especial subject, and yet +neither of them dared to allude to it. The occurrence of the +previous evening weighed on both their souls.</p> + +<p>Then with a heart torn with anguish and with tears in her +eyes, she told him of the death of Mme Bijard, who had breathed +her last that morning after suffering unheard-of agonies.</p> + +<p>"It was caused by a kick of Bijard's," she said in her low, +soft voice; "some internal injury. For three days she has +suffered frightfully. Why are not such men punished? I suppose, +though, if the law undertook to punish all the wretches who kill +their wives that it would have too much to do. After all, one +kick more or less: what does it matter in the end? And this poor +creature, in her desire to save her husband from the scaffold, +declared she had fallen over a tub."</p> + +<p>Goujet did not speak. He sat pulling up the tufts of +grass.</p> + +<p>"It is not a fortnight," continued Gervaise, "since she weaned +her last baby, and here is that child Lalie left to take care of +two mites. She is not eight years old but as quiet and sensible +as if she were a grown woman, and her father kicks and strikes +her too. Poor little soul! There are some persons in this world +who seem born to suffer."</p> + +<p>Goujet looked at her and then said suddenly, with trembling +lips:</p> + +<p>"You made me suffer yesterday."</p> + +<p>Gervaise clasped her hands imploringly, and he continued:</p> + +<p>"I knew of course how it must end; only you should not have +allowed me to think—"</p> + +<p>He could not finish. She started up, seeing what his +convictions were. She cried out:</p> + +<p>"You are wrong! I swear to you that you are wrong! He was +going to kiss me, but his lips did not touch me, and it is the +very first time that he made the attempt. Believe me, for I +swear—on all that I hold most sacred—that I am +telling you the truth."</p> + +<p>But the blacksmith shook his head. He knew that women did not +always tell the truth on such points. Gervaise then became very +grave.</p> + +<p>"You know me well," she said; "you know that I am no liar. I +again repeat that Lantier and I are friends. We shall never be +anything more, for if that should ever come to pass I should +regard myself as the vilest of the vile and should be unworthy of +the friendship of a man like yourself." Her face was so honest, +her eyes were so clear and frank, that he could do no less than +believe her. Once more he breathed freely. He held her hand for +the first time. Both were silent. White clouds sailed slowly +above their heads with the majesty of swans. The goat looked at +them and bleated piteously, eager to be released, and they stood +hand in hand on that bleak slope with tears in their eyes.</p> + +<p>"Your mother likes me no longer," said Gervaise in a low +voice. "Do not say no; how can it be otherwise? We owe you so +much money."</p> + +<p>He roughly shook her arm in his eagerness to check the words +on her lips; he would not hear her. He tried to speak, but his +throat was too dry; he choked a little and then he burst out:</p> + +<p>"Listen to me," he cried; "I have long wished to say something +to you. You are not happy. My mother says things are all going +wrong with you, and," he hesitated, "we must go away together and +at once."</p> + +<p>She looked at him, not understanding him but impressed by this +abrupt declaration of a love from him, who had never before +opened his lips in regard to it.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" she said.</p> + +<p>"I mean," he answered without looking in her face, "that we +two can go away and live in Belgium. It is almost the same to me +as home, and both of us could get work and live comfortably."</p> + +<p>The color came to her face, which she would have hidden on his +shoulder to hide her shame and confusion. He was a strange fellow +to propose an elopement. It was like a book and like the things +she heard of in high society. She had often seen and known of the +workmen about her making love to married women, but they did not +think of running away with them.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Monsieur Goujet!" she murmured, but she could say no +more.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "we two would live all by ourselves."</p> + +<p>But as her self-possession returned she refused with +firmness.</p> + +<p>"It is impossible," she said, "and it would be very wrong. I +am married and I have children. I know that you are fond of me, +and I love you too much to allow you to commit any such folly as +you are talking of, and this would be an enormous folly. No; we +must live on as we are. We respect each other now. Let us +continue to do so. That is a great deal and will help us over +many a roughness in our paths. And when we try to do right we are +sure of a reward."</p> + +<p>He shook his head as he listened to her, but he felt she was +right. Suddenly he snatched her in his arms and kissed her +furiously once and then dropped her and turned abruptly away. She +was not angry, but the locksmith trembled from head to foot. He +began to gather some of the wild daisies, not knowing what to do +with his hands, and tossed them into her empty basket. This +occupation amused him and tranquillized him. He broke off the +head of the flowers and, when he missed his mark and they fell +short of the basket, laughed aloud.</p> + +<p>Gervaise sat with her back against the tree, happy and calm. +And when she set forth on her walk home her basket was full of +daisies, and she was talking of Etienne.</p> + +<p>In reality Gervaise was more afraid of Lantier than she was +willing to admit even to herself. She was fully determined never +to allow the smallest familiarity, but she was afraid that she +might yield to his persuasions, for she well knew the weakness +and amiability of her nature and how hard it was for her to +persist in any opposition to anyone.</p> + +<p>Lantier, however, did not put this determination on her part +to the test. He was often alone with her now and was always quiet +and respectful. Coupeau declared to everyone that Lantier was a +true friend. There was no nonsense about him; he could be relied +upon always and in all emergencies. And he trusted him +thoroughly, he declared. When they went out together—the +three—on Sundays he bade his wife and Lantier walk arm in +arm, while he mounted guard behind, ready to cuff the ears of +anyone who ventured on a disrespectful glance, a sneer or a +wink.</p> + +<p>He laughed good-naturedly before Lantier's face, told him he +put on a great many airs with his coats and his books, but he +liked him in spite of them. They understood each other, he said, +and a man's liking for another man is more solid and enduring +than his love for a woman.</p> + +<p>Coupeau and Lantier made the money fly. Lantier was +continually borrowing money from Gervaise—ten francs, +twenty francs—whenever he knew there was money in the +house. It was always because he was in pressing need for some +business matter. But still on those same days he took Coupeau off +with him and at some distant restaurant ordered and devoured such +dishes as they could not obtain at home, and these dishes were +washed down by bottle after bottle of wine.</p> + +<p>Coupeau would have preferred to get tipsy without the food, +but he was impressed by the elegance and experience of his +friend, who found on the carte so many extraordinary sauces. He +had never seen a man like him, he declared, so dainty and so +difficult. He wondered if all southerners were the same as he +watched him discussing the dishes with the waiter and sending +away a dish that was too salty or had too much pepper.</p> + +<p>Neither could he endure a draft: his skin was all blue if a +door was left open, and he made no end of a row until it was +closed again.</p> + +<p>Lantier was not wasteful in certain ways, for he never gave a +garçon more than two sous after he had served a meal that +cost some seven or eight francs.</p> + +<p>They never alluded to these dinners the next morning at their +simple breakfast with Gervaise. Naturally people cannot frolic +and work, too, and since Lantier had become a member of his +household Coupeau had never lifted a tool. He knew every drinking +shop for miles around and would sit and guzzle deep into the +night, not always pleased to find himself deserted by Lantier, +who never was known to be overcome by liquor.</p> + +<p>About the first of November Coupeau turned over a new leaf; he +declared he was going to work the next day, and Lantier thereupon +preached a little sermon, declaring that labor ennobled man, and +in the morning arose before it was light to accompany his friend +to the shop, as a mark of the respect he felt. But when they +reached a wineshop on the corner they entered to take a glass +merely to cement good resolutions.</p> + +<p>Near the counter they beheld Bibi-la-Grillade smoking his pipe +with a sulky air.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Bibi?" cried Coupeau.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," answered his comrade, "except that I got my walking +ticket yesterday. Perdition seize all masters!" he added +fiercely.</p> + +<p>And Bibi accepted a glass of liquor. Lantier defended the +masters. They were not so bad after all; then, too, how were the +men to get along without them? "To be sure," continued Lantier, +"I manage pretty well, for I don't have much to do with them +myself!"</p> + +<p>"Come, my boy," he added, turning to Coupeau; "we shall be +late if we don't look out."</p> + +<p>Bibi went out with them. Day was just breaking, gray and +cloudy. It had rained the night before and was damp and warm. The +street lamps had just been extinguished. There was one continued +tramp of men going to their work.</p> + +<p>Coupeau, with his bag of tools on his shoulder, shuffled +along; his footsteps had long since lost their ring.</p> + +<p>"Bibi," he said, "come with me; the master told me to bring a +comrade if I pleased."</p> + +<p>"It won't be me then," answered Bibi. "I wash my hands of them +all. No more masters for me, I tell you! But I dare say +Mes-Bottes would be glad of the offer."</p> + +<p>And as they reached the Assommoir they saw Mes-Bottes within. +Notwithstanding the fact that it was daylight, the gas was +blazing in the Assommoir. Lantier remained outside and told +Coupeau to make haste, as they had only ten minutes.</p> + +<p>"Do you think I will work for your master?" cried Mes-Bottes. +"He is the greatest tyrant in the kingdom. No, I should rather +suck my thumbs for a year. You won't stay there, old man! No, you +won't stay there three days, now I tell you!"</p> + +<p>"Are you in earnest?" asked Coupeau uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am in earnest. You can't speak—you can't move. +Your nose is held close to the grindstone all the time. He +watches you every moment. If you drink a drop he says you are +tipsy and makes no end of a row!"</p> + +<p>"Thanks for the warning. I will try this one day, and if the +master bothers me I will just tell him what I think of him and +turn on my heel and walk out."</p> + +<p>Coupeau shook his comrade's hand and turned to depart, much to +the disgust of Mes-Bottes, who angrily asked if the master could +not wait five minutes. He could not go until he had taken a +drink. Lantier entered to join in, and Mes-Bottes stood there +with his hat on the back of his head, shabby, dirty and +staggering, ordering Father Colombe to pour out the glasses and +not to cheat.</p> + +<p>At that moment Goujet and Lorilleux were seen going by. +Mes-Bottes shouted to them to come in, but they both +refused—Goujet saying he wanted nothing, and the other, as +he hugged a little box of gold chains close to his heart, that he +was in a hurry.</p> + +<p>"Milksops!" muttered Mes-Bottes. "They had best pass their +lives in the corner by the fire!"</p> + +<p>Returning to the counter, he renewed his attack on Father +Colombe, whom he accused of adulterating his liquors.</p> + +<p>It was now bright daylight, and the proprietor of the +Assommoir began to extinguish the lights. Coupeau made excuses +for his brother-in-law, who, he said, could never drink; it was +not his fault, poor fellow! He approved, too, of Goujet, +declaring that it was a good thing never to be thirsty. Again he +made a move to depart and go to his work when Lantier, with his +dictatorial air, reminded him that he had not paid his score and +that he could not go off in that way, even if it were to his +duty.</p> + +<p>"I am sick of the words 'work' and 'duty,'" muttered +Mes-Bottes.</p> + +<p>They all paid for their drinks with the exception of +Bibi-la-Grillade, who stooped toward the ear of Father Colombe +and whispered a few words. The latter shook his head, whereupon +Mes-Bottes burst into a torrent of invectives, but Colombe stood +in impassive silence, and when there was a lull in the storm he +said:</p> + +<p>"Let your friends pay for you then—that is a very simple +thing to do."</p> + +<p>By this time Mes-Bottes was what is properly called howling +drunk, and as he staggered away from the counter he struck the +bag of tools which Coupeau had over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"You look like a peddler with his pack or a humpback. Put it +down!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau hesitated a moment, and then slowly and deliberately, +as if he had arrived at a decision after mature deliberation, he +laid his bag on the ground.</p> + +<p>"It is too late to go this morning. I will wait until after +breakfast now. I will tell him my wife was sick. Listen, Father +Colombe, I will leave my bag of tools under this bench and come +for them this afternoon."</p> + +<p>Lantier assented to this arrangement. Of course work was a +good thing, but friends and good company were better; and the +four men stood, first on one foot and then on the other, for more +than an hour, and then they had another drink all round. After +that a game of billiards was proposed, and they went noisily down +the street to the nearest billiard room, which did not happen to +please the fastidious Lantier, who, however, soon recovered his +good humor under the effect of the admiration excited in the +minds of his friends by his play, which was really very +extraordinary.</p> + +<p>When the hour arrived for breakfast Coupeau had an idea.</p> + +<p>"Let us go and find Bec Sali. I know where he works. We will +make him breakfast with us."</p> + +<p>The idea was received with applause. The party started forth. +A fine drizzling rain was now falling, but they were too warm +within to mind this light sprinkling on their shoulders.</p> + +<p>Coupeau took them to a factory where his friend worked and at +the door gave two sous to a small boy to go up and find Bec Sali +and to tell him that his wife was very sick and had sent for +him.</p> + +<p>Bec Sali quickly appeared, not in the least disturbed, as he +suspected a joke.</p> + +<p>"Aha!" he said as he saw his friend. "I knew it!" They went to +a restaurant and ordered a famous repast of pigs' feet, and they +sat and sucked the bones and talked about their various +employers.</p> + +<p>"Will you believe," said Bec Sali, "that mine has had the +brass to hang up a bell? Does he think we are slaves to run when +he rings it? Never was he so mistaken—"</p> + +<p>"I am obliged to leave you!" said Coupeau, rising at last with +an important air. "I promised my wife to go to work today, and I +leave you with the greatest reluctance."</p> + +<p>The others protested and entreated, but he seemed so decided +that they all accompanied him to the Assommoir to get his tools. +He pulled out the bag from under the bench and laid it at his +feet while they all took another drink. The clock struck one, and +Coupeau kicked his bag under the bench again. He would go +tomorrow to the factory; one day really did not make much +difference.</p> + +<p>The rain had ceased, and one of the men proposed a little walk +on the boulevards to stretch their legs. The air seemed to +stupefy them, and they loitered along with their arms swinging at +their sides, without exchanging a word. When they reached the +wineshop on the corner of La Rue des Poissonnièrs they +turned in mechanically. Lantier led the way into a small room +divided from the public one by windows only. This room was much +affected by Lantier, who thought it more stylish by far than the +public one. He called for a newspaper, spread it out and examined +it with a heavy frown. Coupeau and Mes-Bottes played a game of +cards, while wine and glasses occupied the center of the +table.</p> + +<p>"What is the news?" asked Bibi.</p> + +<p>Lantier did not reply instantly, but presently, as the others +emptied their glasses, he began to read aloud an account of a +frightful murder, to which they listened with eager interest. +Then ensued a hot discussion and argument as to the probable +motives for the murder.</p> + +<p>By this time the wine was exhausted, and they called for more. +About five all except Lantier were in a state of beastly +intoxication, and he found them so disgusting that, as usual, he +made his escape without his comrades noticing his defection.</p> + +<p>Lantier walked about a little and then, when he felt all +right, went home and told Gervaise that her husband was with his +friends. Coupeau did not make his appearance for two days. Rumors +were brought in that he had been seen in one place and then in +another, and always alone. His comrades had apparently deserted +him. Gervaise shrugged her shoulders with a resigned air.</p> + +<p>"Good heavens!" she said. "What a way to live!" She never +thought of hunting him up. Indeed, on the afternoon of the third +day, when she saw him through the window of a wineshop, she +turned back and would not pass the door. She sat up for him, +however, and listened for his step or the sound of his hand +fumbling at the lock.</p> + +<p>The next morning he came in, only to begin the same thing at +night again. This went on for a week, and at last Gervaise went +to the Assommoir to make inquiries. Yes, he had been there a +number of times, but no one knew where he was just then. Gervaise +picked up the bag of tools and carried them home.</p> + +<p>Lantier, seeing that Gervaise was out of spirits, proposed +that she should go with him to a cafe concert. She refused at +first, being in no mood for laughing; otherwise she would have +consented, for Lantier's proposal seemed to be prompted by the +purest friendliness. He seemed really sorry for her trouble and, +indeed, assumed an absolutely paternal air.</p> + +<p>Coupeau had never stayed away like this before, and she +continually found herself going to the door and looking up and +down the street. She could not keep to her work but wandered +restlessly from place to place. Had Coupeau broken a limb? Had he +fallen into the water? She did not think she could care so very +much if he were killed, if this uncertainty were over, if she +only knew what she had to expect. But it was very trying to live +in this suspense.</p> + +<p>Finally when the gas was lit and Lantier renewed his +proposition of the cafe she consented. After all, why should she +not go? Why should she refuse all pleasures because her husband +chose to behave in this disgraceful way? If he would not come in +she would go out.</p> + +<p>They hurried through their dinner, and as she went out with +Lantier at eight o'clock Gervaise begged Nana and Mamma Coupeau +to go to bed early. The shop was closed, and she gave the key to +Mme Boche, telling her that if Coupeau came in it would be as +well to look out for the lights.</p> + +<p>Lantier stood whistling while she gave these directions. +Gervaise wore her silk dress, and she smiled as they walked down +the street in alternate shadow and light from the +shopwindows.</p> + +<p>The cafe concert was on the Boulevard de Rochechouart. It had +once been a cafe and had had a concert room built on of rough +planks.</p> + +<p>Over the door was a row of glass globes brilliantly +illuminated. Long placards, nailed on wood, were standing quite +out in the street by the side of the gutter.</p> + +<p>"Here we are!" said Lantier. "Mademoiselle Amanda makes her +debut tonight."</p> + +<p>Bibi-la-Grillade was reading the placard. Bibi had a black +eye, as if he had been fighting.</p> + +<p>"Hallo!" cried Lantier. "How are you? Where is Coupeau? Have +you lost him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, since yesterday. We had a little fight with a waiter at +Baquets. He wanted us to pay twice for what we had, and somehow +Coupeau and I got separated, and I have not seen him since."</p> + +<p>And Bibi gave a great yawn. He was in a disgraceful state of +intoxication. He looked as if he had been rolling in the +gutter.</p> + +<p>"And you know nothing of my husband?" asked Gervaise.</p> + +<p>"No, nothing. I think, though, he went off with a +coachman."</p> + +<p>Lantier and Gervaise passed a very agreeable evening at the +cafe concert, and when the doors were closed at eleven they went +home in a sauntering sort of fashion. They were in no hurry, and +the night was fair, though a little cool. Lantier hummed the air +which Amanda had sung, and Gervaise added the chorus. The room +had been excessively warm, and she had drunk several glasses of +wine.</p> + +<p>She expressed a great deal of indignation at Mlle Amanda's +costume. How did she dare face all those men, dressed like that? +But her skin was beautiful, certainly, and she listened with +considerable curiosity to all that Lantier could tell her about +the woman.</p> + +<p>"Everybody is asleep," said Gervaise after she had rung the +bell three times.</p> + +<p>The door was finally opened, but there was no light. She +knocked at the door of the Boche quarters and asked for her +key.</p> + +<p>The sleepy concierge muttered some unintelligible words, from +which Gervaise finally gathered that Coupeau had been brought in +by Poisson and that the key was in the door.</p> + +<p>Gervaise stood aghast at the disgusting sight that met her +eyes as she entered the room where Coupeau lay wallowing on the +floor.</p> + +<p>She shuddered and turned away. This sight annihilated every +ray of sentiment remaining in her heart.</p> + +<p>"What am I to do?" she said piteously. "I can't stay +here!"</p> + +<p>Lantier snatched her hand.</p> + +<p>"Gervaise," he said, "listen to me."</p> + +<p>But she understood him and drew hastily back.</p> + +<p>"No, no! Leave me, Auguste. I can manage."</p> + +<p>But Lantier would not obey her. He put his arm around her +waist and pointed to her husband as he lay snoring, with his +mouth wide open.</p> + +<p>"Leave me!" said Gervaise, imploringly, and she pointed to the +room where her mother-in-law and Nana slept.</p> + +<p>"You will wake them!" she said. "You would not shame me before +my child? Pray go!"</p> + +<p>He said no more but slowly and softly kissed her on her ear, +as he had so often teased her by doing in those old days. +Gervaise shivered, and her blood was stirred to madness in her +veins.</p> + +<p>"What does that beast care?" she thought. "It is his fault," +she murmured; "all his fault. He sends me from his room!"</p> + +<p>And as Lantier drew her toward his door Nana's face appeared +for a moment at the window which lit her little cabinet.</p> + +<p>The mother did not see the child, who stood in her nightdress, +pale with sleep. She looked at her father as he lay and then +watched her mother disappear in Lantier's room. She was perfectly +grave, but in her eyes burned the sensual curiosity of premature +vice. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX<br/> +CLOUDS IN THE HORIZON</h2> + +<p>That winter Mamma Coupeau was very ill with an asthmatic +attack, which she always expected in the month of December.</p> + +<p>The poor woman suffered much, and the depression of her +spirits was naturally very great. It must be confessed that there +was nothing very gay in the aspect of the room where she slept. +Between her bed and that of the little girl there was just room +for a chair. The paper hung in strips from the wall. Through a +round window near the ceiling came a dreary gray light. There was +little ventilation in the room, which made it especially unfit +for the old woman, who at night, when Nana was there and she +could hear her breathe, did not complain, but when left alone +during the day, moaned incessantly, rolling her head about on her +pillow.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said, "how unhappy I am! It is the same as a prison. +I wish I were dead!"</p> + +<p>And as soon as a visitor came in—Virginie or Mme +Boche—she poured out her grievances. "I should not suffer +so much among strangers. I should like sometimes a cup of tisane, +but I can't get it; and Nana—that child whom I have raised +from the cradle—disappears in the morning and never shows +her face until night, when she sleeps right through and never +once asks me how I am or if she can do anything for me. It will +soon be over, and I really believe this clearstarcher would +smother me herself—if she were not afraid of the law!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise, it is true, was not as gentle and sweet as she had +been. Everything seemed to be going wrong with her, and she had +lost heart and patience together. Mamma Coupeau had overheard her +saying that she was really a great burden. This naturally cut her +to the heart, and when she saw her eldest daughter, Mme Lerat, +she wept piteously and declared that she was being starved to +death, and when these complaints drew from her daughter's pocket +a little silver, she expended it in dainties.</p> + +<p>She told the most preposterous tales to Mme Lerat about +Gervaise—of her new finery and of cakes and delicacies +eaten in the corner and many other things of infinitely more +consequence. Then in a little while she turned against the +Lorilleuxs and talked of them in the most bitter manner. At the +height of her illness it so happened that her two daughters met +one afternoon at her bedside. Their mother made a motion to them +to come closer. Then she went on to tell them, between paroxysms +of coughing, that her son came home dead drunk the night before +and that she was absolutely certain that Gervaise spent the night +in Lantier's room. "It is all the more disgusting," she added, +"because I am certain that Nana heard what was going on quite as +well as I did."</p> + +<p>The two women did not appear either shocked or surprised.</p> + +<p>"It is none of our business," said Mme Lorilleux. "If Coupeau +does not choose to take any notice of her conduct it is not for +us to do so."</p> + +<p>All the neighborhood were soon informed of the condition of +things by her two sisters-in-law, who declared they entered her +doors only on their mother's account, who, poor thing, was +compelled to live amid these abominations.</p> + +<p>Everyone accused Gervaise now of having perverted poor +Lantier. "Men will be men," they said; "surely you can't expect +them to turn a cold shoulder to women who throw themselves at +their heads. She has no possible excuse; she is a disgrace to the +whole street!"</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs invited Nana to dinner that they might question +her, but as soon as they began the child looked absolutely +stupid, and they could extort nothing from her.</p> + +<p>Amid this sudden and fierce indignation Gervaise +lived—indifferent, dull and stupid. At first she loathed +herself, and if Coupeau laid his hand on her she shivered and ran +away from him. But by degrees she became accustomed to it. Her +indolence had become excessive, and she only wished to be quiet +and comfortable.</p> + +<p>After all, she asked herself, why should she care? If her +lover and her husband were satisfied, why should she not be too? +So the household went on much as usual to all appearance. In +reality, whenever Coupeau came in tipsy, she left and went to +Lantier's room to sleep. She was not led there by passion or +affection; it was simply that it was more comfortable. She was +very like a cat in her choice of soft, clean places.</p> + +<p>Mamma Coupeau never dared to speak out openly to the +clearstarcher, but after a dispute she was unsparing in her hints +and allusions. The first time Gervaise fixed her eyes on her and +heard all she had to say in profound silence. Then without +seeming to speak of herself, she took occasion to say not long +afterward that when a woman was married to a man who was drinking +himself to death a woman was very much to be pitied and by no +means to blame if she looked for consolation elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Another time, when taunted by the old woman, she went still +further and declared that Lantier was as much her husband as was +Coupeau—that he was the father of two of her children. She +talked a little twaddle about the laws of nature, and a shrewd +observer would have seen that she—parrotlike—was +repeating the words that some other person had put into her +mouth. Besides, what were her neighbors doing all about her? They +were not so extremely respectable that they had the right to +attack her. And then she took house after house and showed her +mother-in-law that while apparently so deaf to gossip she yet +knew all that was going on about her. Yes, she knew—and now +seemed to gloat over that which once had shocked and revolted +her.</p> + +<p>"It is none of my business, I admit," she cried; "let each +person live as he pleases, according to his own light, and let +everybody else alone."</p> + +<p>One day when Mamma Coupeau spoke out more clearly she said +with compressed lips:</p> + +<p>"Now look here, you are flat on your back and you take +advantage of that fact. I have never said a word to you about +your own life, but I know it all the same—and it was +atrocious! That is all! I am not going into particulars, but +remember, you had best not sit in judgment on me!"</p> + +<p>The old woman was nearly suffocated with rage and her +cough.</p> + +<p>The next day Goujet came for his mother's wash while Gervaise +was out. Mamma Coupeau called him into her room and kept him for +an hour. She read the young man's heart; she knew that his +suspicions made him miserable. And in revenge for something that +had displeased her she told him the truth with many sighs and +tears, as if her daughter-in-law's infamous conduct was a bitter +blow to her.</p> + +<p>When Goujet left her room he was deadly pale and looked ten +years older than when he went in. The old woman had, too, the +additional pleasure of telling Gervaise on her return that Mme +Goujet had sent word that her linen must be returned to her at +once, ironed or unironed. And she was so animated and +comparatively amiable that Gervaise scented the truth and knew +instinctively what she had done and what she was to expect with +Goujet. Pale and trembling, she piled the linen neatly in a +basket and set forth to see Mme Goujet. Years had passed since +she had paid her friends one penny. The debt still stood at four +hundred and twenty-five francs. Each time she took the money for +her washing she spoke of being pressed just at that time. It was +a great mortification for her.</p> + +<p>Coupeau was, however, less scrupulous and said with a laugh +that if she kissed her friend occasionally in the corner it would +keep things straight and pay him well. Then Gervaise, with eyes +blazing with indignation, would ask if he really meant that. Had +he fallen so low? Nor should he speak of Goujet in that way in +her presence.</p> + +<p>Every time she took home the linen of these former friends she +ascended the stairs with a sick heart.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you, is it?" said Mme Goujet coldly as she opened +the door. Gervaise entered with some hesitation; she did not dare +attempt to excuse herself. She was no longer punctual to the hour +or the day—everything about her was becoming perfectly +disorderly.</p> + +<p>"For one whole week," resumed the lace mender, "you have kept +me waiting. You have told me falsehood after falsehood. You have +sent your apprentice to tell me that there was an +accident—something had been spilled on the shirts, they +would come the next day, and so on. I have been unnecessarily +annoyed and worried, besides losing much time. There is no sense +in it! Now what have you brought home? Are the shirts here which +you have had for a month and the skirt which was missing last +week?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Gervaise, almost inaudibly; "yes, the skirt is +here. Look at it!"</p> + +<p>But Mme Goujet cried out in indignation.</p> + +<p>That skirt did not belong to her, and she would not have it. +This was the crowning touch, if her things were to be changed in +this way. She did not like other people's things.</p> + +<p>"And the shirts? Where are they? Lost, I suppose. Very well, +settle it as you please, but these shirts I must have tomorrow +morning!"</p> + +<p>There was a long silence. Gervaise was much disturbed by +seeing that the door of Goujet's room was wide open. He was +there, she was sure, and listening to all these reproaches which +she knew to be deserved and to which she could not reply. She was +very quiet and submissive and laid the linen on the bed as +quickly as possible.</p> + +<p>Mme Goujet began to examine the pieces.</p> + +<p>"Well! Well!" she said. "No one can praise your washing +nowadays. There is not a piece here that is not dirtied by the +iron. Look at this shirt: it is scorched, and the buttons are +fairly torn off by the root. Everything comes back—that +comes at all, I should say—with the buttons off. Look at +that sack: the dirt is all in it. No, no, I can't pay for such +washing as this!"</p> + +<p>She stopped talking—while she counted the pieces. Then +she exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"Two pairs of stockings, six towels and one napkin are missing +from this week. You are laughing at me, it seems. Now, just +understand, I tell you to bring back all you have, ironed or not +ironed. If in an hour your woman is not here with the rest I have +done with you, Madame Coupeau!"</p> + +<p>At this moment Goujet coughed. Gervaise started. How could she +bear being treated in this way before him? And she stood confused +and silent, waiting for the soiled clothes.</p> + +<p>Mme Goujet had taken her place and her work by the window.</p> + +<p>"And the linen?" said Gervaise timidly.</p> + +<p>"Many thanks," said the old woman. "There is nothing this +week."</p> + +<p>Gervaise turned pale; it was clear that Mme Goujet meant to +take away her custom from her. She sank into a chair. She made no +attempt at excuses; she only asked a question.</p> + +<p>"Is Monsieur Goujet ill?"</p> + +<p>"He is not well; at least he has just come in and is lying +down to rest a little."</p> + +<p>Mme Goujet spoke very slowly, almost solemnly, her pale face +encircled by her white cap, and wearing, as usual, her plain +black dress.</p> + +<p>And she explained that they were obliged to economize very +closely. In future she herself would do their washing. Of course +Gervaise must know that this would not be necessary had she and +her husband paid their debt to her son. But of course they would +submit; they would never think of going to law about it. While +she spoke of the debt her needle moved rapidly to and fro in the +delicate meshes of her work.</p> + +<p>"But," continued Mme Goujet, "if you were to deny yourself a +little and be careful and prudent, you could soon discharge your +debt to us; you live too well; you spend too freely. Were you to +give us only ten francs each month—"</p> + +<p>She was interrupted by her son, who called impatiently, +"Mother! Come here, will you?"</p> + +<p>When she returned she changed the conversation. Her son had +undoubtedly begged her to say no more about this money to +Gervaise. In spite of her evident determination to avoid this +subject, she returned to it again in about ten minutes. She knew +from the beginning just what would happen. She had said so at the +time, and all had turned out precisely as she had prophesied. The +tinworker had drunk up the shop and had left his wife to bear the +load by herself. If her son had taken her advice he would never +have lent the money. His marriage had fallen through, and he had +lost his spirits. She grew very angry as she spoke and finally +accused Gervaise openly of having, with her husband, deliberately +conspired to cheat her simplehearted son.</p> + +<p>"Many women," she exclaimed, "played the parts of hypocrites +and prudes for years and were found out at the last!"</p> + +<p>"Mother! Mother!" called Goujet peremptorily.</p> + +<p>She rose and when she returned said:</p> + +<p>"Go in; he wants to see you."</p> + +<p>Gervaise obeyed, leaving the door open behind her. She found +the room sweet and fresh looking, like that of a young girl, with +its simple pictures and white curtains.</p> + +<p>Goujet, crushed by what he had heard from Mamma Coupeau, lay +at full length on the bed with pale face and haggard eyes.</p> + +<p>"Listen!" he said. "You must not mind my mother's words; she +does not understand. You do not owe me anything."</p> + +<p>He staggered to his feet and stood leaning against the bed and +looking at her.</p> + +<p>"Are you ill?" she said nervously.</p> + +<p>"No, not ill," he answered, "but sick at heart. Sick when I +remember what you said and see the truth. Leave me. I cannot bear +to look at you."</p> + +<p>And he waved her away, not angrily, but with great decision. +She went out without a word, for she had nothing to say. In the +next room she took up her basket and stood still a moment; Mme +Goujet did not look up, but she said:</p> + +<p>"Remember, I want my linen at once, and when that is all sent +back to me we will settle the account."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Gervaise. And she closed the door, leaving +behind her all that sweet odor and cleanliness on which she had +once placed so high a value. She returned to the shop with her +head bowed down and looking neither to the right nor the +left.</p> + +<p>Mother Coupeau was sitting by the fire, having left her bed +for the first time. Gervaise said nothing to her—not a word +of reproach or congratulation She felt deadly tired; all her +bones ached, as if she had been beaten. She thought life very +hard and wished that it were over for her.</p> + +<p>Gervaise soon grew to care for nothing but her three meals per +day. The shop ran itself; one by one her customers left her. +Gervaise shrugged her shoulders half indifferently, half +insolently; everybody could leave her, she said: she could always +get work. But she was mistaken, and soon it became necessary for +her to dismiss Mme Putois, keeping no assistant except Augustine, +who seemed to grow more and more stupid as time went on. Ruin was +fast approaching. Naturally, as indolence and poverty increased, +so did lack of cleanliness. No one would ever have known that +pretty blue shop in which Gervaise had formerly taken such pride. +The windows were unwashed and covered with the mud scattered by +the passing carriages. Within it was still more forlorn: the +dampness of the steaming linen had ruined the paper; everything +was covered with dust; the stove, which once had been kept so +bright, was broken and battered. The long ironing table was +covered with wine stains and grease, looking as if it had served +a whole garrison. The atmosphere was loaded with a smell of +cooking and of sour starch. But Gervaise was unconscious of it. +She did not notice the torn and untidy paper and, having ceased +to pay any attention to personal cleanliness, was hardly likely +to spend her time in scrubbing the greasy floors. She allowed the +dust to accumulate over everything and never lifted a finger to +remove it. Her own comfort and tranquillity were now her first +considerations.</p> + +<p>Her debts were increasing, but they had ceased to give her any +uneasiness. She was no longer honest or straightforward. She did +not care whether she ever paid or not, so long as she got what +she wanted. When one shop refused her more credit she opened an +account next door. She owed something in every shop in the whole +<i>Quartier</i>. She dared not pass the grocer or the baker in +her own street and was compelled to make a lengthy circuit each +time she went out. The tradespeople muttered and grumbled, and +some went so far as to call her a thief and a swindler.</p> + +<p>One evening the man who had sold her the furniture for +Lantier's room came in with ugly threats.</p> + +<p>Such scenes were unquestionably disagreeable. She trembled for +an hour after them, but they never took away her appetite.</p> + +<p>It was very stupid of these people, after all, she said to +Lantier. How could she pay them if she had no money? And where +could she get money? She closed her eyes to the inevitable and +would not think of the future. Mamma Coupeau was well again, but +the household had been disorganized for more than a year. In +summer there was more work brought to the shop—white skirts +and cambric dresses. There were ups and downs, therefore: days +when there was nothing in the house for supper and others when +the table was loaded.</p> + +<p>Mamma Coupeau was seen almost daily, going out with a bundle +under her apron and returning without it and with a radiant face, +for the old woman liked the excitement of going to the +Mont-de-Piété.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was gradually emptying the house—linen and +clothes, tools and furniture. In the beginning she took advantage +of a good week to take out what she had pawned the week before, +but after a while she ceased to do that and sold her tickets. +There was only one thing which cost her a pang, and that was +selling her clock. She had sworn she would not touch it, not +unless she was dying of hunger, and when at last she saw her +mother-in-law carry it away she dropped into a chair and wept +like a baby. But when the old woman came back with twenty-five +francs and she found she had five francs more than was demanded +by the pressing debt which had caused her to make the sacrifice, +she was consoled and sent out at once for four sous' worth of +brandy. When these two women were on good terms they often drank +a glass together, sitting at the corner of the ironing table.</p> + +<p>Mamma Coupeau had a wonderful talent for bringing a glass in +the pocket of her apron without spilling a drop. She did not care +to have the neighbors know, but, in good truth, the neighbors +knew very well and laughed and sneered as the old woman went in +and out.</p> + +<p>This, as was natural and right, increased the prejudice +against Gervaise. Everyone said that things could not go on much +longer; the end was near.</p> + +<p>Amid all this ruin Coupeau thrived surprisingly. Bad liquor +seemed to affect him agreeably. His appetite was good in spite of +the amount he drank, and he was growing stout. Lantier, however, +shook his head, declaring that it was not honest flesh and that +he was bloated. But Coupeau drank all the more after this +statement and was rarely or ever sober. There began to be a +strange bluish tone in his complexion. His spirits never flagged. +He laughed at his wife when she told him of her embarrassments. +What did he care, so long as she provided him with food to eat? +And the longer he was idle, the more exacting he became in regard +to this food.</p> + +<p>He was ignorant of his wife's infidelity, at least, so all his +friends declared. They believed, moreover, that were he to +discover it there would be great trouble. But Mme Lerat, his own +sister, shook her head doubtfully, averring that she was not so +sure of his ignorance.</p> + +<p>Lantier was also in good health and spirits, neither too stout +nor too thin. He wished to remain just where he was, for he was +thoroughly well satisfied with himself, and this made him +critical in regard to his food, as he had made a study of the +things he should eat and those he should avoid for the +preservation of his figure. Even when there was not a cent he +asked for eggs and cutlets: nourishing and light things were what +he required, he said. He ruled Gervaise with a rod of iron, +grumbled and found fault far more than Coupeau ever did. It was a +house with two masters, one of whom, cleverer by far than the +other, took the best of everything. He skimmed the Coupeaus, as +it were, and kept all the cream for himself. He was fond of Nana +because he liked girls better than boys. He troubled himself +little about Etienne.</p> + +<p>When people came and asked for Coupeau it was Lantier who +appeared in his shirt sleeves with the air of the man of the +house who is needlessly disturbed. He answered for Coupeau, said +it was one and the same thing.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did not find this life always smooth and agreeable. +She had no reason to complain of her health. She had become very +stout. But it was hard work to provide for and please these two +men. When they came in, furious and out of temper, it was on her +that they wreaked their rage. Coupeau abused her frightfully and +called her by the coarsest epithets. Lantier, on the contrary, +was more select in his phraseology, but his words cut her quite +as deeply. Fortunately people become accustomed to almost +everything in this world, and Gervaise soon ceased to care for +the reproaches and injustice of these two men. She even preferred +to have them out of temper with her, for then they let her alone +in some degree; but when they were in a good humor they were all +the time at her heels, and she could not find a leisure moment +even to iron a cap, so constant were the demands they made upon +her. They wanted her to do this and do that, to cook little +dishes for them and wait upon them by inches.</p> + +<p>One night she dreamed she was at the bottom of a well. Coupeau +was pushing her down with his fists, and Lantier was tickling her +to make her jump out quicker. And this, she thought, was a very +fair picture of her life! She said that the people of the +<i>Quartier</i> were very unjust, after all, when they reproached +her for the way of life into which she had fallen. It was not her +fault. It was not she who had done it, and a little shiver ran +over her as she reflected that perhaps the worst was not yet.</p> + +<p>The utter deterioration of her nature was shown by the fact +that she detested neither her husband nor Lantier. In a play at +the Gaite she had seen a woman hate her husband and poison him +for the sake of her lover. This she thought very strange and +unnatural. Why could the three not have lived together peaceably? +It would have been much more reasonable!</p> + +<p>In spite of her debts, in spite of the shifts to which her +increasing poverty condemned her, Gervaise would have considered +herself quite well off, but for the exacting selfishness of +Lantier and Coupeau.</p> + +<p>Toward autumn Lantier became more and more disgusted, declared +he had nothing to live on but potato parings and that his health +was suffering. He was enraged at seeing the house so thoroughly +cleared out, and he felt that the day was not far off when he +must take his hat and depart. He had become accustomed to his +den, and he hated to leave it. He was thoroughly provoked that +the extravagant habits of Gervaise necessitated this sacrifice on +his part. Why could she not have shown more sense? He was sure he +didn't know what would become of them. Could they have struggled +on six months longer, he could have concluded an affair which +would have enabled him to support the whole family in +comfort.</p> + +<p>One day it came to pass that there was not a mouthful in the +house, not even a radish. Lantier sat by the stove in somber +discontent. Finally he started up and went to call on the +Poissons, to whom he suddenly became friendly to a degree. He no +longer taunted the police officer but condescended to admit that +the emperor was a good fellow after all. He showed himself +especially civil to Virginie, whom he considered a clever woman +and well able to steer her bark through stormy seas.</p> + +<p>Virginie one day happened to say in his presence that she +should like to establish herself in some business. He approved +the plan and paid her a succession of adroit compliments on her +capabilities and cited the example of several women he knew who +had made or were making their fortunes in this way.</p> + +<p>Virginie had the money, an inheritance from an aunt, but she +hesitated, for she did not wish to leave the <i>Quartier</i> and +she did not know of any shop she could have. Then Lantier led her +into a corner and whispered to her for ten minutes; he seemed to +be persuading her to something. They continued to talk together +in this way at intervals for several days, seeming to have some +secret understanding.</p> + +<p>Lantier all this time was fretting and scolding at the +Coupeaus, asking Gervaise what on earth she intended to do, +begging her to look things fairly in the face. She owed five or +six hundred francs to the tradespeople about her. She was +behindhand with her rent, and Marescot, the landlord, threatened +to turn her out if they did not pay before the first of +January.</p> + +<p>The Mont-de-Piété had taken everything; there +was literally nothing but the nails in the walls left. What did +she mean to do?</p> + +<p>Gervaise listened to all this at first listlessly, but she +grew angry at last and cried out:</p> + +<p>"Look here! I will go away tomorrow and leave the key in the +door. I had rather sleep in the gutter than live in this +way!"</p> + +<p>"And I can't say that it would not be a wise thing for you to +do!" answered Lantier insidiously. "I might possibly assist you +to find someone to take the lease off your hands whenever you +really conclude to leave the shop."</p> + +<p>"I am ready to leave it at once!" cried Gervaise violently. "I +am sick and tired of it."</p> + +<p>Then Lantier became serious and businesslike. He spoke openly +of Virginie, who, he said, was looking for a shop; in fact, he +now remembered having heard her say that she would like just such +a one as this.</p> + +<p>But Gervaise shrank back and grew strangely calm at this name +of Virginie.</p> + +<p>She would see, she said; on the whole, she must have time to +think. People said a great many things when they were angry, +which on reflection were found not to be advisable.</p> + +<p>Lantier rang the changes on this subject for a week, but +Gervaise said she had decided to employ some woman and go to work +again, and if she were not able to get back her old customers she +could try for new ones. She said this merely to show Lantier that +she was not so utterly downcast and crushed as he had seemed to +take for granted was the case.</p> + +<p>He was reckless enough to drop the name of Virginie once more, +and she turned upon him in a rage.</p> + +<p>"No, no, never!" She had always distrusted Virginie, and if +she wanted the shop it was only to humiliate her. Any other woman +might have it, but not this hypocrite, who had been waiting for +years to gloat over her downfall. No, she understood now only too +well the meaning of the yellow sparks in her cat's eyes. It was +clear to her that Virginie had never forgotten the scene in the +lavatory, and if she did not look out there would be a repetition +of it.</p> + +<p>Lantier stood aghast at this anger and this torrent of words, +but presently he plucked up courage and bade her hold her tongue +and told her she should not talk of his friends in that way. As +for himself, he was sick and tired of other people's affairs; in +future he would let them all take care of themselves, without a +word of counsel from him.</p> + +<p>January arrived, cold and damp. Mamma Coupeau took to her bed +with a violent cold which she expected each year at this time. +But those about her said she would never leave the house again, +except feet first.</p> + +<p>Her children had learned to look forward to her death as a +happy deliverance for all. The physician who came once was not +sent for again. A little tisane was given her from time to time +that she might not feel herself utterly neglected. She was just +alive; that was all. It now became a mere question of time with +her, but her brain was clear still, and in the expression of her +eyes there were many things to be read—sorrow at seeing no +sorrow in those she left behind her and anger against Nana, who +was utterly indifferent to her.</p> + +<p>One Monday evening Coupeau came in as tipsy as usual and threw +himself on the bed, all dressed. Gervaise intended to remain with +her mother-in-law part of the night, but Nana was very brave and +said she would hear if her grandmother moved and wanted +anything.</p> + +<p>About half-past three Gervaise woke with a start; it seemed to +her that a cold blast had swept through the room. Her candle had +burned down, and she nastily wrapped a shawl around her with +trembling hands and hurried into the next room. Nana was sleeping +quietly, and her grandmother was dead in the bed at her side.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went to Lantier and waked him.</p> + +<p>"She is dead," she said.</p> + +<p>"Well, what of it?" he muttered, half asleep. "Why don't you +go to sleep?"</p> + +<p>She turned away in silence while he grumbled at her coming to +disturb him by the intelligence of a death in the house.</p> + +<p>Gervaise dressed herself, not without tears, for she really +loved the cross old woman whose son lay in the heavy slumbers of +intoxication.</p> + +<p>When she went back to the room she found Nana sitting up and +rubbing her eyes. The child realized what had come to pass and +trembled nervously in the face of this death of which she had +thought much in the last two days, as of something which was +hidden from children.</p> + +<p>"Get up!" said her mother in a low voice. "I do not wish you +to stay here."</p> + +<p>The child slipped from her bed slowly and regretfully, with +her eyes fixed on the dead body of her grandmother.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did not know what to do with her or where to send +her. At this moment Lantier appeared at the door. He had dressed +himself, impelled by a little shame at his own conduct.</p> + +<p>"Let the child go into my room," he said, "and I will help +you."</p> + +<p>Nana looked first at her mother and then at Lantier and then +trotted with her little bare feet into the next room and slipped +into the bed that was still warm.</p> + +<p>She lay there wide awake with blazing cheeks and eyes and +seemed to be absorbed in thought.</p> + +<p>While Lantier and Gervaise were silently occupied with the +dead Coupeau lay and snored.</p> + +<p>Gervaise hunted in a bureau to find a little crucifix which +she had brought from Plassans, when she suddenly remembered that +Mamma Coupeau had sold it. They each took a glass of wine and sat +by the stove until daybreak.</p> + +<p>About seven o'clock Coupeau woke. When he heard what had +happened he declared they were jesting. But when he saw the body +he fell on his knees and wept like a baby. Gervaise was touched +by these tears and found her heart softer toward her husband than +it had been for many a long year.</p> + +<p>"Courage, old friend!" said Lantier, pouring out a glass of +wine as he spoke.</p> + +<p>Coupeau took some wine, but he continued to weep, and Lantier +went off under pretext of informing the family, but he did not +hurry. He walked along slowly, smoking a cigar, and after he had +been to Mme Lerat's he stopped in at a <i>crèmerie</i> to +take a cup of coffee, and there he sat for an hour or more in +deep thought.</p> + +<p>By nine o'clock the family were assembled in the shop, whose +shutters had not been taken down. Lorilleux only remained for a +few moments and then went back to his shop. Mme Lorilleux shed a +few tears and then sent Nana to buy a pound of candles.</p> + +<p>"How like Gervaise!" she murmured. "She can do nothing in a +proper way!"</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat went about among the neighbors to borrow a crucifix. +She brought one so large that when it was laid on the breast of +Mamma Coupeau the weight seemed to crush her.</p> + +<p>Then someone said something about holy water, so Nana was sent +to the church with a bottle. The room assumed a new aspect. On a +small table burned a candle, near it a glass of holy water in +which was a branch of box.</p> + +<p>"Everything is in order," murmured the sisters; "people can +come now as soon as they please."</p> + +<p>Lantier made his appearance about eleven. He had been to make +inquiries in regard to funeral expenses.</p> + +<p>"The coffin," he said, "is twelve francs, and if you want a +Mass, ten francs more. A hearse is paid for according to its +ornaments."</p> + +<p>"You must remember," said Mme Lorilleux with compressed lips, +"that Mamma must be buried according to her purse."</p> + +<p>"Precisely!" answered Lantier. "I only tell you this as your +guide. Decide what you want, and after breakfast I will go and +attend to it all."</p> + +<p>He spoke in a low voice, oppressed by the presence of the +dead. The children were laughing in the courtyard and Nana +singing loudly.</p> + +<p>Gervaise said gently:</p> + +<p>"We are not rich, to be sure, but we wish to do what she would +have liked. If Mamma Coupeau has left us nothing it was not her +fault and no reason why we should bury her as if she were a dog. +No, there must be a Mass and a hearse."</p> + +<p>"And who will pay for it?" asked Mme Lorilleux. "We can't, for +we lost much money last week, and I am quite sure you would find +it hard work!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau, when he was consulted, shrugged his shoulders with a +gesture of profound indifference. Mme Lerat said she would pay +her share.</p> + +<p>"There are three of us," said Gervaise after a long +calculation; "if we each pay thirty francs we can do it with +decency."</p> + +<p>But Mme Lorilleux burst out furiously:</p> + +<p>"I will never consent to such folly. It is not that I care for +the money, but I disapprove of the ostentation. You can do as you +please."</p> + +<p>"Very well," replied Gervaise, "I will. I have taken care of +your mother while she was living; I can bury her now that she is +dead."</p> + +<p>Then Mme Lorilleux fell to crying, and Lantier had great +trouble in preventing her from going away at once, and the +quarrel grew so violent that Mme Lerat hastily closed the door of +the room where the dead woman lay, as if she feared the noise +would waken her. The children's voices rose shrill in the air +with Nana's perpetual "Tra-la-la" above all the rest.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, how wearisome those children are with their songs," +said Lantier. "Tell them to be quiet, and make Nana come in and +sit down."</p> + +<p>Gervaise obeyed these dictatorial orders while her +sisters-in-law went home to breakfast, while the Coupeaus tried +to eat, but they were made uncomfortable by the presence of death +in their crowded quarters. The details of their daily life were +disarranged.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went to Goujet and borrowed sixty francs, which, +added to thirty from Mme Lerat, would pay the expenses of the +funeral. In the afternoon several persons came in and looked at +the dead woman, crossing themselves as they did so and shaking +holy water over the body with the branch of box. They then took +their seats in the shop and talked of the poor thing and of her +many virtues. One said she had talked with her only three days +before, and another asked if it were not possible it was a +trance.</p> + +<p>By evening the Coupeaus felt it was more than they could bear. +It was a mistake to keep a body so long. One has, after all, only +so many tears to shed, and that done, grief turns to worry. Mamma +Coupeau—stiff and cold—was a terrible weight on them +all. They gradually lost the sense of oppression, however, and +spoke louder.</p> + +<p>After a while M. Marescot appeared. He went to the inner room +and knelt at the side of the corpse. He was very religious, they +saw. He made a sign of the cross in the air and dipped the branch +into the holy water and sprinkled the body. M. Marescot, having +finished his devotions, passed out into the shop and said to +Coupeau:</p> + +<p>"I came for the two quarters that are due. Have you got the +money for me?"</p> + +<p>"No sir, not entirely," said Gervaise, coming forward, +excessively annoyed at this scene taking place in the presence of +her sisters-in-law. "You see, this trouble came upon +us—"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly," answered her landlord; "but we all of us have +our troubles. I cannot wait any longer. I really must have the +money. If I am not paid by tomorrow I shall most assuredly take +immediate measures to turn you out."</p> + +<p>Gervaise clasped her hands imploringly, but he shook his head, +saying that discussion was useless; besides, just then it would +be a disrespect to the dead.</p> + +<p>"A thousand pardons!" he said as he went out. "But remember +that I must have the money tomorrow."</p> + +<p>And as he passed the open door of the lighted room he saluted +the corpse with another genuflection.</p> + +<p>After he had gone the ladies gathered around the stove, where +a great pot of coffee stood, enough to keep them all awake for +the whole night. The Poissons arrived about eight o'clock; then +Lantier, carefully watching Gervaise, began to speak of the +disgraceful act committed by the landlord in coming to a house to +collect money at such a time.</p> + +<p>"He is a thorough hypocrite," continued Lantier, "and were I +in Madame Coupeau's place, I would walk off and leave his house +on his hands."</p> + +<p>Gervaise heard but did not seem to heed.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs, delighted at the idea that she would lose her +shop, declared that Lantier's idea was an excellent one. They +gave Coupeau a push and repeated it to him.</p> + +<p>Gervaise seemed to be disposed to yield, and then Virginie +spoke in the blandest of tones.</p> + +<p>"I will take the lease off your hands," she said, "and will +arrange the back rent with your landlord."</p> + +<p>"No, no! Thank you," cried Gervaise, shaking off the lethargy +in which she had been wrapped. "I can manage this matter and I +can work. No, no, I say."</p> + +<p>Lantier interposed and said soothingly:</p> + +<p>"Never mind! We will talk of it another time—tomorrow, +possibly."</p> + +<p>The family were to sit up all night. Nana cried vociferously +when she was sent into the Boche quarters to sleep; the Poissons +remained until midnight. Virginia began to talk of the country: +she would like to be buried under a tree with flowers and grass +on her grave. Mme Lerat said that in her wardrobe—folded up +in lavender—was the linen sheet in which her body was to be +wrapped.</p> + +<p>When the Poissons went away Lantier accompanied them in order, +he said, to leave his bed for the ladies, who could take turns in +sleeping there. But the ladies preferred to remain together about +the stove.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux said she had no black dress, and it was too bad +that she must buy one, for they were sadly pinched just at this +time. And she asked Gervaise if she was sure that her mother had +not a black skirt which would do, one that had been given her on +her birthday. Gervaise went for the skirt. Yes, it would do if it +were taken in at the waist.</p> + +<p>Then Mme Lorilleux looked at the bed and the wardrobe and +asked if there was nothing else belonging to her mother.</p> + +<p>Here Mme Lerat interfered. The Coupeaus, she said, had taken +care of her mother, and they were entitled to all the trifles she +had left. The night seemed endless. They drank coffee and went by +turns to look at the body, lying silent and calm under the +flickering light of the candle.</p> + +<p>The interment was to take place at half-past ten, but Gervaise +would gladly have given a hundred francs, if she had had them, to +anyone who would have taken Mamma Coupeau away three hours before +the time fixed.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said to herself, "it is no use to disguise the fact: +people are very much in the way after they are dead, no matter +how much you have loved them!"</p> + +<p>Father Bazonge, who was never known to be sober, appeared with +the coffin and the pall. When he saw Gervaise he stood with his +eyes starting from his head.</p> + +<p>"I beg you pardon," he said, "but I thought it was for you," +and he was turning to go away.</p> + +<p>"Leave the coffin!" cried Gervaise, growing very pale. Bazonge +began to apologize:</p> + +<p>"I heard them talking yesterday, but I did not pay much +attention. I congratulate you that you are still alive. Though +why I do, I do not know, for life is not such a very agreeable +thing."</p> + +<p>Gervaise listened with a shiver of horror and a morbid dread +that he would take her away and shut her up in his box and bury +her. She had once heard him say that he knew a woman who would be +only too thankful if he would do exactly that.</p> + +<p>"He is horribly drunk," she murmured in a tone of mingled +disgust and terror.</p> + +<p>"It will come for you another time," he said with a laugh; +"you have only to make me a little sign. I am a great consolation +to women sometimes, and you need not sneer at poor Father +Bazonge, for he has held many a fine lady in his arms, and they +made no complaint when he laid them down to sleep in the shade of +the evergreens."</p> + +<p>"Do hold your tongue," said Lorilleux; "this is no time for +such talk. Be off with you!"</p> + +<p>The clock struck ten. The friends and neighbors had assembled +in the shop while the family were in the back room, nervous and +feverish with suspense.</p> + +<p>Four men appeared—the undertaker, Bazonge and his three +assistants placed the body in the coffin. Bazonge held the screws +in his mouth and waited for the family to take their last +farewell.</p> + +<p>Then Coupeau, his two sisters and Gervaise kissed their +mother, and their tears fell fast on her cold face. The lid was +put on and fastened down.</p> + +<p>The hearse was at the door to the great edification of the +tradespeople of the neighborhood, who said under their breath +that the Coupeaus had best pay their debts.</p> + +<p>"It is shameful," Gervaise was saying at the same moment, +speaking of the Lorilleuxs. "These people have not even brought a +bouquet of violets for their mother."</p> + +<p>It was true they had come empty-handed, while Mme Lerat had +brought a wreath of artificial flowers which was laid on the +bier.</p> + +<p>Coupeau and Lorilleux, with their hats in their hands, walked +at the head of the procession of men. After them followed the +ladies, headed by Mme Lorilleux in her black skirt, wrenched from +the dead, her sister trying to cover a purple dress with a large +black shawl.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had lingered behind to close the shop and give Nana +into the charge of Mme Boche and then ran to overtake the +procession, while the little girl stood with the concierge, +profoundly interested in seeing her grandmother carried in that +beautiful carriage.</p> + +<p>Just as Gervaise joined the procession Goujet came up a side +street and saluted her with a slight bow and with a faint sweet +smile. The tears rushed to her eyes. She did not weep for Mamma +Coupeau but rather for herself, but her sisters-in-law looked at +her as if she were the greatest hypocrite in the world.</p> + +<p>At the church the ceremony was of short duration. The Mass +dragged a little because the priest was very old.</p> + +<p>The cemetery was not far off, and the cortege soon reached it. +A priest came out of a house near by and shivered as he saw his +breath rise with each <i>De Profundis</i> he uttered.</p> + +<p>The coffin was lowered, and as the frozen earth fell upon it +more tears were shed, accompanied, however, by sigh of +relief.</p> + +<p>The procession dispersed outside the gates of the cemetery, +and at the very first cabaret Coupeau turned in, leaving Gervaise +alone on the sidewalk. She beckoned to Goujet, who was turning +the corner.</p> + +<p>"I want to speak to you," she said timidly. "I want to tell +you how ashamed I am for coming to you again to borrow money, but +I was at my wit's end."</p> + +<p>"I am always glad to be of use to you," answered the +blacksmith. "But pray never allude to the matter before my +mother, for I do not wish to trouble her. She and I think +differently on many subjects."</p> + +<p>She looked at him sadly and earnestly. Through her mind +flitted a vague regret that she had not done as he desired, that +she had not gone away with him somewhere. Then a vile temptation +assailed her. She trembled.</p> + +<p>"You are not angry now?" she said entreatingly.</p> + +<p>"No, not angry, but still heartsick. All is over between us +now and forever." And he walked off with long strides, leaving +Gervaise stunned by his words.</p> + +<p>"All is over between us!" she kept saying to herself. "And +what more is there for me then in life?"</p> + +<p>She sat down in her empty, desolate room and drank a large +tumbler of wine. When the others came in she looked up suddenly +and said to Virginie gently:</p> + +<p>"If you want the shop, take it!"</p> + +<p>Virginie and her husband jumped at this and sent for the +concierge, who consented to the arrangement on condition that the +new tenants would become security for the two quarters then +due.</p> + +<p>This was agreed upon. The Coupeaus would take a room on the +sixth floor near the Lorilleuxs. Lantier said politely that if it +would not be disagreeable to the Poissons he should like much to +retain his present quarters.</p> + +<p>The policeman bowed stiffly but with every intention of being +cordial and said he decidedly approved of the idea.</p> + +<p>Then Lantier withdrew from the discussion entirely, watching +Gervaise and Virginie out of the corners of his eyes.</p> + +<p>That evening when Gervaise was alone again she felt utterly +exhausted. The place looked twice its usual size. It seemed to +her that in leaving Mamma Coupeau in the quiet cemetery she had +also left much that was precious to her, a portion of her own +life, her pride in her shop, her hopes and her energy. These were +not all, either, that she had buried that day. Her heart was as +bare and empty as her walls and her home. She was too weary to +try and analyze her sensations but moved about as if in a +dream.</p> + +<p>At ten o'clock, when Nana was undressed, she wept, begging +that she might be allowed to sleep in her grandmother's bed. Her +mother vaguely wondered that the child was not afraid and allowed +her to do as she pleased.</p> + +<p>Nana was not timid by nature, and only her curiosity, not her +fears, had been excited by the events of the last three days, and +she curled herself up with delight in the soft, warm feather +bed. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER X<br/> +DISASTERS AND CHANGES</h2> + +<p>The new lodging of the Coupeaus was next that of the Bijards. +Almost opposite their door was a closet under the stairs which +went up to the roof—a mere hole without light or +ventilation, where Father Bru slept.</p> + +<p>A chamber and a small room, about as large as one's hand, were +all the Coupeaus had now. Nana's little bed stood in the small +room, the door of which had to be left open at night, lest the +child should stifle.</p> + +<p>When it came to the final move Gervaise felt that she could +not separate from the commode which she had spent so much time in +polishing when first married and insisted on its going to their +new quarters, where it was much in the way and stopped up half +the window, and when Gervaise wished to look out into the court +she had not room for her elbows.</p> + +<p>The first few days she spent in tears. She felt smothered and +cramped; after having had so much room to move about in it seemed +to her that she was smothering. It was only at the window she +could breathe. The courtyard was not a place calculated to +inspire cheerful thoughts. Opposite her was the window which +years before had elicited her admiration, where every successive +summer scarlet beans had grown to a fabulous height on slender +strings. Her room was on the shady side, and a pot of mignonette +would die in a week on her sill.</p> + +<p>No, life had not been what she hoped, and it was all very hard +to bear.</p> + +<p>Instead of flowers to solace her declining years she would +have but thorns. One day as she was looking down into the court +she had the strangest feeling imaginable. She seemed to see +herself standing just near the loge of the concierge, looking up +at the house and examining it for the first time.</p> + +<p>This glimpse of the past made her feel faint. It was at least +thirteen years since she had first seen this huge +building—this world within a world. The court had not +changed. The facade was simply more dingy. The same clothes +seemed to be hanging at the windows to dry. Below there were the +shavings from the cabinetmaker's shop, and the gutter glittered +with blue water, as blue and soft in tone as the water she +remembered.</p> + +<p>But she—alas, how changed was she! She no longer looked +up to the sky. She was no longer hopeful, courageous and +ambitious. She was living under the very roof in crowded +discomfort, where never a ray of sunshine could reach her, and +her tears fell fast in utter discouragement.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, when Gervaise became accustomed to her new +surroundings she grew more content. The pieces of furniture she +had sold to Virginie had facilitated her installation. When the +fine weather came Coupeau had an opportunity of going into the +country to work. He went and lived three months without +drinking—cured for the time being by the fresh, pure air. +It does a man sometimes an infinite deal of good to be taken away +from all his old haunts and from Parisian streets, which always +seem to exhale a smell of brandy and of wine.</p> + +<p>He came back as fresh as a rose, and he brought four hundred +francs with which he paid the Poissons the amount for which they +had become security as well as several other small but pressing +debts. Gervaise had now two or three streets open to her again, +which for some time she had not dared to enter.</p> + +<p>She now went out to iron by the day and had gone back to her +old mistress, Mme Fauconnier, who was a kindhearted creature and +ready to do anything for anyone who flattered her adroitly.</p> + +<p>With diligence and economy Gervaise could have managed to live +comfortably and pay all her debts, but this prospect did not +charm her particularly. She suffered acutely in seeing the +Poissons in her old shop. She was by no means of a jealous or +envious disposition, but it was not agreeable to her to hear the +admiration expressed for her successors by her husband's sisters. +To hear them one would suppose that never had so beautiful a shop +been seen before. They spoke of the filthy condition of the place +when Virginie moved in—who had paid, they declared, thirty +francs for cleaning it.</p> + +<p>Virginie, after some hesitation, had decided on a small stock +of groceries—sugar, tea and coffee, also bonbons and +chocolate. Lantier had advised these because he said the profit +on them was immense. The shop was repainted, and shelves and +cases were put in, and a counter with scales such as are seen at +confectioners'. The little inheritance that Poisson held in +reserve was seriously encroached upon. But Virginie was +triumphant, for she had her way, and the Lorilleuxs did not spare +Gervaise the description of a case or a jar.</p> + +<p>It was said in the street that Lantier had deserted Gervaise, +that she gave him no peace running after him, but this was not +true, for he went and came to her apartment as he pleased. +Scandal was connecting his name and Virginie's. They said +Virginie had taken the clearstarcher's lover as well as her shop! +The Lorilleuxs talked of nothing when Gervaise was present but +Lantier, Virginie and the shop. Fortunately Gervaise was not +inclined to jealousy, and Lantier's infidelities had hitherto +left her undisturbed, but she did not accept this new affair with +equal tranquillity. She colored or turned pale as she heard these +allusions, but she would not allow a word to pass her lips, as +she was fully determined never to gratify her enemies by allowing +them to see her discomfiture; but a dispute was heard by the +neighbors about this time between herself and Lantier, who went +angrily away and was not seen by anyone in the Coupeau quarters +for more than a fortnight.</p> + +<p>Coupeau behaved very oddly. This blind and complacent husband, +who had closed his eyes to all that was going on at home, was +filled with virtuous indignation at Lantier's indifference. Then +Coupeau went so far as to tease Gervaise in regard to this +desertion of her lovers. She had had bad luck, he said, with +hatters and blacksmiths—why did she not try a mason?</p> + +<p>He said this as if it were a joke, but Gervaise had a firm +conviction that he was in deadly earnest. A man who is tipsy from +one year's end to the next is not apt to be fastidious, and there +are husbands who at twenty are very jealous and at thirty have +grown very complacent under the influence of constant +tippling.</p> + +<p>Lantier preserved an attitude of calm indifference. He kept +the peace between the Poissons and the Coupeaus. Thanks to him, +Virginie and Gervaise affected for each other the most tender +regard. He ruled the brunette as he had ruled the blonde, and he +would swallow her shop as he had that of Gervaise.</p> + +<p>It was in June of this year that Nana partook of her first +Communion. She was about thirteen, slender and tall as an +asparagus plant, and her air and manner were the height of +impertinence and audacity.</p> + +<p>She had been sent away from the catechism class the year +before on account of her bad conduct. And if the curé did not +make a similar objection this year it was because he feared she +would never come again and that his refusal would launch on the +Parisian <i>pavé</i> another castaway.</p> + +<p>Nana danced with joy at the mere thought of what the +Lorilleuxs—as her godparents—had promised, while Mme +Lerat gave the veil and cup, Virginie the purse and Lantier a +prayer book, so that the Coupeaus looked forward to the day +without anxiety.</p> + +<p>The Poissons—probably through Lantier's +advice—selected this occasion for their housewarming. They +invited the Coupeaus and the Boche family, as Pauline made her +first Communion on that day, as well as Nana.</p> + +<p>The evening before, while Nana stood in an ecstasy of delight +before her presents, her father came in in an abominable +condition. His virtuous resolutions had yielded to the air of +Paris; he had fallen into evil ways again, and he now assailed +his wife and child with the vilest epithets, which did not seem +to shock Nana, for they could fall from her tongue on occasion +with facile glibness.</p> + +<p>"I want my soup," cried Coupeau, "and you two fools are +chattering over those fal-lals! I tell you, I will sit on them if +I am not waited upon, and quickly too."</p> + +<p>Gervaise answered impatiently, but Nana, who thought it better +taste just then—all things considered—to receive with +meekness all her father's abuse, dropped her eyes and did not +reply.</p> + +<p>"Take that rubbish away!" he cried with growing impatience. +"Put it out of my sight or I will tear it to bits."</p> + +<p>Nana did not seem to hear him. She took up the tulle cap and +asked her mother what it cost, and when Coupeau tried to snatch +the cap Gervaise pushed him away.</p> + +<p>"Let the child alone!" she said. "She is doing no harm!"</p> + +<p>Then her husband went into a perfect rage:</p> + +<p>"Mother and daughter," he cried, "a nice pair they make. I +understand very well what all this row is for: it is merely to +show yourself in a new gown. I will put you in a bag and tie it +close round your throat, and you will see if the curé likes +that!"</p> + +<p>Nana turned like lightning to protect her treasures. She +looked her father full in the face, and, forgetting the lessons +taught her by her priest, she said in a low, concentrated +voice:</p> + +<p>"Beast!" That was all.</p> + +<p>After Coupeau had eaten his soup he fell asleep and in the +morning woke quite amiable. He admired his daughter and said she +looked quite like a young lady in her white robe. Then he added +with a sentimental air that a father on such days was naturally +proud of his child. When they were ready to go to the church and +Nana met Pauline in the corridor, she examined the latter from +head to foot and smiled condescendingly on seeing that Pauline +had not a particle of chic.</p> + +<p>The two families started off together, Nana and Pauline in +front, each with her prayer book in one hand and with the other +holding down her veil, which swelled in the wind like a sail. +They did not speak to each other but keenly enjoyed seeing the +shopkeepers run to their doors to see them, keeping their eyes +cast down devoutly but their ears wide open to any compliment +they might hear.</p> + +<p>Nana's two aunts walked side by side, exchanging their +opinions in regard to Gervaise, whom they stigmatized as an +irreligious ne'er-do-well whose child would never have gone to +the Holy Communion if it had depended on her.</p> + +<p>At the church Coupeau wept all the time. It was very silly, he +knew, but he could not help it. The voice of the curé was +pathetic; the little girls looked like white-robed angels; the +organ thrilled him, and the incense gratified his senses. There +was one especial anthem which touched him deeply. He was not the +only person who wept, he was glad to see, and when the ceremony +was over he left the church feeling that it was the happiest day +of his life. But an hour later he quarreled with Lorilleux in a +wineshop because the latter was so hardhearted.</p> + +<p>The housewarming at the Poissons' that night was very gay. +Lantier sat between Gervaise and Virginie and was equally civil +and attentive to both. Opposite was Poisson with his calm, +impassive face, a look he had cultivated since he began his +career as a police officer.</p> + +<p>But the queens of the fete were the two little girls, Nana and +Pauline, who sat very erect lest they should crush and deface +their pretty white dresses. At dessert there was a serious +discussion in regard to the future of the children. Mme Boche +said that Pauline would at once enter a certain manufactory, +where she would receive five or six francs per week. Gervaise had +not decided yet, for Nana had shown no especial leaning in any +direction. She had a good deal of taste, but she was +butter-fingered and careless.</p> + +<p>"I should make a florist of her," said Mme Lerat. "It is clean +work and pretty work too."</p> + +<p>Whereupon ensued a warm discussion. The men were especially +careful of their language out of deference to the little girls, +but Mme Lerat would not accept the lesson: she flattered herself +she could say what she pleased in such a way that it could not +offend the most fastidious ears.</p> + +<p>Women, she declared, who followed her trade were more virtuous +than others. They rarely made a slip.</p> + +<p>"I have no objection to your trade," interrupted Gervaise. "If +Nana likes to make flowers let her do so. Say, Nana, would you +like it?"</p> + +<p>The little girl did not look up from her plate, into which she +was dipping a crust of bread. She smiled faintly as she +replied:</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mamma; if you desire it I have no objection."</p> + +<p>The decision was instantly made, and Coupeau wished his sister +to take her the very next day to the place where she herself +worked, Rue du Caire, and the circle talked gravely of the duties +of life. Boche said that Pauline and Nana were now women, since +they had been to Communion, and they ought to be serious and +learn to cook and to mend. They alluded to their future +marriages, their homes and their children, and the girls touched +each other under the table, giggled and grew very red. Lantier +asked them if they did not have little husbands already, and Nana +blushingly confessed that she loved Victor Fauconnier and never +meant to marry anyone else.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux said to Mme Boche on their way home:</p> + +<p>"Nana is our goddaughter now, but if she goes into that flower +business, in six months she will be on the <i>pavé</i>, +and we will have nothing to do with her."</p> + +<p>Gervaise told Boche that she thought the shop admirably +arranged. She had looked forward to an evening of torture and was +surprised that she had not experienced a pang.</p> + +<p>Nana, as she undressed, asked her mother if the girl on the +next floor, who had been married the week before, wore a dress of +muslin like hers.</p> + +<p>But this was the last bright day in that household. Two years +passed away, and their prospects grew darker and their +demoralization and degradation more evident. They went without +food and without fire, but never without brandy.</p> + +<p>They found it almost impossible to meet their rent, and a +certain January came when they had not a penny, and Father Boche +ordered them to leave.</p> + +<p>It was frightfully cold, with a sharp wind blowing from the +north.</p> + +<p>M. Marescot appeared in a warm overcoat and his hands encased +in warm woolen gloves and told them they must go, even if they +slept in the gutter. The whole house was oppressed with woe, and +a dreary sound of lamentation arose from most of the rooms, for +half the tenants were behindhand. Gervaise sold her bed and paid +the rent. Nana made nothing as yet, and Gervaise had so fallen +off in her work that Mme Fauconnier had reduced her wages. She +was irregular in her hours and often absented herself from the +shop for several days together but was none the less vexed to +discover that her old employee, Mme Putois, had been placed above +her. Naturally at the end of the week Gervaise had little money +coming to her.</p> + +<p>As to Coupeau, if he worked he brought no money home, and his +wife had ceased to count upon it. Sometimes he declared he had +lost it through a hole in his pocket or it had been stolen, but +after a while he ceased to make any excuses.</p> + +<p>But if he had no cash in his pockets it was because he had +spent it all in drink. Mme Boche advised Gervaise to watch for +him at the door of the place where he was employed and get his +wages from him before he had spent them all, but this did no +good, as Coupeau was warned by his friends and escaped by a rear +door.</p> + +<p>The Coupeaus were entirely to blame for their misfortunes, but +this is just what people will never admit. It is always ill luck +or the cruelty of God or anything, in short, save the legitimate +result of their own vices.</p> + +<p>Gervaise now quarreled with her husband incessantly. The +warmth of affection of husband and wife, of parents for their +children and children for their parents had fled and left them +all shivering, each apart from the other.</p> + +<p>All three, Coupeau, Gervaise and Nana, watched each other with +eyes of baleful hate. It seemed as if some spring had +broken—the great mainspring that binds families +together.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did not shudder when she saw her husband lying drunk +in the gutter. She would not have pushed him in, to be sure, but +if he were out of the way it would be a good thing for everybody. +She even went so far as to say one day in a fit of rage that she +would be glad to see him brought home on a shutter. Of what good +was he to any human being? He ate and he drank and he slept. His +child learned to hate him, and she read the accidents in the +papers with the feelings of an unnatural daughter. What a pity it +was that her father had not been the man who was killed when that +omnibus tipped over!</p> + +<p>In addition to her own sorrows and privations, Gervaise, whose +heart was not yet altogether hard, was condemned to hear now of +the sufferings of others. The corner of the house in which she +lived seemed to be consecrated to those who were as poor as +herself. No smell of cooking filled the air, which, on the +contrary, was laden with the shrill cries of hungry children, +heavy with the sighs of weary, heartbroken mothers and with the +oaths of drunken husbands and fathers.</p> + +<p>Gervaise pitied Father Bru from the bottom of her heart; he +lay the greater part of the time rolled up in the straw in his +den under the staircase leading to the roof. When two or three +days elapsed without his showing himself someone opened the door +and looked in to see if he were still alive.</p> + +<p>Yes, he was living; that is, he was not dead. When Gervaise +had bread she always remembered him. If she had learned to hate +men because of her husband her heart was still tender toward +animals, and Father Bru seemed like one to her. She regarded him +as a faithful old dog. Her heart was heavy within her whenever +she thought of him, alone, abandoned by God and man, dying by +inches or drying, rather, as an orange dries on the chimney +piece.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was also troubled by the vicinity of the undertaker +Bazonge—a wooden partition alone separated their rooms. +When he came in at night she could hear him throw down his glazed +hat, which fell with a dull thud, like a shovelful of clay, on +the table. The black cloak hung against the wall rustled like the +wings of some huge bird of prey. She could hear his every +movement, and she spent most of her time listening to him with +morbid horror, while he—all unconscious—hummed his +vulgar songs and tipsily staggered to his bed, under which the +poor woman's sick fancy pictured a dead body concealed.</p> + +<p>She had read in some paper a dismal tale of some undertaker +who took home with him coffin after coffin—children's +coffins—in order to make one trip to the cemetery suffice. +When she heard his step the whole corridor was pervaded to her +senses with the odor of dead humanity.</p> + +<p>She would as lief have resided at Père-Lachaise and +watched the moles at their work. The man terrified her; his +incessant laughter dismayed her. She talked of moving but at the +same time was reluctant to do so, for there was a strange +fascination about Bazonge after all. Had he not told her once +that he would come for her and lay her down to sleep in the +shadow of waving branches, where she would know neither hunger +nor toil?</p> + +<p>She wished she could try it for a month. And she thought how +delicious it would be in midwinter, just at the time her +quarter's rent was due. But, alas, this was not possible! The +rest and the sleep must be eternal; this thought chilled her, and +her longing for death faded away before the unrelenting severity +of the bonds exacted by Mother Earth.</p> + +<p>One night she was sick and feverish, and instead of throwing +herself out of the window as she was tempted to do, she rapped on +the partition and called loudly:</p> + +<p>"Father Bazonge! Father Bazonge!"</p> + +<p>The undertaker was kicking off his slippers, singing a vulgar +song as he did so.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" he answered.</p> + +<p>But at his voice Gervaise awoke as from a nightmare. What had +she done? Had she really tapped? she asked herself, and she +recoiled from his side of the wall in chill horror. It seemed to +her that she felt the undertaker's hands on her head. No! No! She +was not ready. She told herself that she had not intended to call +him. It was her elbow that had knocked the wall accidentally, and +she shivered from head to foot at the idea of being carried away +in this man's arms.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" repeated Bazonge. "Can I serve you in +any way, madame?"</p> + +<p>"No! No! It is nothing!" answered the laundress in a choked +voice. "I am very much obliged."</p> + +<p>While the undertaker slept she lay wide awake, holding her +breath and not daring to move, lest he should think she called +him again.</p> + +<p>She said to herself that under no circumstances would she ever +appeal to him for assistance, and she said this over and over +again with the vain hope of reassuring herself, for she was by no +means at ease in her mind.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had before her a noble example of courage and +fortitude in the Bijard family. Little Lalie, that tiny +child—about as big as a pinch of salt—swept and kept +her room like wax; she watched over the two younger children with +all the care and patience of a mother. This she had done since +her father had kicked her mother to death. She had entirely +assumed that mother's place, even to receiving the blows which +had fallen formerly on that poor woman. It seemed to be a +necessity of his nature that when he came home drunk he must have +some woman to abuse. Lalie was too small, he grumbled; one blow +of his fist covered her whole face, and her skin was so delicate +that the marks of his five fingers would remain on her cheek for +days!</p> + +<p>He would fly at her like a wolf at a poor little kitten for +the merest trifle. Lalie never answered, never rebelled and never +complained. She merely tried to shield her face and suppressed +all shrieks, lest the neighbors should come; her pride could not +endure that. When her father was tired kicking her about the room +she lay where he left her until she had strength to rise, and +then she went steadily about her work, washing the children and +making her soup, sweeping and dusting until everything was clean. +It was a part of her plan of life to be beaten every day.</p> + +<p>Gervaise had conceived a strong affection for this little +neighbor. She treated her like a woman who knew something of +life. It must be admitted that Lalie was large for her years. She +was fair and pale, with solemn eyes for her years and had a +delicate mouth. To have heard her talk one would have thought her +thirty. She could make and mend, and she talked of the children +as if she had herself brought them into the world. She made +people laugh sometimes when she talked, but more often she +brought tears to their eyes.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did everything she could for her, gave her what she +could and helped the energetic little soul with her work. One day +she was altering a dress of Nana's for her, and when the child +tried it on Gervaise was chilled with horror at seeing her whole +back purple and bruised, the tiny arm bleeding—all the +innocent flesh of childhood martyrized by the brute—her +father.</p> + +<p>Bazonge might get the coffin ready, she thought, for the +little girl could not bear this long. But Lalie entreated her +friend to say nothing, telling her that her father did not know +what he was doing, that he had been drinking. She forgave him +with her whole heart, for madmen must not be held accountable for +their deeds. After that Gervaise was on the watch whenever she +heard Bijard coming up the stairs. But she never caught him in +any act of absolute brutality. Several times she had found Lalie +tied to the foot of the bedstead—an idea that had entered +her father's brain, no one knew why, a whim of his disordered +brain, disordered by liquor, which probably arose from his wish +to tyrannize over the child, even when he was no longer +there.</p> + +<p>Lalie sometimes was left there all day and once all night. +When Gervaise insisted on untying her the child entreated her not +to touch the knots, saying that her father would be furious if he +found the knots had been tampered with.</p> + +<p>And really, she said with an angelic smile, she needed rest, +and the only thing that troubled her was not to be able to put +the room in order. She could watch the children just as well, and +she could think, so that her time was not entirely lost. When her +father let her free, her sufferings were not over, for it was +sometimes more than an hour before she could stand—before +the blood circulated freely in her stiffened limbs.</p> + +<p>Her father had invented another cheerful game. He heated some +sous red hot on the stove and laid them on the chimney piece. He +then summoned Lalie and bade her go buy some bread. The child +unsuspiciously took up the sous, uttered a little shriek and +dropped them, shaking her poor burned fingers.</p> + +<p>Then he would go off in a rage. What did she mean by such +nonsense? She had thrown away the money and lost it, and he +threatened her with a hiding if she did not find the money +instantly. The poor child hesitated; he gave her a cuff on the +side of the head. With silent tears streaming down her cheeks she +would pick up the sous and toss them from hand to hand to cool +them as she went down the long flights of stairs.</p> + +<p>There was no limit to the strange ingenuity of the man. One +afternoon, for example, Lalie had completed playing with the +children. The window was open, and the air shook the door so that +it sounded like gentle raps.</p> + +<p>"It is Mr Wind," said Lalie; "come in, Mr Wind. How are you +today?"</p> + +<p>And she made a low curtsy to Mr Wind. The children did the +same in high glee, and she was quite radiant with happiness, +which was not often the case.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Mr Wind!" she repeated, but the door was pushed open +by a rough hand and Bijard entered. Then a sudden change came +over the scene. The two children crouched in a corner, while +Lalie stood in the center of the floor, frozen stiff with terror, +for Bijard held in his hand a new whip with a long and +wicked-looking lash. He laid this whip on the bed and did not +kick either one of the children but smiled in the most vicious +way, showing his two lines of blackened, irregular teeth. He was +very drunk and very noisy.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter with you fools? Have you been struck dumb? +I heard you all talking and laughing merrily enough before I came +in. Where are your tongues now? Here! Take off my shoes!"</p> + +<p>Lalie, considerably disheartened at not having received her +customary kick, turned very pale as she obeyed. He was sitting on +the side of the bed. He lay down without undressing and watched +the child as she moved about the room. Troubled by this strange +conduct, the child ended by breaking a cup. Then without +disturbing himself he took up the whip and showed it to her.</p> + +<p>"Look here, fool," he said grimly: "I bought this for you, and +it cost me fifty sous, but I expect to get a good deal more than +fifty sous' worth of good out of it. With this long lash I need +not run about after you, for I can reach you in every corner of +the room. You will break the cups, will you? Come, now, jump +about a little and say good morning to Mr Wind again!"</p> + +<p>He did not even sit up in the bed but, with his head buried in +the pillow, snapped the whip with a noise like that made by a +postilion. The lash curled round Lalie's slender body; she fell +to the floor, but he lashed her again and compelled her to +rise.</p> + +<p>"This is a very good thing," he said coolly, "and saves my +getting chilled on cold mornings. Yes, I can reach you in that +corner—and in that! Skip now! Skip!"</p> + +<p>A light foam was on his lips, and his suffused eyes were +starting from their sockets. Poor little Lalie darted about the +room like a terrified bird, but the lash tingled over her +shoulders, coiled around her slender legs and stung like a viper. +She was like an India-rubber ball bounding from the floor, while +her beast of a father laughed aloud and asked her if she had had +enough.</p> + +<p>The door opened and Gervaise entered. She had heard the noise. +She stood aghast at the scene and then was seized with noble +rage.</p> + +<p>"Let her be!" she cried. "I will go myself and summon the +police."</p> + +<p>Bijard growled like an animal who is disturbed over his +prey.</p> + +<p>"Why do you meddle?" he exclaimed. "What business is it of +yours?"</p> + +<p>And with another adroit movement he cut Lalie across the face. +The blood gushed from her lip. Gervaise snatched a chair and flew +at the brute, but the little girl held her skirts and said it did +not hurt much; it would be over soon, and she washed the blood +away, speaking gently to the frightened children.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise thought of Lalie she was ashamed to complain. +She wished she had the courage of this child. She knew that she +had lived on dry bread for weeks and that she was so weak she +could hardly stand, and the tears came to the woman's eyes as she +saw the precocious mite who had known nothing of the innocent +happiness of her years. And Gervaise took this slender creature +for example, whose eyes alone told the story of her misery and +hardships, for in the Coupeau family the vitriol of the Assommoir +was doing its work of destruction. Gervaise had seen a whip. +Gervaise had learned to dread it, and this dread inspired her +with tenderest pity for Lalie. Coupeau had lost the flesh and the +bloated look which had been his, and he was thin and emaciated. +His complexion was gradually acquiring a leaden hue. His appetite +was utterly gone. It was with difficulty that he swallowed a +mouthful of bread. His stomach turned against all solid food, but +he took his brandy every day. This was his meat as well as his +drink, and he touched nothing else.</p> + +<p>When he crawled out of his bed in the morning he stood for a +good fifteen minutes, coughing and spitting out a bitter liquid +that rose in his throat and choked him.</p> + +<p>He did not feel any better until he had taken what he called +"a good drink," and later in the day his strength returned. He +felt strange prickings in the skin of his hands and feet. But +lately his limbs had grown heavy. This pricking sensation gave +place to the most excruciating cramps, which he did not find very +amusing. He rarely laughed now but often stopped short and stood +still on the sidewalk, troubled by a strange buzzing in his ears +and by flashes of light before his eyes. Everything looked yellow +to him; the houses seemed to be moving away from him. At other +times, when the sun was full on his back, he shivered as if a +stream of ice water had been poured down between his shoulders. +But the thing he liked the least about himself was a nervous +trembling in his hands, the right hand especially.</p> + +<p>Had he become an old woman then? he asked himself with sudden +fury. He tried with all his strength to lift his glass and +command his nerves enough to hold it steady. But the glass had a +regular tremulous movement from right to left and left to right +again, in spite of all his efforts.</p> + +<p>Then he emptied it down his throat, saying that when he had +swallowed a dozen more he would be all right and as steady as a +monument. Gervaise told him, on the contrary, that he must leave +off drinking if he wished to leave off trembling.</p> + +<p>He grew very angry and drank quarts in his eagerness to test +the question, finally declaring that it was the passing +omnibusses that jarred the house and shook his hand.</p> + +<p>In March Coupeau came in one night drenched to the skin. He +had been caught out in a shower. That night he could not sleep +for coughing. In the morning he had a high fever, and the +physician who was sent for advised Gervaise to send him at once +to the hospital.</p> + +<p>And Gervaise made no objection; once she had refused to trust +her husband to these people, but now she consigned him to their +tender mercies without a regret; in fact, she regarded it as a +mercy.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, when the litter came she turned very pale and, +if she had had even ten francs in her pocket, would have kept him +at home. She walked to the hospital by the side of the litter and +went into the ward where he was placed. The room looked to her +like a miniature Père-Lachaise, with its rows of beds on +either side and its path down the middle. She went slowly away, +and in the street she turned and looked up. How well she +remembered when Coupeau was at work on those gutters, cheerily +singing in the morning air! He did not drink in those days, and +she, at her window in the Hôtel Boncœur, had watched his +athletic form against the sky, and both had waved their +handkerchiefs. Yes, Coupeau had worked more than a year on this +hospital, little thinking that he was preparing a place for +himself. Now he was no longer on the roof—he had built a +dismal nest within. Good God, was she and the once-happy wife and +mother one and the same? How long ago those days seemed!</p> + +<p>The next day when Gervaise went to make inquiries she found +the bed empty. A sister explained that her husband had been taken +to the asylum of Sainte-Anne, because the night before he had +suddenly become unmanageable from delirium and had uttered such +terrible howls that it disturbed the inmates of all the beds in +that ward. It was the alcohol in his system, she said, which +attacked his nerves now, when he was so reduced by the +inflammation on his lungs that he could not resist it.</p> + +<p>The clearstarcher went home, but how or by what route she +never knew. Her husband was mad—she heard these words +reverberating through her brain. Life was growing very strange. +Nana simply said that he must, of course, be left at the asylum, +for he might murder them both.</p> + +<p>On Sunday only could Gervaise go to Sainte-Anne. It was a long +distance off. Fortunately there was an omnibus which went very +near. She got out at La Rue Sante and bought two oranges that she +might not go quite empty-handed.</p> + +<p>But when she went in, to her astonishment she found Coupeau +sitting up. He welcomed her gaily.</p> + +<p>"You are better!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, nearly well," he replied, and they talked together +awhile, and she gave him the oranges, which pleased and touched +him, for he was a different man now that he drank tisane instead +of liquor. She did not dare allude to his delirium, but he spoke +of it himself.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, "I was in a pretty state! I saw rats running +all over the floor and the walls, and you were calling me, and I +saw all sorts of horrible things! But I am all right now. Once in +a while I have a bad dream, but everybody does, I suppose."</p> + +<p>Gervaise remained with him until night. When the house surgeon +made his rounds at six o'clock he told him to hold out his hands. +They scarcely trembled—an almost imperceptible motion of +the tips of his fingers was all. But as the room grew darker +Coupeau became restless. Two or three times he sat up and peered +into the remote corners.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he stretched out his arms and seemed to crush some +creature on the wall.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Gervaise, terribly frightened.</p> + +<p>"Rats!" he said quietly. "Only rats!"</p> + +<p>After a long silence he seemed to be dropping off to sleep, +with disconnected sentences falling from his lips.</p> + +<p>"Dirty beasts! Look out, one is under your skirts!" He pulled +the covering hastily over his head, as if to protect himself +against the creature he saw.</p> + +<p>Then starting up in mad terror, he screamed aloud. A nurse ran +to the bed, and Gervaise was sent away, mute with horror at this +scene.</p> + +<p>But when on the following Sunday she went again to the +hospital, Coupeau was really well. All his dreams had vanished. +He slept like a child, ten hours without lifting a finger. His +wife, therefore, was allowed to take him away. The house surgeon +gave him a few words of advice before he left, assuring him if he +continued to drink he would be a dead man in three months. All +depended on himself. He could live at home just as he had lived +at Sainte-Anne's and must forget that such things as wine and +brandy existed.</p> + +<p>"He is right," said Gervaise as they took their seats in the +omnibus.</p> + +<p>"Of course he is right," answered her husband. But after a +moment's silence he added:</p> + +<p>"But then, you know, a drop of brandy now and then never hurts +a man: it aids digestion."</p> + +<p>That very evening he took a tiny drop and for a week was very +moderate; he had no desire, he said, to end his days at Bicetre. +But he was soon off his guard, and one day his little drop ended +in a full glass, to be followed by a second, and so on. At the +end of a fortnight he had fallen back in the old rut.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did her best, but, after all, what can a wife do in +such circumstances?</p> + +<p>She had been so startled by the scene at the asylum that she +had fully determined to begin a regular life again and hoped that +he would assist her and do the same himself. But now she saw that +there was no hope, that even the knowledge of the inevitable +results could not restrain her husband now.</p> + +<p>Then the hell on earth began again; hopeless and intolerant, +Nana asked indignantly why he had not remained in the asylum. All +the money she made, she said, should be spent in brandy for her +father, for the sooner it was ended, the better for them all.</p> + +<p>Gervaise blazed out one day when he lamented his marriage and +told him that it was for her to curse the day when she first saw +him. He must remember that she had refused him over and over +again. The scene was a frightful one and one unexampled in the +Coupeau annals.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, now utterly discouraged, grew more indolent every +day. Her room was rarely swept. The Lorilleuxs said they could +not enter it, it was so dirty. They talked all day long over +their work of the downfall of Wooden Legs. They gloated over her +poverty and her rags.</p> + +<p>"Well! Well!" they murmured. "A great change has indeed come +to that beautiful blonde who was so fine in her blue shop."</p> + +<p>Gervaise suspected their comments on her and her acts to be +most unkind, but she determined to have no open quarrel. It was +for her interest to speak to them when they met, but that was all +the intercourse between them.</p> + +<p>On Saturday Coupeau had told his wife he would take her to the +circus; he had earned a little money and insisted on indulging +himself. Nana was obliged to stay late at the place where she +worked and would sleep with her aunt Mme Lerat.</p> + +<p>Seven o'clock came, but no Coupeau. Her husband was drinking +with his comrades probably. She had washed a cap and mended an +old gown with the hope of being presentable. About nine o'clock, +in a towering rage, she sallied forth on an empty stomach to find +Coupeau.</p> + +<p>"Are you looking for your husband?" said Mme Boche. "He is at +the Assommoir. Boche has just seen him there."</p> + +<p>Gervaise muttered her thanks and went with rapid steps to the +Assommoir.</p> + +<p>A fine rain was falling. The gas in the tavern was blazing +brightly, lighting up the mirrors, the bottles and glasses. She +stood at the window and looked in. He was sitting at a table with +his comrades. The atmosphere was thick with smoke, and he looked +stupefied and half asleep.</p> + +<p>She shivered and wondered why she should stay there and, so +thinking, turned away, only to come back twice to look again.</p> + +<p>The water lay on the uneven sidewalk in pools, reflecting all +the lights from the Assommoir. Finally she determined on a bold +step: she opened the door and deliberately walked up to her +husband. After all, why should she not ask him why he had not +kept his promise of taking her to the circus? At any rate, she +would not stay out there in the rain and melt away like a cake of +soap.</p> + +<p>"She is crazy!" said Coupeau when he saw her. "I tell you, she +is crazy!"</p> + +<p>He and all his friends shrieked with laughter, but no one +condescended to say what it was that was so very droll. Gervaise +stood still, a little bewildered by this unexpected reception. +Coupeau was so amiable that she said:</p> + +<p>"Come, you know it is not too late to see something."</p> + +<p>"Sit down a minute," said her husband, not moving from his +seat.</p> + +<p>Gervaise saw she could not stand there among all those men, so +she accepted the offered chair. She looked at the glasses, whose +contents glittered like gold. She looked at these dirty, shabby +men and at the others crowding around the counter. It was very +warm, and the pipe smoke thickened the air.</p> + +<p>Gervaise felt as if she were choking; her eyes smarted, and +her head was heavy with the fumes of alcohol. She turned around +and saw the still, the machine that created drunkards. That +evening the copper was dull and glittered only in one round spot. +The shadows of the apparatus on the wall behind were strange and +weird—creatures with tails, monsters opening gigantic jaws +as if to swallow the whole world.</p> + +<p>"What will you take to drink?" said Coupeau.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," answered his wife. "You know I have had no +dinner!"</p> + +<p>"You need it all the more then! Have a drop of something!"</p> + +<p>As she hesitated Mes-Bottes said gallantly:</p> + +<p>"The lady would like something sweet like herself."</p> + +<p>"I like men," she answered angrily, "who do not get tipsy and +talk like fools! I like men who keep their promises!"</p> + +<p>Her husband laughed.</p> + +<p>"You had better drink your share," he said, "for the devil a +bit of a circus will you see tonight."</p> + +<p>She looked at him fixedly. A heavy frown contracted her +eyebrows. She answered slowly:</p> + +<p>"You are right; it is a good idea. We can drink up the money +together."</p> + +<p>Bibi brought her a glass of anisette. As she sipped it she +remembered all at once the brandied fruit she had eaten in the +same place with Coupeau when he was courting her. That day she +had left the brandy and took only the fruit, and now she was +sitting there drinking liqueur.</p> + +<p>But the anisette was good. When her glass was empty she +refused another, and yet she was not satisfied.</p> + +<p>She looked around at the infernal machine behind her—a +machine that should have been buried ten fathoms deep in the sea. +Nevertheless, it had for her a strange fascination, and she +longed to quench her thirst with that liquid fire.</p> + +<p>"What is that you have in your glasses?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"That, my dear," answered her husband, "is Father Colombe's +own especial brew. Taste it."</p> + +<p>And when a glass of the vitriol was brought to her Coupeau +bade her swallow it down, saying it was good for her.</p> + +<p>After she had drunk this glass Gervaise was no longer +conscious of the hunger that had tormented her. Coupeau told her +they could go to the circus another time, and she felt she had +best stay where she was. It did not rain in the Assommoir, and +she had come to look upon the scene as rather amusing. She was +comfortable and sleepy. She took a third glass and then put her +head on her folded arms, supporting them on the table, and +listened to her husband and his friends as they talked.</p> + +<p>Behind her the still was at work with constant drip-drip, and +she felt a mad desire to grapple with it as with some dangerous +beast and tear out its heart. She seemed to feel herself caught +in those copper fangs and fancied that those coils of pipe were +wound around her own body, slowly but surely crushing out her +life.</p> + +<p>The whole room danced before her eyes, for Gervaise was now in +the condition which had so often excited her pity and indignation +with others. She vaguely heard a quarrel arise and a crash of +chairs and tables, and then Father Colombe promptly turned +everyone into the street.</p> + +<p>It was still raining and a cold, sharp wind blowing. Gervaise +lost Coupeau, found him and then lost him again. She wanted to go +home, but she could not find her way. At the corner of the street +she took her seat by the side of the gutter, thinking herself at +her washtub. Finally she got home and endeavored to walk straight +past the door of the concierge, within whose room she was vaguely +conscious of the Poissons and Lorilleuxs holding up their hands +in disgust at her condition.</p> + +<p>She never knew how she got up those six flights of stairs. But +when she turned into her own corridor little Lalie ran toward her +with loving, extended arms.</p> + +<p>"Dear Madame Gervaise," she cried, "Papa has not come in; +please come and see my children. They are sleeping so +sweetly!"</p> + +<p>But when she looked up in the face of the clearstarcher she +recoiled, trembling from head to foot. She knew only too well +that alcoholic smell, those wandering eyes and convulsed +lips.</p> + +<p>Then as Gervaise staggered past her without speaking the +child's arms fell at her side, and she looked after her friend +with sad and solemn eyes. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XI<br/> +LITTLE NANA</h2> + +<p>Nana was growing fast—fair, fresh and dimpled—her +skin velvety, like a peach, and eyes so bright that men often +asked her if they might not light their pipes at them. Her mass +of blonde hair—the color of ripe wheat—looked around +her temples as if it were powdered with gold. She had a quaint +little trick of sticking out the tip of her tongue between her +white teeth, and this habit, for some reason, exasperated her +mother.</p> + +<p>She was very fond of finery and very coquettish. In this +house, where bread was not always to be got, it was difficult for +her to indulge her caprices in the matter of costume, but she did +wonders. She brought home odds and ends of ribbons from the shop +where she worked and made them up into bows and knots with which +she ornamented her dirty dresses. She was not overparticular in +washing her feet, but she wore her boots so tight that she +suffered martyrdom in honor of St Crispin, and if anyone asked +her what the matter was when the pain flushed her face suddenly, +she always and promptly laid it to the score of the colic.</p> + +<p>Summer was the season of her triumphs. In a calico dress that +cost five or six francs she was as fresh and sweet as a spring +morning and made the dull street radiant with her youth and her +beauty. She went by the name of "The Little Chicken." One gown, +in particular, suited her to perfection. It was white with +rose-colored dots, without trimming of any kind. The skirt was +short and showed her feet. The sleeves were very wide and +displayed her arms to the elbows. She turned the neck away and +fastened it with pins—in a corner in the corridor, dreading +her father's jests—to exhibit her pretty rounded throat. A +rose-colored ribbon, knotted in the rippling masses of her hair, +completed her toilet. She was a charming combination of child and +woman.</p> + +<p>Sundays at this period of her life were her days for +coquetting with the public. She looked forward to them all the +week through with a longing for liberty and fresh air.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning she began her preparations and stood for +hours in her chemise before the bit of broken mirror nailed by +the window, and as everyone could see her, her mother would be +very much vexed and ask how long she intended to show herself in +that way.</p> + +<p>But she, quite undisturbed, went on fastening down the little +curls on her forehead with a little sugar and water and then +sewed the buttons on her boots or took a stitch or two in her +frock, barefooted all this time and with her chemise slipping off +her rounded shoulders.</p> + +<p>Her father declared he would exhibit her as the "Wild Girl," +at two sous a head.</p> + +<p>She was very lovely in this scanty costume, the color flushing +her cheeks in her indignation at her father's sometimes coarse +remarks. She did not dare answer him, however, but bit off her +thread in silent rage. After breakfast she went down to the +courtyard. The house was wrapped in Sunday quiet; the workshops +on the lower floor were closed. Through some of the open windows +the tables were seen laid for dinners, the families being on the +fortifications "getting an appetite."</p> + +<p>Five or six girls—Nana, Pauline and +others—lingered in the courtyard for a time and then took +flight altogether into the streets and thence to the outer +boulevards. They walked in a line, filling up the whole sidewalk, +with ribbons fluttering in their uncovered hair.</p> + +<p>They managed to see everybody and everything through their +downcast lids. The streets were their native heath, as it were, +for they had grown up in them.</p> + +<p>Nana walked in the center and gave her arm to Pauline, and as +they were the oldest and tallest of the band, they gave the law +to the others and decided where they should go for the day and +what they should do.</p> + +<p>Nana and Pauline were deep ones. They did nothing without +premeditation. If they ran it was to show their slender ankles, +and when they stopped and panted for breath it was sure to be at +the side of some youths—young workmen of their +acquaintance—who smoked in their faces as they talked. Nana +had her favorite, whom she always saw at a great +distance—Victor Fauconnier—and Pauline adored a young +cabinetmaker, who gave her apples.</p> + +<p>Toward sunset the great pleasure of the day began. A band of +mountebanks would spread a well-worn carpet, and a circle was +formed to look on. Nana and Pauline were always in the thickest +of the crowd, their pretty fresh dresses crushed between dirty +blouses, but insensible to the mingled odors of dust and alcohol, +tobacco and dirt. They heard vile language; it did not disturb +them; it was their own tongue—they heard little else. They +listened to it with a smile, their delicate cheeks unflushed.</p> + +<p>The only thing that disturbed them was the appearance of their +fathers, particularly if these fathers seemed to have been +drinking. They kept a good lookout for this disaster.</p> + +<p>"Look!" cried Pauline. "Your father is coming, Nana."</p> + +<p>Then the girl would crouch on her knees and bid the others +stand close around her, and when he had passed on after an +inquiring look she would jump up and they would all utter peals +of laughter.</p> + +<p>But one day Nana was kicked home by her father, and Boche +dragged Pauline away by her ear.</p> + +<p>The girls would ordinarily return to the courtyard in the +twilight and establish themselves there with the air of not +having been away, and each invented a story with which to greet +their questioning parents. Nana now received forty sous per day +at the place where she had been apprenticed. The Coupeaus would +not allow her to change, because she was there under the +supervision of her aunt, Mme Lerat, who had been employed for +many years in the same establishment.</p> + +<p>The girl went off at an early hour in her little black dress, +which was too short and too tight for her, and Mme Lerat was +bidden, whenever she was after her time, to inform Gervaise, who +allowed her just twenty minutes, which was quite long enough. But +she was often seven or eight minutes late, and she spent her +whole day coaxing her aunt not to tell her mother. Mme Lerat, who +was fond of the girl and understood the follies of youth, did not +tell, but at the same time she read Nana many a long sermon on +her follies and talked of her own responsibility and of the +dangers a young girl ran in Paris.</p> + +<p>"You must tell me everything," she said. "I am too indulgent +to you, and if evil should come of it I should throw myself into +the Seine. Understand me, my little kitten; if a man should speak +to you you must promise to tell me every word he says. Will you +swear to do this?"</p> + +<p>Nana laughed an equivocal little laugh. Oh yes, she would +promise. But men never spoke to her; she walked too fast for +that. What could they say to her? And she explained her +irregularity in coming—her five or ten minutes +delay—with an innocent little air. She had stopped at a +window to look at pictures or she had stopped to talk to Pauline. +Her aunt might follow her if she did not believe her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I will watch her. You need not be afraid!" said the widow +to her brother. "I will answer for her, as I would for +myself!"</p> + +<p>The place where the aunt and niece worked side by side was a +large room with a long table down the center. Shelves against the +wall were piled with boxes and bundles—all covered with a +thick coating of dust. The gas had blackened the ceiling. The two +windows were so large that the women, seated at the table, could +see all that was going on in the street below.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat was the first to make her appearance in the morning, +but in another fifteen minutes all the others were there. One +morning in July Nana came in last, which, however, was the usual +case.</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad when I have a carriage!" she said as she ran +to the window without even taking off her hat—a shabby +little straw.</p> + +<p>"What are you looking at?" asked her aunt suspiciously. "Did +your father come with you?"</p> + +<p>"No indeed," answered Nana carelessly; "nor am I looking at +anything. It is awfully warm, and of all things in the world, I +hate to be in a hurry."</p> + +<p>The morning was indeed frightfully hot. The workwomen had +closed the blinds, leaving a crack, however, through which they +could inspect the street, and they took their seats on each side +of the table—Mme Lerat at the farther end. There were eight +girls, four on either side, each with her little pot of glue, her +pincers and other tools; heaps of wires of different lengths and +sizes lay on the table, spools of cotton and of different-colored +papers, petals and leaves cut out of silk, velvet and satin. In +the center, in a goblet, one of the girls had placed a two-sou +bouquet,—which was slowly withering in the heat.</p> + +<p>"Did you know," said Leonie as she picked up a rose leaf with +her pincers, "how wretched poor Caroline is with that fellow who +used to call for her regularly every night?"</p> + +<p>Before anyone could answer Leonie added:</p> + +<p>"Hush! Here comes Madame."</p> + +<p>And in sailed Mme Titreville, a tall, thin woman, who usually +remained below in the shop. Her employees stood in dread terror +of her, as she was never known to smile. She went from one to +another, finding fault with all; she ordered one woman to pull a +marguerite to pieces and make it over and then went out as +stiffly and silently as she had come in.</p> + +<p>"Houp! Houp!" said Nana under her breath, and a giggle ran +round the table.</p> + +<p>"Really, young ladies," said Mme Lerat, "you will compel me to +severe measures."</p> + +<p>But no one was listening, and no one feared her. She was very +tolerant. They could say what they pleased, provided they put it +in decent language.</p> + +<p>Nana was certainly in a good school! Her instincts, to be +sure, were vicious, but these instincts were fostered and +developed in this place, as is too often the case when a crowd of +girls are herded together. It was the story of a basket of +apples, the good ones spoiled by those that were already rotten. +If two girls were whispering in a corner, ten to one they were +telling some story that could not be told aloud.</p> + +<p>Nana was not yet thoroughly perverted, but the curiosity which +had been her distinguishing characteristic as a child had not +deserted her, and she scarcely took her eyes from a girl by the +name of Lisa, about whom strange stories were told.</p> + +<p>"How warm it is!" she exclaimed, suddenly rising and pushing +open the blinds. Leonie saw a man standing on the sidewalk +opposite.</p> + +<p>"Who is that old fellow?" she said. "He has been there a full +quarter of an hour."</p> + +<p>"Some fool who has nothing better to do, I suppose," said Mme +Lerat. "Nana, will you come back to your work? I have told you +that you should not go to that window."</p> + +<p>Nana took up her violets, and they all began to watch this +man. He was well dressed, about fifty, pale and grave. For a full +hour he watched the windows.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said Leonie. "He has an eyeglass. Oh, he is very chic. +He is waiting for Augustine." But Augustine sharply answered that +she did not like the old man.</p> + +<p>"You make a great mistake then," said Mme Lerat with her +equivocal smile.</p> + +<p>Nana listened to the conversation which +followed—reveling in indecency—as much at home in it +as a fish is in water. All the time her fingers were busy at +work. She wound her violet stems and fastened in the leaves with +a slender strip of green paper. A drop of gum—and then +behold a bunch of delicate fresh verdure which would fascinate +any lady. Her fingers were especially deft by nature. No +instruction could have imparted this quality.</p> + +<p>The gentleman had gone away, and the workshop settled down +into quiet once more. When the bell rang for twelve Nana started +up and said she would go out and execute any commissions. Leonie +sent for two sous' worth of shrimp, Augustine for some fried +potatoes, Sophie for a sausage and Lisa for a bunch of radishes. +As she was going out, her aunt said quietly:</p> + +<p>"I will go with you. I want something."</p> + +<p>Lo, in the lane running up by the shop was the mysterious +stranger. Nana turned very red, and her aunt drew her arm within +her own and hurried her along.</p> + +<p>So then he had come for her! Was not this pretty behavior for +a girl of her age? And Mme Lerat asked question after question, +but Nana knew nothing of him, she declared, though he had +followed her for five days.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat looked at the man out of the corners of her eyes. +"You must tell me everything," she said.</p> + +<p>While they talked they went from shop to shop, and their arms +grew full of small packages, but they hurried back, still talking +of the gentleman.</p> + +<p>"It may be a good thing," said Mme Lerat, "if his intentions +are only honorable."</p> + +<p>The workwomen ate their breakfast on their knees; they were in +no hurry, either, to return to their work, when suddenly Leonie +uttered a low hiss, and like magic each girl was busy. Mme +Titreville entered the room and again made her rounds.</p> + +<p>Mme Lerat did not allow her niece after this day to set foot +on the street without her. Nana at first was inclined to rebel, +but, on the whole, it rather flattered her vanity to be guarded +like a treasure. They had discovered that the man who followed +her with such persistency was a manufacturer of buttons, and one +night the aunt went directly up to him and told him that he was +behaving in a most improper manner. He bowed and, turning on his +heel, departed—not angrily, by any means—and the next +day he did as usual.</p> + +<p>One day, however, he deliberately walked between the aunt and +the niece and said something to Nana in a low voice. This +frightened Mme Lerat, who went at once to her brother and told +him the whole story, whereupon he flew into a violent rage, shook +the girl until her teeth chattered and talked to her as if she +were the vilest of the vile.</p> + +<p>"Let her be!" said Gervaise with all a woman's sense. "Let her +be! Don't you see that you are putting all sorts of things into +her head?"</p> + +<p>And it was quite true; he had put ideas into her head and had +taught her some things she did not know before, which was very +astonishing. One morning he saw her with something in a paper. It +was <i>poudre de riz</i>, which, with a most perverted taste, she +was plastering upon her delicate skin. He rubbed the whole of the +powder into her hair until she looked like a miller's daughter. +Another time she came in with red ribbons to retrim her old hat; +he asked her furiously where she got them.</p> + +<p>Whenever he saw her with a bit of finery her father flew at +her with insulting suspicion and angry violence. She defended +herself and her small possessions with equal violence. One day he +snatched from her a little cornelian heart and ground it to dust +under his heel.</p> + +<p>She stood looking on, white and stern; for two years she had +longed for this heart. She said to herself that she would not +bear such treatment long. Coupeau occasionally realized that he +had made a mistake, but the mischief was done.</p> + +<p>He went every morning with Nana to the shop door and waited +outside for five minutes to be sure that she had gone in. But one +morning, having stopped to talk with a friend on the corner for +some time, he saw her come out again and vanish like a flash +around the corner. She had gone up two flights higher than the +room where she worked and had sat down on the stairs until she +thought him well out of the way.</p> + +<p>When he went to Mme Lerat she told him that she washed her +hands of the whole business; she had done all she could, and now +he must take care of his daughter himself. She advised him to +marry the girl at once or she would do worse.</p> + +<p>All the people in the neighborhood knew Nana's admirer by +sight. He had been in the courtyard several times, and once he +had been seen on the stairs.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs threatened to move away if this sort of thing +went on, and Mme Boche expressed great pity for this poor +gentleman whom this scamp of a girl was leading by the nose.</p> + +<p>At first Nana thought the whole thing a great joke, but at the +end of a month she began to be afraid of him. Often when she +stopped before the jeweler's he would suddenly appear at her side +and ask her what she wanted.</p> + +<p>She did not care so much for jewelry or ornaments as she did +for many other things. Sometimes as the mud was spattered over +her from the wheels of a carriage she grew faint and sick with +envious longings to be better dressed, to go to the theater, to +have a pretty room all to herself. She longed to see another side +of life, to know something of its pleasures. The stranger +invariably appeared at these moments, but she always turned and +fled, so great was her horror of him.</p> + +<p>But when winter came existence became well-nigh intolerable. +Each evening Nana was beaten, and when her father was tired of +this amusement her mother scolded. They rarely had anything to +eat and were always cold. If the girl bought some trifling +article of dress it was taken from her.</p> + +<p>No! This life could not last. She no longer cared for her +father. He had thoroughly disgusted her, and now her mother drank +too. Gervaise went to the Assommoir nightly—for her +husband, she said—and remained there. When Nana saw her +mother sometimes as she passed the window, seated among a crowd +of men, she turned livid with rage, because youth has little +patience with the vice of intemperance. It was a dreary life for +her—a comfortless home and a drunken father and mother. A +saint on earth could not have remained there; that she knew very +well, and she said she would make her escape some fine day, and +then perhaps her parents would be sorry and would admit that they +had pushed her out of the nest.</p> + +<p>One Saturday Nana, coming in, found her mother and father in a +deplorable condition—Coupeau lying across the bed and +Gervaise sitting in a chair, swaying to and fro. She had +forgotten the dinner, and one untrimmed candle lighted the dismal +scene.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, girl?" stammered Gervaise. "Well, your father +will settle with you!"</p> + +<p>Nana did not reply. She looked around the cheerless room, at +the cold stove, at her parents. She did not step across the +threshold. She turned and went away.</p> + +<p>And she did not come back! The next day when her father and +mother were sober, they each reproached the other for Nana's +flight.</p> + +<p>This was really a terrible blow to Gervaise, who had no longer +the smallest motive for self-control, and she abandoned herself +at once to a wild orgy that lasted three days. Coupeau gave his +daughter up and smoked his pipe quietly. Occasionally, however, +when eating his dinner, he would snatch up a knife and wave it +wildly in the air, crying out that he was dishonored and then, +laying it down as suddenly, resumed eating his soup.</p> + +<p>In this great house, whence each month a girl or two took +flight, this incident astonished no one. The Lorilleuxs were +rather triumphant at the success of their prophecy. Lantier +defended Nana.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he said, "she has done wrong, but bless my heart, +what would you have? A girl as pretty as that could not live all +her days in such poverty!"</p> + +<p>"You know nothing about it!" cried Mme Lorilleux one evening +when they were all assembled in the room of the concierge. +"Wooden Legs sold her daughter out and out. I know it! I have +positive proof of what I say. The time that the old gentleman was +seen on the stairs he was going to pay the money. Nana and he +were seen together at the Ambigu the other night! I tell you, I +know it!"</p> + +<p>They finished their coffee. This tale might or might not be +true; it was not improbable, at all events. And after this it was +circulated and generally believed in the <i>Quartier</i> that +Gervaise had sold her daughter.</p> + +<p>The clearstarcher, meanwhile, was going from bad to worse. She +had been dismissed from Mme Fauconnier's and in the last few +weeks had worked for eight laundresses, one after the +other—dismissed from all for her untidiness.</p> + +<p>As she seemed to have lost all skill in ironing, she went out +by the day to wash and by degrees was entrusted with only the +roughest work. This hard labor did not tend to beautify her +either. She continued to grow stouter and stouter in spite of her +scanty food and hard labor.</p> + +<p>Her womanly pride and vanity had all departed. Lantier never +seemed to see her when they met by chance, and she hardly noticed +that the liaison which had stretched along for so many years had +ended in a mutual disenchantment.</p> + +<p>Lantier had done wisely, so far as he was concerned, in +counseling Virginie to open the kind of shop she had. He adored +sweets and could have lived on pralines and gumdrops, sugarplums +and chocolate.</p> + +<p>Sugared almonds were his especial delight. For a year his +principal food was bonbons. He opened all the jars, boxes and +drawers when he was left alone in the shop; and often, with five +or six persons standing around, he would take off the cover of a +jar on the counter and put in his hand and crunch down an almond. +The cover was not put on again, and the jar was soon empty. It +was a habit of his, they all said; besides, he was subject to a +tickling in his throat!</p> + +<p>He talked a great deal to Poisson of an invention of his which +was worth a fortune—an umbrella and hat in one; that is to +say, a hat which, at the first drops of a shower, would expand +into an umbrella.</p> + +<p>Lantier suggested to Virginie that she should have Gervaise +come in once each week to wash the floors, shop and the rooms. +This she did and received thirty sous each time. Gervaise +appeared on Saturday mornings with her bucket and brush, without +seeming to suffer a single pang at doing this menial work in the +house where she had lived as mistress.</p> + +<p>One Saturday Gervaise had hard work. It had rained for three +days, and all the mud of the streets seemed to have been brought +into the shop. Virginie stood behind the counter with collar and +cuffs trimmed with lace. Near her on a low chair lounged Lantier, +and he was, as usual, eating candy.</p> + +<p>"Really, Madame Coupeau," cried Virginie, "can't you do better +than that? You have left all the dirt in the corners. Don't you +see? Oblige me by doing that over again."</p> + +<p>Gervaise obeyed. She went back to the corner and scrubbed it +again. She was on her hands and knees, with her sleeves rolled up +over her arms. Her old skirt clung close to her stout form, and +the sweat poured down her face.</p> + +<p>"The more elbow grease she uses, the more she shines," said +Lantier sententiously with his mouth full.</p> + +<p>Virginie, leaning back in her chair with the air of a +princess, followed the progress of the work with half-closed +eyes.</p> + +<p>"A little more to the right. Remember, those spots must all be +taken out. Last Saturday, you know, I was not pleased."</p> + +<p>And then Lantier and Virginie fell into a conversation, while +Gervaise crawled along the floor in the dirt at their feet.</p> + +<p>Mme Poisson enjoyed this, for her cat's eyes sparkled with +malicious joy, and she glanced at Lantier with a smile. At last +she was avenged for that mortification at the lavatory, which had +for years weighed heavy on her soul.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said Lantier, addressing himself to Gervaise, "I +saw Nana last night."</p> + +<p>Gervaise started to her feet with her brush in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I was coming down La Rue des Martyrs. In front of me was +a young girl on the arm of an old gentleman. As I passed I +glanced at her face and assure you that it was Nana. She was well +dressed and looked happy."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Gervaise in a low, dull voice.</p> + +<p>Lantier, who had finished one jar, now began another.</p> + +<p>"What a girl that is!" he continued. "Imagine that she made me +a sign to follow with the most perfect self-possession. She got +rid of her old gentleman in a cafe and beckoned me to the door. +She asked me to tell her about everybody."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" repeated Gervaise.</p> + +<p>She stood waiting. Surely this was not all. Her daughter must +have sent her some especial message. Lantier ate his +sugarplums.</p> + +<p>"I would not have looked at her," said Virginie. "I sincerely +trust, if I should meet her, that she would not speak to me for, +really, it would mortify me beyond expression. I am sorry for +you, Madame Gervaise, but the truth is that Poisson arrests every +day a dozen just such girls."</p> + +<p>Gervaise said nothing; her eyes were fixed on vacancy. She +shook her head slowly, as if in reply to her own thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Pray make haste," exclaimed Virginie fretfully. "I do not +care to have this scrubbing going on until midnight."</p> + +<p>Gervaise returned to her work. With her two hands clasped +around the handle of the brush she pushed the water before her +toward the door. After this she had only to rinse the floor after +sweeping the dirty water into the gutter.</p> + +<p>When all was accomplished she stood before the counter waiting +for her money. When Virginie tossed it toward her she did not +take it up instantly.</p> + +<p>"Then she said nothing else?" Gervaise asked.</p> + +<p>"She?" Lantier exclaimed. "Who is she? Ah yes, I remember. +Nana! No, she said nothing more."</p> + +<p>And Gervaise went away with her thirty sous in her hand, her +skirts dripping and her shoes leaving the mark of their broad +soles on the sidewalk.</p> + +<p>In the <i>Quartier</i> all the women who drank like her took +her part and declared she had been driven to intemperance by her +daughter's misconduct. She, too, began to believe this herself +and assumed at times a tragic air and wished she were dead. +Unquestionably she had suffered from Nana's departure. A mother +does not like to feel that her daughter will leave her for the +first person who asks her to do so.</p> + +<p>But she was too thoroughly demoralized to care long, and soon +she had but one idea: that Nana belonged to her. Had she not a +right to her own property?</p> + +<p>She roamed the streets day after day, night after night, +hoping to see the girl. That year half the <i>Quartier</i> was +being demolished. All one side of the Rue des Poissonnièrs +lay flat on the ground. Lantier and Poisson disputed day after +day on these demolitions. The one declared that the emperor +wanted to build palaces and drive the lower classes out of Paris, +while Poisson, white with rage, said the emperor would pull down +the whole of Paris merely to give work to the people.</p> + +<p>Gervaise did not like the improvements, either, or the changes +in the dingy <i>Quartier</i>, to which she was accustomed. It +was, in fact, a little hard for her to see all these +embellishments just when she was going downhill so fast over the +piles of brick and mortar, while she was wandering about in +search of Nana.</p> + +<p>She heard of her daughter several times. There are always +plenty of people to tell you things you do not care to hear. She +was told that Nana had left her elderly friend for the sake of +some young fellow.</p> + +<p>She heard, too, that Nana had been seen at a ball in the Grand +Salon, Rue de la Chapelle, and Coupeau and she began to frequent +all these places, one after another, whenever they had the money +to spend.</p> + +<p>But at the end of a month they had forgotten Nana and went for +their own pleasure. They sat for hours with their elbows on a +table, which shook with the movements of the dancers, amused by +the sight.</p> + +<p>One November night they entered the Grand Salon, as much to +get warm as anything else. Outside it was hailing, and the rooms +were naturally crowded. They could not find a table, and they +stood waiting until they could establish themselves. Coupeau was +directly in the mouth of the passage, and a young man in a frock +coat was thrown against him. The youth uttered an exclamation of +disgust as he began to dust off his coat with his handkerchief. +The blouse worn by Coupeau was assuredly none of the +cleanest.</p> + +<p>"Look here, my good fellow," cried Coupeau angrily, "those +airs are very unnecessary. I would have you to know that the +blouse of a workingman can do your coat no harm if it has touched +it!"</p> + +<p>The young man turned around and looked at Coupeau from head to +foot.</p> + +<p>"Learn," continued the angry workman, "that the blouse is the +only wear for a man!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise endeavored to calm her husband, who, however, tapped +his ragged breast and repeated loudly:</p> + +<p>"The only wear for a man, I tell you!"</p> + +<p>The youth slipped away and was lost in the crowd.</p> + +<p>Coupeau tried to find him, but it was quite impossible; the +crowd was too great. The orchestra was playing a quadrille, and +the dancers were bringing up the dust from the floor in great +clouds, which obscured the gas.</p> + +<p>"Look!" said Gervaise suddenly.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Look at that velvet bonnet!"</p> + +<p>Quite at the left there was a velvet bonnet, black with +plumes, only too suggestive of a hearse. They watched these +nodding plumes breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Do you not know that hair?" murmured Gervaise hoarsely. "I am +sure it is she!"</p> + +<p>In one second Coupeau was in the center of the crowd. Yes, it +was Nana, and in what a costume! She wore a ragged silk dress, +stained and torn. She had no shawl over her shoulders to conceal +the fact that half the buttonholes on her dress were burst out. +In spite of all her shabbiness the girl was pretty and fresh. +Nana, of course, danced on unsuspiciously. Her airs and graces +were beyond belief. She curtsied to the very ground and then in a +twinkling threw her foot over her partner's head. A circle was +formed, and she was applauded vociferously.</p> + +<p>At this moment Coupeau fell on his daughter.</p> + +<p>"Don't try and keep me back," he said, "for have her I +will!"</p> + +<p>Nana turned and saw her father and mother.</p> + +<p>Coupeau discovered that his daughter's partner was the young +man for whom he had been looking. Gervaise pushed him aside and +walked up to Nana and gave her two cuffs on her ears. One sent +the plumed hat on the side; the other left five red marks on that +pale cheek. The orchestra played on. Nana neither wept nor +moved.</p> + +<p>The dancers began to grow very angry. They ordered the Coupeau +party to leave the room.</p> + +<p>"Go," said Gervaise, "and do not attempt to leave us, for so +sure as you do you will be given in charge of a policeman."</p> + +<p>The young man had prudently disappeared.</p> + +<p>Nana's old life now began again, for after the girl had slept +for twelve hours on a stretch, she was very gentle and sweet for +a week. She wore a plain gown and a simple hat and declared she +would like to work at home. She rose early and took a seat at her +table by five o'clock the first morning and tried to roll her +violet stems, but her fingers had lost their cunning in the six +months in which they had been idle.</p> + +<p>Then the gluepot dried up; the petals and the paper were dusty +and spotted; the mistress of the establishment came for her tools +and materials and made more than one scene. Nana relapsed into +utter indolence, quarreling with her mother from morning until +night. Of course an end must come to this, so one fine evening +the girl disappeared.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs, who had been greatly amused by the repentance +and return of their niece, now nearly died laughing. If she +returned again they would advise the Coupeaus to put her in a +cage like a canary.</p> + +<p>The Coupeaus pretended to be rather pleased, but in their +hearts they raged, particularly as they soon learned that Nana +was frequently seen in the <i>Quartier</i>. Gervaise declared +this was done by the girl to annoy them.</p> + +<p>Nana adorned all the balls in the vicinity, and the Coupeaus +knew that they could lay their hands on her at any time they +chose, but they did not choose and they avoided meeting her.</p> + +<p>But one night, just as they were going to bed, they heard a +rap on the door. It was Nana, who came to ask as coolly as +possible if she could sleep there. What a state she was in! All +rags and dirt. She devoured a crust of dried bread and fell +asleep with a part of it in her hand. This continued for some +time, the girl coming and going like a will-o'-the-wisp. Weeks +and months would elapse without a sign from her, and then she +would reappear without a word to say where she had been, +sometimes in rags and sometimes well dressed. Finally her parents +began to take these proceedings as a matter of course. She might +come in, they said, or stay out, just as she pleased, provided +she kept the door shut. Only one thing exasperated Gervaise now, +and that was when her daughter appeared with a bonnet and +feathers and a train. This she would not endure. When Nana came +to her it must be as a simple workingwoman! None of this dearly +bought finery should be exhibited there, for these trained +dresses had created a great excitement in the house.</p> + +<p>One day Gervaise reproached her daughter violently for the +life she led and finally, in her rage, took her by the shoulder +and shook her.</p> + +<p>"Let me be!" cried the girl. "You are the last person to talk +to me in that way. You did as you pleased. Why can't I do the +same?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" stammered the mother.</p> + +<p>"I have never said anything about it because it was none of my +business, but do you think I did not know where you were when my +father lay snoring? Let me alone. It was you who set me the +example."</p> + +<p>Gervaise turned away pale and trembling, while Nana composed +herself to sleep again.</p> + +<p>Coupeau's life was a very regular one—that is to say, he +did not drink for six months and then yielded to temptation, +which brought him up with a round turn and sent him to +Sainte-Anne's. When he came out he did the same thing, so that in +three years he was seven times at Sainte-Anne's, and each time he +came out the fellow looked more broken and less able to stand +another orgy.</p> + +<p>The poison had penetrated his entire system. He had grown very +thin; his cheeks were hollow and his eyes inflamed. Those who +knew his age shuddered as they saw him pass, bent and decrepit as +a man of eighty. The trembling of his hands had so increased that +some days he was obliged to use them both in raising his glass to +his lips. This annoyed him intensely and seemed to be the only +symptom of his failing health which disturbed him. He sometimes +swore violently at these unruly members and at others sat for +hours looking at these fluttering hands as if trying to discover +by what strange mechanism they were moved. And one night Gervaise +found him sitting in this way with great tears pouring down his +withered cheeks.</p> + +<p>The last summer of his life was especially trying to Coupeau. +His voice was entirely changed; he was deaf in one ear, and some +days he could not see and was obliged to feel his way up– +and downstairs as if he were blind. He suffered from maddening +headaches, and sudden pains would dart through his limbs, causing +him to snatch at a chair for support. Sometimes after one of +these attacks his arm would be paralyzed for twenty-four +hours.</p> + +<p>He would lie in bed with even his head wrapped up, silent and +moody, like some suffering animal. Then came incipient madness +and fever—tearing everything to pieces that came in his +way—or he would weep and moan, declaring that no one loved +him, that he was a burden to his wife. One evening when his wife +and daughter came in he was not in his bed; in his place lay the +bolster carefully tucked in. They found him at last crouched on +the floor under the bed, with his teeth chattering with cold and +fear. He told them he had been attacked by assassins.</p> + +<p>The two women coaxed him back to bed as if he had been a +baby.</p> + +<p>Coupeau knew but one remedy for all this, and that was a good +stout morning dram. His memory had long since fled; his brain had +softened. When Nana appeared after an absence of six weeks he +thought she had been on an errand around the corner. She met him +in the street, too, very often now, without fear, for he passed +without recognizing her. One night in the autumn Nana went out, +saying she wanted some baked pears from the fruiterer's. She felt +the cold weather coming on, and she did not care to sit before a +cold stove. The winter before she went out for two sous' worth of +tobacco and came back in a month's time; they thought she would +do the same now, but they were mistaken. Winter came and went, as +did the spring, and even when June arrived they had seen and +heard nothing of her.</p> + +<p>She was evidently comfortable somewhere, and the Coupeaus, +feeling certain that she would never return, had sold her bed; it +was very much in their way, and they could drink up the six +francs it brought.</p> + +<p>One morning Virginie called to Gervaise as the latter passed +the shop and begged her to come in and help a little, as Lantier +had had two friends to supper the night before, and Gervaise +washed the dishes while Lantier sat in the shop smoking. +Presently he said:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gervaise, I saw Nana the other night."</p> + +<p>Virginie, who was behind the counter, opening and shutting +drawer after drawer, with a face that lengthened as she found +each empty, shook her fist at him indignantly.</p> + +<p>She had begun to think he saw Nana very often. She did not +speak, but Mme Lerat, who had just come in, said with a +significant look:</p> + +<p>"And where did you see her?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, in a carriage," answered Lantier with a laugh. "And I was +on the sidewalk." He turned toward Gervaise and went on:</p> + +<p>"Yes, she was in a carriage, dressed beautifully. I did not +recognize her at first, but she kissed her hand to me. Her friend +this time must be a vicomte at the least. She looked as happy as +a queen."</p> + +<p>Gervaise wiped the plate in her hands, rubbing it long and +carefully, though it had long since been dry. Virginie, with +wrinkled brows, wondered how she could pay two notes which fell +due the next day, while Lantier, fat and hearty from the sweets +he had devoured, asked himself if these drawers and jars would be +filled up again or if the ruin he anticipated was so near at hand +that he would be compelled to pull up stakes at once. There was +not another praline for him to crunch, not even a gumdrop.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise went back to her room she found Coupeau sitting +on the side of the bed, weeping and moaning. She took a chair +near by and looked at him without speaking.</p> + +<p>"I have news for you," she said at last. "Your daughter has +been seen. She is happy and comfortable. Would that I were in her +place!"</p> + +<p>Coupeau was looking down on the floor intently. He raised his +head and said with an idiotic laugh:</p> + +<p>"Do as you please, my dear; don't let me be any hindrance to +you. When you are dressed up you are not so bad looking after +all." +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XII<br/> +POVERTY AND DEGRADATION</h2> + +<p>The weather was intensely cold about the middle of January. +Gervaise had not been able to pay her rent, due on the first. She +had little or no work and consequently no food to speak of. The +sky was dark and gloomy and the air heavy with the coming of a +storm. Gervaise thought it barely possible that her husband might +come in with a little money. After all, everything is possible, +and he had said that he would work. Gervaise after a little, by +dint of dwelling on this thought, had come to consider it a +certainty. Yes, Coupeau would bring home some money, and they +would have a good, hot, comfortable dinner. As to herself, she +had given up trying to get work, for no one would have her. This +did not much trouble her, however, for she had arrived at that +point when the mere exertion of moving had become intolerable to +her. She now lay stretched on the bed, for she was warmer +there.</p> + +<p>Gervaise called it a bed. In reality it was only a pile of +straw in the corner, for she had sold her bed and all her +furniture. She occasionally swept the straw together with a +broom, and, after all, it was neither dustier nor dirtier than +everything else in the place. On this straw, therefore, Gervaise +now lay with her eyes wide open. How long, she wondered, could +people live without eating? She was not hungry, but there was a +strange weight at the pit of her stomach. Her haggard eyes +wandered about the room in search of anything she could sell. She +vaguely wished someone would buy the spider webs which hung in +all the corners. She knew them to be very good for cuts, but she +doubted if they had any market value.</p> + +<p>Tired of this contemplation, she got up and took her one chair +to the window and looked out into the dingy courtyard.</p> + +<p>Her landlord had been there that day and declared he would +wait only one week for his money, and if it were not forthcoming +he would turn them into the street. It drove her wild to see him +stand in his heavy overcoat and tell her so coldly that he would +pack her off at once. She hated him with a vindictive hatred, as +she did her fool of a husband and the Lorilleuxs and Poissons. In +fact, she hated everyone on that especial day.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately people can't live without eating, and before the +woman's famished eyes floated visions of food. Not of dainty +little dishes. She had long since ceased to care for those and +ate all she could get without being in the least fastidious in +regard to its quality. When she had a little money she bought a +bullock's heart or a bit of cheese or some beans, and sometimes +she begged from a restaurant and made a sort of panada of the +crusts they gave her, which she cooked on a neighbor's stove. She +was quite willing to dispute with a dog for a bone. Once the +thought of such things would have disgusted her, but at that time +she did not—for three days in succession—go without a +morsel of food. She remembered how last week Coupeau had stolen a +half loaf of bread and sold it, or rather exchanged it, for +liquor.</p> + +<p>She sat at the window, looking at the pale sky, and finally +fell asleep. She dreamed that she was out in a snowstorm and +could not find her way home. She awoke with a start and saw that +night was coming on. How long the days are when one's stomach is +empty! She waited for Coupeau and the relief he would bring.</p> + +<p>The clock struck in the next room. Could it be possible? Was +it only three? Then she began to cry. How could she ever wait +until seven? After another half-hour of suspense she started up. +Yes, they might say what they pleased, but she, at least, would +try to borrow ten sous from the Lorilleuxs.</p> + +<p>There was a continual borrowing of small sums in this corridor +during the winter, but no matter what was the emergency no one +ever dreamed of applying to the Lorilleuxs. Gervaise summoned all +her courage and rapped at the door.</p> + +<p>"Come in!" cried a sharp voice.</p> + +<p>How good it was there! Warm and bright with the glow of the +forge. And Gervaise smelled the soup, too, and it made her feel +faint and sick.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you, is it?" said Mme Lorilleux. "What do you +want?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise hesitated. The application for ten sous stuck in her +throat, because she saw Boche seated by the stove.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" asked Lorilleux, in his turn.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen Coupeau?" stammered Gervaise. "I thought he was +here."</p> + +<p>His sister answered with a sneer that they rarely saw Coupeau. +They were not rich enough to offer him as many glasses of wine as +he wanted in these days.</p> + +<p>Gervaise stammered out a disconnected sentence.</p> + +<p>He had promised to come home. She needed food; she needed +money.</p> + +<p>A profound silence followed. Mme Lorilleux fanned her fire, +and her husband bent more closely over his work, while Boche +smiled with an expectant air.</p> + +<p>"If I could have ten sous," murmured Gervaise.</p> + +<p>The silence continued.</p> + +<p>"If you would lend them to me," said Gervaise, "I would give +them back in the morning."</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux turned and looked her full in the face, thinking +to herself that if she yielded once the next day it would be +twenty sous, and who could tell where it would stop?</p> + +<p>"But, my dear," she cried, "you know we have no money and no +prospect of any; otherwise, of course, we would oblige you."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Lorilleux, "the heart is willing, but the +pockets are empty."</p> + +<p>Gervaise bowed her head, but she did not leave instantly. She +looked at the gold wire on which her sister-in-law was working +and at that in the hands of Lorilleux and thought that it would +take a mere scrap to give her a good dinner. On that day the room +was very dirty and filled with charcoal dust, but she saw it +resplendent with riches like the shop of a money-changer, and she +said once more in a low, soft voice:</p> + +<p>"I will bring back the ten sous. I will, indeed!" Tears were +in her eyes, but she was determined not to say that she had eaten +nothing for twenty-four hours.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you how much I need it," she continued.</p> + +<p>The husband and wife exchanged a look. Wooden Legs begging at +their door! Well! Well! Who would have thought it? Why had they +not known it was she when they rashly called out, "Come in?" +Really, they could not allow such people to cross their +threshold; there was too much that was valuable in the room. They +had several times distrusted Gervaise; she looked about so +queerly, and now they would not take their eyes off her.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went toward Lorilleux as she spoke.</p> + +<p>"Take care!" he said roughly. "You will carry off some of the +particles of gold on the soles of your shoes. It looks really as +if you had greased them!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise drew back. She leaned against the +<i>étagère</i> for a moment and, seeing that her +sister-in-law's eyes were fixed on her hands, she opened them and +said in a gentle, weary voice—the voice of a woman who had +ceased to struggle:</p> + +<p>"I have taken nothing. You can look for yourself."</p> + +<p>And she went away; the warmth of the place and the smell of +the soup were unbearable.</p> + +<p>The Lorilleuxs shrugged their shoulders as the door closed. +They hoped they had seen the last of her face. She had brought +all her misfortunes on her own head, and she had, therefore, no +right to expect any assistance from them. Boche joined in these +animadversions, and all three considered themselves avenged for +the blue shop and all the rest.</p> + +<p>"I know her!" said Mme Lorilleux. "If I had lent her the ten +sous she wanted she would have spent it in liquor."</p> + +<p>Gervaise crawled down the corridor with slipshod shoes and +slouching shoulders, but at her door she hesitated; she could not +go in: she was afraid. She would walk up and down a +little—that would keep her warm. As she passed she looked +in at Father Bru, but to her surprise he was not there, and she +asked herself with a pang of jealousy if anyone could possibly +have asked him out to dine. When she reached the Bijards' she +heard a groan. She went in.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" she said.</p> + +<p>The room was very clean and in perfect order. Lalie that very +morning had swept and arranged everything. In vain did the cold +blast of poverty blow through that chamber and bring with it dirt +and disorder. Lalie was always there; she cleaned and scrubbed +and gave to everything a look of gentility. There was little +money but much cleanliness within those four walls.</p> + +<p>The two children were cutting out pictures in a corner, but +Lalie was in bed, lying very straight and pale, with the sheet +pulled over her chin.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" asked Gervaise anxiously.</p> + +<p>Lalie slowly lifted her white lids and tried to speak.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," she said faintly; "nothing, I assure you!" Then as +her eyes closed she added:</p> + +<p>"I am only a little lazy and am taking my ease."</p> + +<p>But her face bore the traces of such frightful agony that +Gervaise fell on her knees by the side of the bed. She knew that +the child had had a cough for a month, and she saw the blood +trickling from the corners of her mouth.</p> + +<p>"It is not my fault," Lalie murmured. "I thought I was strong +enough, and I washed the floor. I could not finish the windows +though. Everything but those are clean. But I was so tired that I +was obliged to lie down—"</p> + +<p>She interrupted herself to say:</p> + +<p>"Please see that my children are not cutting themselves with +the scissors."</p> + +<p>She started at the sound of a heavy step on the stairs. Her +father noisily pushed open the door. As usual he had drunk too +much, and in his eyes blazed the lurid flames kindled by +alcohol.</p> + +<p>When he saw Lalie lying down he walked to the corner and took +up the long whip, from which he slowly unwound the lash.</p> + +<p>"This is a good joke!" he said. "The idea of your daring to go +to bed at this hour. Come, up with you!"</p> + +<p>He snapped the whip over the bed, and the child murmured +softly:</p> + +<p>"Do not strike me, Papa. I am sure you will be sorry if you +do. Do not strike me!"</p> + +<p>"Up with you!" he cried. "Up with you!"</p> + +<p>Then she answered faintly:</p> + +<p>"I cannot, for I am dying."</p> + +<p>Gervaise had snatched the whip from Bijard, who stood with his +under jaw dropped, glaring at his daughter. What could the little +fool mean? Whoever heard of a child dying like that when she had +not even been sick? Oh, she was lying!</p> + +<p>"You will see that I am telling you the truth," she replied. +"I did not tell you as long as I could help it. Be kind to me +now, Papa, and say good-by as if you loved me."</p> + +<p>Bijard passed his hand over his eyes. She did look very +strangely—her face was that of a grown woman. The presence +of death in that cramped room sobered him suddenly. He looked +around with the air of a man who had been suddenly awakened from +a dream. He saw the two little ones clean and happy and the room +neat and orderly.</p> + +<p>He fell into a chair.</p> + +<p>"Dear little mother!" he murmured. "Dear little mother!"</p> + +<p>This was all he said, but it was very sweet to Lalie, who had +never been spoiled by overpraise. She comforted him. She told him +how grieved she was to go away and leave him before she had +entirely brought up her children. He would watch over them, would +he not? And in her dying voice she gave him some little details +in regard to their clothes. He—the alcohol having regained +its power—listened with round eyes of wonder.</p> + +<p>After a long silence Lalie spoke again:</p> + +<p>"We owe four francs and seven sous to the baker. He must be +paid. Madame Goudron has an iron that belongs to us; you must not +forget it. This evening I was not able to make the soup, but +there are bread and cold potatoes."</p> + +<p>As long as she breathed the poor little mite continued to be +the mother of the family. She died because her breast was too +small to contain so great a heart, and that he lost this precious +treasure was entirely her father's fault. He, wretched creature, +had kicked her mother to death and now, just as surely, murdered +his daughter.</p> + +<p>Gervaise tried to keep back her tears. She held Lalie's hands, +and as the bedclothes slipped away she rearranged them. In doing +so she caught a glimpse of the poor little figure. The sight +might have drawn tears from a stone. Lalie wore only a tiny +chemise over her bruised and bleeding flesh; marks of a lash +striped her sides; a livid spot was on her right arm, and from +head to foot she was one bruise.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was paralyzed at the sight. She wondered, if there +were a God above, how He could have allowed the child to stagger +under so heavy a cross.</p> + +<p>"Madame Coupeau," murmured the child, trying to draw the sheet +over her. She was ashamed, ashamed for her father.</p> + +<p>Gervaise could not stay there. The child was fast sinking. Her +eyes were fixed on her little ones, who sat in the corner, still +cutting out their pictures. The room was growing dark, and +Gervaise fled from it. Ah, what an awful thing life was! And how +gladly would she throw herself under the wheels of an omnibus, if +that might end it!</p> + +<p>Almost unconsciously Gervaise took her way to the shop where +her husband worked or, rather, pretended to work. She would wait +for him and get the money before he had a chance to spend it.</p> + +<p>It was a very cold corner where she stood. The sounds of the +carriages and footsteps were strangely muffled by reason of the +fast-falling snow. Gervaise stamped her feet to keep them from +freezing. The people who passed offered few distractions, for +they hurried by with their coat collars turned up to their ears. +But Gervaise saw several women watching the door of the factory +quite as anxiously as herself—they were wives who, like +herself, probably wished to get hold of a portion of their +husbands' wages. She did not know them, but it required no +introduction to understand their business.</p> + +<p>The door of the factory remained firmly shut for some time. +Then it opened to allow the egress of one workman; then two, +three, followed, but these were probably those who, well behaved, +took their wages home to their wives, for they neither retreated +nor started when they saw the little crowd. One woman fell on a +pale little fellow and, plunging her hand into his pocket, +carried off every sou of her husband's earnings, while he, left +without enough to pay for a pint of wine, went off down the +street almost weeping.</p> + +<p>Some other men appeared, and one turned back to warn a +comrade, who came gamely and fearlessly out, having put his +silver pieces in his shoes. In vain did his wife look for them in +his pockets; in vain did she scold and coax—he had no +money, he declared.</p> + +<p>Then came another noisy group, elbowing each other in their +haste to reach a cabaret, where they could drink away their +week's wages. These fellows were followed by some shabby men who +were swearing under their breath at the trifle they had received, +having been tipsy and absent more than half the week.</p> + +<p>But the saddest sight of all was the grief of a meek little +woman in black, whose husband, a tall, good-looking fellow, +pushed her roughly aside and walked off down the street with his +boon companions, leaving her to go home alone, which she did, +weeping her very heart out as she went.</p> + +<p>Gervaise still stood watching the entrance. Where was Coupeau? +She asked some of the men, who teased her by declaring that he +had just gone by the back door. She saw by this time that Coupeau +had lied to her, that he had not been at work that day. She also +saw that there was no dinner for her. There was not a shadow of +hope—nothing but hunger and darkness and cold.</p> + +<p>She toiled up La Rue des Poissonnièrs when she suddenly +heard Coupeau's voice and, glancing in at the window of a +wineshop, she saw him drinking with Mes-Bottes, who had had the +luck to marry the previous summer a woman with some money. He was +now, therefore, well clothed and fed and altogether a happy +mortal and had Coupeau's admiration. Gervaise laid her hands on +her husband's shoulders as he left the cabaret.</p> + +<p>"I am hungry," she said softly.</p> + +<p>"Hungry, are you? Well then, eat your fist and keep the other +for tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"Shall I steal a loaf of bread?" she asked in a dull, dreary +tone.</p> + +<p>Mes-Bottes smoothed his chin and said in a conciliatory +voice:</p> + +<p>"No, no! Don't do that; it is against the law. But if a woman +manages—"</p> + +<p>Coupeau interrupted him with a coarse laugh.</p> + +<p>Yes, a woman, if she had any sense, could always get along, +and it was her own fault if she starved.</p> + +<p>And the two men walked on toward the outer boulevard. Gervaise +followed them. Again she said:</p> + +<p>"I am hungry. You know I have had nothing to eat. You must +find me something."</p> + +<p>He did not answer, and she repeated her words in a tone of +agony.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" he exclaimed, turning upon her furiously. "What +can I do? I have nothing. Be off with you, unless you want to be +beaten."</p> + +<p>He lifted his fist; she recoiled and said with set teeth:</p> + +<p>"Very well then; I will go and find some man who has a +sou."</p> + +<p>Coupeau pretended to consider this an excellent joke. Yes of +course she could make a conquest; by gaslight she was still +passably goodlooking. If she succeeded he advised her to dine at +the Capucin, where there was very good eating.</p> + +<p>She turned away with livid lips; he called after her:</p> + +<p>"Bring some dessert with you, for I love cake. And perhaps you +can induce your friend to give me an old coat, for I swear it is +cold tonight."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, with this infernal mirth ringing in her ears, +hurried down the street. She was determined to take this +desperate step. She had only a choice between that and theft, and +she considered that she had a right to dispose of herself as she +pleased. The question of right and wrong did not present itself +very clearly to her eyes. "When one is starving is hardly the +time," she said to herself, "to philosophize." She walked slowly +up and down the boulevard. This part of Paris was crowded now +with new buildings, between whose sculptured facades ran narrow +lanes leading to haunts of squalid misery, which were cheek by +jowl with splendor and wealth.</p> + +<p>It seemed strange to Gervaise that among this crowd who +elbowed her there was not one good Christian to divine her +situation and slip some sous into her hand. Her head was dizzy, +and her limbs would hardly bear her weight. At this hour ladies +with hats and well-dressed gentlemen who lived in these fine new +houses were mingled with the people—with the men and women +whose faces were pale and sickly from the vitiated air of the +workshops in which they passed their lives. Another day of toil +was over, but the days came too often and were too long. One +hardly had time to turn over in one's sleep when the everlasting +grind began again.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went with the crowd. No one looked at her, for the +men were all hurrying home to their dinner. Suddenly she looked +up and beheld the Hôtel Boncœur. It was empty, the +shutters and doors covered with placards and the whole facade +weather-stained and decaying. It was there in that hotel that the +seeds of her present life had been sown. She stood still and +looked up at the window of the room she had occupied and recalled +her youth passed with Lantier and the manner in which he had left +her. But she was young then and soon recovered from the blow. +That was twenty years ago, and now what was she?</p> + +<p>The sight of the place made her sick, and she turned toward +Montmartre. She passed crowds of workwomen with little parcels in +their hands and children who had been sent to the baker's, +carrying four-pound loaves of bread as tall as themselves, which +looked like shining brown dolls.</p> + +<p>By degrees the crowd dispersed, and Gervaise was almost alone. +Everyone was at dinner. She thought how delicious it would be to +lie down and never rise again—to feel that all toil was +over. And this was the end of her life! Gervaise, amid the pangs +of hunger, thought of some of the fete days she had known and +remembered that she had not always been miserable. Once she was +pretty, fair and fresh. She had been a kind and admired mistress +in her shop. Gentlemen came to it only to see her, and she +vaguely wondered where all this youth and this beauty had +fled.</p> + +<p>Again she looked up; she had reached the abattoirs, which were +now being torn down; the fronts were taken away, showing the dark +holes within, the very stones of which reeked with blood. Farther +on was the hospital with its high, gray walls, with two wings +opening out like a huge fan. A door in the wall was the terror of +the whole Quartier—the Door of the Dead, it was +called—through which all the bodies were carried.</p> + +<p>She hurried past this solid oak door and went down to the +railroad bridge, under which a train had just passed, leaving in +its rear a floating cloud of smoke. She wished she were on that +train which would take her into the country, and she pictured to +herself open spaces and the fresh air and expanse of blue sky; +perhaps she could live a new life there.</p> + +<p>As she thought this her weary eyes began to puzzle out in the +dim twilight the words on a printed handbill pasted on one of the +pillars of the arch. She read one—an advertisement offering +fifty francs for a lost dog. Someone must have loved the creature +very much.</p> + +<p>Gervaise turned back again. The street lamps were being lit +and defined long lines of streets and avenues. The restaurants +were all crowded, and people were eating and drinking. Before the +Assommoir stood a crowd waiting their turn and room within, and +as a respectable tradesman passed he said with a shake of the +head that many a man would be drunk that night in Paris. And over +this scene hung the dark sky, low and clouded.</p> + +<p>Gervaise wished she had a few sous: she would, in that case, +have gone into this place and drunk until she ceased to feel +hungry, and through the window she watched the still with an +angry consciousness that all her misery and all her pain came +from that. If she had never touched a drop of liquor all might +have been so different.</p> + +<p>She started from her reverie; this was the hour of which she +must take advantage. Men had dined and were comparatively +amiable. She looked around her and toward the trees +where—under the leafless branches—she saw more than +one female figure. Gervaise watched them, determined to do what +they did. Her heart was in her throat; it seemed to her that she +was dreaming a bad dream.</p> + +<p>She stood for some fifteen minutes; none of the men who passed +looked at her. Finally she moved a little and spoke to one who, +with his hands in his pockets, was whistling as he walked.</p> + +<p>"Sir," she said in a low voice, "please listen to me."</p> + +<p>The man looked at her from head to foot and went on whistling +louder than before.</p> + +<p>Gervaise grew bolder. She forgot everything except the pangs +of hunger. The women under the trees walked up and down with the +regularity of wild animals in a cage.</p> + +<p>"Sir," she said again, "please listen."</p> + +<p>But the man went on. She walked toward the Hôtel +Boncœur again, past the hospital, which was now brilliantly lit. +There she turned and went back over the same ground—the +dismal ground between the slaughterhouses and the place where the +sick lay dying. With these two places she seemed to feel bound by +some mysterious tie.</p> + +<p>"Sir, please listen!"</p> + +<p>She saw her shadow on the ground as she stood near a street +lamp. It was a grotesque shadow—grotesque because of her +ample proportions. Her limp had become, with time and her +additional weight, a very decided deformity, and as she moved the +lengthening shadow of herself seemed to be creeping along the +sides of the houses with bows and curtsies of mock reverence. +Never before had she realized the change in herself. She was +fascinated by this shadow. It was very droll, she thought, and +she wondered if the men did not think so too.</p> + +<p>"Sir, please listen!"</p> + +<p>It was growing late. Man after man, in a beastly state of +intoxication, reeled past her; quarrels and disputes filled the +air.</p> + +<p>Gervaise walked on, half asleep. She was conscious of little +except that she was starving. She wondered where her daughter was +and what she was eating, but it was too much trouble to think, +and she shivered and crawled on. As she lifted her face she felt +the cutting wind, accompanied by the snow, fine and dry, like +gravel. The storm had come.</p> + +<p>People were hurrying past her, but she saw one man walking +slowly. She went toward him.</p> + +<p>"Sir, please listen!"</p> + +<p>The man stopped. He did not seem to notice what she said but +extended his hand and murmured in a low voice:</p> + +<p>"Charity, if you please!"</p> + +<p>The two looked at each other. Merciful heavens! It was Father +Bru begging and Mme Coupeau doing worse. They stood looking at +each other—equals in misery. The aged workman had been +trying to make up his mind all the evening to beg, and the first +person he stopped was a woman as poor as himself! This was indeed +the irony of fate. Was it not a pity to have toiled for fifty +years and then to beg his bread? To have been one of the most +flourishing laundresses in Paris and then to make her bed in the +gutter? They looked at each other once more, and without a word +each went their own way through the fast-falling snow, which +blinded Gervaise as she struggled on, the wind wrapping her thin +skirts around her legs so that she could hardly walk.</p> + +<p>Suddenly an absolute whirlwind struck her and bore her +breathless and helpless along—she did not even know in what +direction. When at last she was able to open her eyes she could +see nothing through the blinding snow, but she heard a step and +saw the outlines of a man's figure. She snatched him by the +blouse.</p> + +<p>"Sir," she said, "please listen."</p> + +<p>The man turned. It was Goujet.</p> + +<p>Ah, what had she done to be thus tortured and humiliated? Was +God in heaven an angry God always? This was the last dreg of +bitterness in her cup. She saw her shadow: her limp, she felt, +made her walk like an intoxicated woman, which was indeed hard, +when she had not swallowed a drop.</p> + +<p>Goujet looked at her while the snow whitened his yellow +beard.</p> + +<p>"Come!" he said.</p> + +<p>And he walked on, she following him. Neither spoke.</p> + +<p>Poor Mme Goujet had died in October of acute rheumatism, and +her son continued to reside in the same apartment. He had this +night been sitting with a sick friend.</p> + +<p>He entered, lit a lamp and turned toward Gervaise, who stood +humbly on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Come in!" he said in a low voice, as if his mother could have +heard him.</p> + +<p>The first room was that of Mme Goujet, which was unchanged +since her death. Near the window stood her frame, apparently +ready for the old lady. The bed was carefully made, and she could +have slept there had she returned from the cemetery to spend a +night with her son. The room was clean, sweet and orderly.</p> + +<p>"Come in," repeated Goujet.</p> + +<p>Gervaise entered with the air of a woman who is startled at +finding herself in a respectable place. He was pale and +trembling. They crossed his mother's room softly, and when +Gervaise stood within his own he closed the door.</p> + +<p>It was the same room in which he had lived ever since she knew +him—small and almost virginal in its simplicity. Gervaise +dared not move.</p> + +<p>Goujet snatched her in his arms, but she pushed him away +faintly.</p> + +<p>The stove was still hot, and a dish was on the top of it. +Gervaise looked toward it. Goujet understood. He placed the dish +on the table, poured her out some wine and cut a slice of +bread.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said. "How good you are!"</p> + +<p>She trembled to that degree that she could hardly hold her +fork. Hunger gave her eyes the fierceness of a famished beast and +to her head the tremulous motion of senility. After eating a +potato she burst into tears but continued to eat, with the tears +streaming down her cheeks and her chin quivering.</p> + +<p>"Will you have some more bread?" he asked. She said no; she +said yes; she did not know what she said.</p> + +<p>And he stood looking at her in the clear light of the lamp. +How old and shabby she was! The heat was melting the snow on her +hair and clothing, and water was dripping from all her garments. +Her hair was very gray and roughened by the wind. Where was the +pretty white throat he so well remembered? He recalled the days +when he first knew her, when her skin was so delicate and she +stood at her table, briskly moving the hot irons to and fro. He +thought of the time when she had come to the forge and of the joy +with which he would have welcomed her then to his room. And now +she was there!</p> + +<p>She finished her bread amid great silent tears and then rose +to her feet.</p> + +<p>Goujet took her hand.</p> + +<p>"I love you, Madame Gervaise; I love you still," he cried.</p> + +<p>"Do not say that," she exclaimed, "for it is impossible."</p> + +<p>He leaned toward her.</p> + +<p>"Will you allow me to kiss you?" he asked respectfully.</p> + +<p>She did not know what to say, so great was her emotion.</p> + +<p>He kissed her gravely and solemnly and then pressed his lips +upon her gray hair. He had never kissed anyone since his mother's +death, and Gervaise was all that remained to him of the past.</p> + +<p>He turned away and, throwing himself on his bed, sobbed aloud. +Gervaise could not endure this. She exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"I love you, Monsieur Goujet, and I understand. Farewell!"</p> + +<p>And she rushed through Mme Goujet's room and then through the +street to her home. The house was all dark, and the arched door +into the courtyard looked like huge, gaping jaws. Could this be +the house where she once desired to reside? Had she been deaf in +those days, not to have heard that wail of despair which pervaded +the place from top to bottom? From the day when she first set her +foot within the house she had steadily gone downhill.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was a frightful way to live—so many people +herded together, to become the prey of cholera or vice. She +looked at the courtyard and fancied it a cemetery surrounded by +high walls. The snow lay white within it. She stepped over the +usual stream from the dyer's, but this time the stream was black +and opened for itself a path through the white snow. The stream +was the color of her thoughts. But she remembered when both were +rosy.</p> + +<p>As she toiled up the six long flights in the darkness she +laughed aloud. She recalled her old dream—to work quietly, +have plenty to eat, a little home to herself, where she could +bring up her children, never to be beaten, and to die in her bed! +It was droll how things had turned out. She worked no more; she +had nothing to eat; she lived amid dirt and disorder. Her +daughter had gone to the bad, and her husband beat her whenever +he pleased. As for dying in her bed, she had none. Should she +throw herself out of the window and find one on the pavement +below?</p> + +<p>She had not been unreasonable in her wishes, surely. She had +not asked of heaven an income of thirty thousand francs or a +carriage and horses. This was a queer world! And then she laughed +again as she remembered that she had once said that after she had +worked for twenty years she would retire into the country.</p> + +<p>Yes, she would go into the country, for she should soon have +her little green corner in Père-Lachaise.</p> + +<p>Her poor brain was disturbed. She had bidden an eternal +farewell to Goujet. They would never see each other again. All +was over between them—love and friendship too.</p> + +<p>As she passed the Bijards' she looked in and saw Lalie lying +dead, happy and at peace. It was well with the child.</p> + +<p>"She is lucky," muttered Gervaise.</p> + +<p>At this moment she saw a gleam of light under the undertaker's +door. She threw it wide open with a wild desire that he should +take her as well as Lalie. Bazonge had come in that night more +tipsy than usual and had thrown his hat and cloak in the corner, +while he lay in the middle of the floor.</p> + +<p>He started up and called out:</p> + +<p>"Shut that door! And don't stand there—it is too cold. +What do you want?"</p> + +<p>Then Gervaise, with arms outstretched, not knowing or caring +what she said, began to entreat him with passionate +vehemence:</p> + +<p>"Oh, take me!" she cried. "I can bear it no longer. Take me, I +implore you!"</p> + +<p>And she knelt before him, a lurid light blazing in her haggard +eyes.</p> + +<p>Father Bazonge, with garments stained by the dust of the +cemetery, seemed to her as glorious as the sun. But the old man, +yet half asleep, rubbed his eyes and could not understand +her.</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Take me," repeated Gervaise, more earnestly than before. "Do +you remember one night when I rapped on the partition? Afterward +I said I did not, but I was stupid then and afraid. But I am not +afraid now. Here, take my hands—they are not cold with +terror. Take me and put me to sleep, for I have but this one wish +now."</p> + +<p>Bazonge, feeling that it was not proper to argue with a lady, +said:</p> + +<p>"You are right. I have buried three women today, who would +each have given me a jolly little sum out of gratitude, if they +could have put their hands in their pockets. But you see, my dear +woman, it is not such an easy thing you are asking of me."</p> + +<p>"Take me!" cried Gervaise. "Take me! I want to go away!"</p> + +<p>"But there is a certain little operation first, you +know—" And he pretended to choke and rolled up his +eyes.</p> + +<p>Gervaise staggered to her feet. He, too, rejected her and +would have nothing to do with her. She crawled into her room and +threw herself on her straw. She was sorry she had eaten anything +and delayed the work of starvation. +</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII<br/> +THE HOSPITAL</h2> + +<p>The next day Gervaise received ten francs from her son +Etienne, who had steady work. He occasionally sent her a little +money, knowing that there was none too much of that commodity in +his poor mother's pocket.</p> + +<p>She cooked her dinner and ate it alone, for Coupeau did not +appear, nor did she hear a word of his whereabouts for nearly a +week. Finally a printed paper was given her which frightened her +at first, but she was soon relieved to find that it simply +conveyed to her the information that her husband was at +Sainte-Anne's again.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was in no way disturbed. Coupeau knew the way back +well enough; he would return in due season. She soon heard that +he and Mes-Bottes had spent the whole week in dissipation, and +she even felt a little angry that they had not seen fit to offer +her a glass of wine with all their feasting and carousing.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, as Gervaise had a nice little repast ready for the +evening, she decided that an excursion would give her an +appetite. The letter from the asylum stared her in the face and +worried her. The snow had melted; the sky was gray and soft, and +the air was fresh. She started at noon, as the days were now +short and Sainte-Anne's was a long distance off, but as there +were a great many people in the street, she was amused.</p> + +<p>When she reached the hospital she heard a strange story. It +seems that Coupeau—how, no one could say—had escaped +from the hospital and had been found under the bridge. He had +thrown himself over the parapet, declaring that armed men were +driving him with the point of their bayonets.</p> + +<p>One of the nurses took Gervaise up the stairs. At the head she +heard terrific howls which froze the marrow in her bones.</p> + +<p>"It is he!" said the nurse.</p> + +<p>"He? Whom do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean your husband. He has gone on like that ever since day +before yesterday, and he dances all the time too. You will +see!"</p> + +<p>Ah, what a sight it was! The cell was cushioned from the floor +to the ceiling, and on the floor were mattresses on which Coupeau +danced and howled in his ragged blouse. The sight was terrific. +He threw himself wildly against the window and then to the other +side of the cell, shaking hands as if he wished to break them off +and fling them in defiance at the whole world. These wild motions +are sometimes imitated, but no one who has not seen the real and +terrible sight can imagine its horror.</p> + +<p>"What is it? What is it?" gasped Gervaise.</p> + +<p>A house surgeon, a fair and rosy youth, was sitting, calmly +taking notes. The case was a peculiar one and had excited a great +deal of attention among the physicians attached to the +hospital.</p> + +<p>"You can stay awhile," he said, "but keep very quiet. He will +not recognize you, however."</p> + +<p>Coupeau, in fact, did not seem to notice his wife, who had not +yet seen his face. She went nearer. Was that really he? She never +would have known him with his bloodshot eyes and distorted +features. His skin was so hot that the air was heated around him +and was as if it were varnished—shining and damp with +perspiration. He was dancing, it is true, but as if on burning +plowshares; not a motion seemed to be voluntary.</p> + +<p>Gervaise went to the young surgeon, who was beating a tune on +the back of his chair.</p> + +<p>"Will he get well, sir?" she said.</p> + +<p>The surgeon shook his head.</p> + +<p>"What is he saying? Hark! He is talking now."</p> + +<p>"Just be quiet, will you?" said the young man. "I wish to +listen."</p> + +<p>Coupeau was speaking fast and looking all about, as if he were +examining the underbrush in the Bois de Vincennes.</p> + +<p>"Where is it now?" he exclaimed and then, straightening +himself, he looked off into the distance.</p> + +<p>"It is a fair," he exclaimed, "and lanterns in the trees, and +the water is running everywhere: fountains, cascades and all +sorts of things."</p> + +<p>He drew a long breath, as if enjoying the delicious freshness +of the air.</p> + +<p>By degrees, however, his features contracted again with pain, +and he ran quickly around the wall of his cell.</p> + +<p>"More trickery," he howled. "I knew it!"</p> + +<p>He started back with a hoarse cry; his teeth chattered with +terror.</p> + +<p>"No, I will not throw myself over! All that water would drown +me! No, I will not!"</p> + +<p>"I am going," said Gervaise to the surgeon. "I cannot stay +another moment."</p> + +<p>She was very pale. Coupeau kept up his infernal dance while +she tottered down the stairs, followed by his hoarse voice.</p> + +<p>How good it was to breathe the fresh air outside!</p> + +<p>That evening everyone in the huge house in which Coupeau had +lived talked of his strange disease. The concierge, crazy to hear +the details, condescended to invite Gervaise to take a glass of +cordial, forgetting that he had turned a cold shoulder upon her +for many weeks.</p> + +<p>Mme Lorilleux and Mme Poisson were both there also. Boche had +heard of a cabinetmaker who had danced the polka until he died. +He had drunk absinthe.</p> + +<p>Gervaise finally, not being able to make them understand her +description, asked for the table to be moved and there, in the +center of the loge, imitated her husband, making frightful leaps +and horrible contortions.</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was what he did!"</p> + +<p>And then everybody said it was not possible that man could +keep up such violent exercise for even three hours.</p> + +<p>Gervaise told them to go and see if they did not believe her. +But Mme Lorilleux declared that nothing would induce her to set +foot within Sainte-Anne's, and Virginie, whose face had grown +longer and longer with each successive week that the shop got +deeper into debt, contented herself with murmuring that life was +not always gay—in fact, in her opinion, it was a pretty +dismal thing. As the wine was finished, Gervaise bade them all +good night. When she was not speaking she had sat with fixed, +distended eyes. Coupeau was before them all the time.</p> + +<p>The next day she said to herself when she rose that she would +never go to the hospital again; she could do no good. But as +midday arrived she could stay away no longer and started forth, +without a thought of the length of the walk, so great were her +mingled curiosity and anxiety.</p> + +<p>She was not obliged to ask a question; she heard the frightful +sounds at the very foot of the stairs. The keeper, who was +carrying a cup of tisane across the corridor, stopped when he saw +her.</p> + +<p>"He keeps it up well!" he said.</p> + +<p>She went in but stood at the door, as she saw there were +people there. The young surgeon had surrendered his chair to an +elderly gentleman wearing several decorations. He was the chief +physician of the hospital, and his eyes were like gimlets.</p> + +<p>Gervaise tried to see Coupeau over the bald head of that +gentleman. Her husband was leaping and dancing with undiminished +strength. The perspiration poured more constantly from his brow +now; that was all. His feet had worn holes in the mattress with +his steady tramp from window to wall.</p> + +<p>Gervaise asked herself why she had come back. She had been +accused the evening before of exaggerating the picture, but she +had not made it strong enough. The next time she imitated him she +could do it better. She listened to what the physicians were +saying: the house surgeon was giving the details of the night +with many words which she did not understand, but she gathered +that Coupeau had gone on in the same way all night. Finally he +said this was the wife of the patient. Wherefore the surgeon in +chief turned and interrogated her with the air of a police +judge.</p> + +<p>"Did this man's father drink?"</p> + +<p>"A little, sir. Just as everybody does. He fell from a roof +when he had been drinking and was killed."</p> + +<p>"Did his mother drink?"</p> + +<p>"Yes sir—that is, a little now and then. He had a +brother who died in convulsions, but the others are very +healthy."</p> + +<p>The surgeon looked at her and said coldly:</p> + +<p>"You drink too?"</p> + +<p>Gervaise attempted to defend herself and deny the +accusation.</p> + +<p>"You drink," he repeated, "and see to what it leads. Someday +you will be here, and like this."</p> + +<p>She leaned against the wall, utterly overcome. The physician +turned away. He knelt on the mattress and carefully watched +Coupeau; he wished to see if his feet trembled as much as his +hands. His extremities vibrated as if on wires. The disease was +creeping on, and the peculiar shivering seemed to be under the +skin—it would cease for a minute or two and then begin +again. The belly and the shoulders trembled like water just on +the point of boiling.</p> + +<p>Coupeau seemed to suffer more than the evening before. His +complaints were curious and contradictory. A million pins were +pricking him. There was a weight under the skin; a cold, wet +animal was crawling over him. Then there were other creatures on +his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"I am thirsty," he groaned; "so thirsty."</p> + +<p>The house surgeon took a glass of lemonade from a tray and +gave it to him. He seized the glass in both hands, drank one +swallow, spilling the whole of it at the same time. He at once +spat it out in disgust.</p> + +<p>"It is brandy!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>Then the surgeon, on a sign from his chief, gave him some +water, and Coupeau did the same thing.</p> + +<p>"It is brandy!" he cried. "Brandy! Oh, my God!"</p> + +<p>For twenty-four hours he had declared that everything he +touched to his lips was brandy, and with tears begged for +something else, for it burned his throat, he said. Beef tea was +brought to him; he refused it, saying it smelled of alcohol. He +seemed to suffer intense and constant agony from the poison which +he vowed was in the air. He asked why people were allowed to rub +matches all the time under his nose, to choke him with their vile +fumes.</p> + +<p>The physicians watched Coupeau with care and interest. The +phantoms which had hitherto haunted him by night now appeared +before him at midday. He saw spiders' webs hanging from the wall +as large as the sails of a man-of-war. Then these webs changed to +nets, whose meshes were constantly contracting only to enlarge +again. These nets held black balls, and they, too, swelled and +shrank. Suddenly he cried out:</p> + +<p>"The rats! Oh, the rats!"</p> + +<p>The balls had been transformed to rats. The vile beasts found +their way through the meshes of the nets and swarmed over the +mattress and then disappeared as suddenly as they came.</p> + +<p>The rats were followed by a monkey, who went in and came out +from the wall, each time so near his face that Coupeau started +back in disgust. All this vanished in the twinkling of an eye. He +apparently thought the walls were unsteady and about to fall, for +he uttered shriek after shriek of agony.</p> + +<p>"Fire! Fire!" he screamed. "They can't stand long. They are +shaking! Fire! Fire! The whole heavens are bright with the light! +Help! Help!"</p> + +<p>His shrieks ended in a convulsed murmur. He foamed at the +mouth. The surgeon in chief turned to the assistant.</p> + +<p>"You keep the temperature at forty degrees?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes sir."</p> + +<p>A dead silence ensued. Then the surgeon shrugged his +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Well, continue the same treatment—beef tea, milk, +lemonade and quinine as directed. Do not leave him, and send for +me if there is any change."</p> + +<p>And he left the room, Gervaise following close at his heels, +seeking an opportunity of asking him if there was no hope. But he +stalked down the corridor with so much dignity that she dared not +approach him.</p> + +<p>She stood for a moment, undecided whether she should go back +to Coupeau or not, but hearing him begin again the lamentable cry +for water:</p> + +<p>"Water, not brandy!"</p> + +<p>She hurried on, feeling that she could endure no more that +day. In the streets the galloping horses made her start with a +strange fear that all the inmates of Sainte-Anne's were at her +heels. She remembered what the physician had said, with what +terrors he had threatened her, and she wondered if she already +had the disease.</p> + +<p>When she reached the house the concierge and all the others +were waiting and called her into the loge.</p> + +<p>Was Coupeau still alive? they asked.</p> + +<p>Boche seemed quite disturbed at her answer, as he had made a +bet that he would not live twenty-four hours. Everyone was +astonished. Mme Lorilleux made a mental calculation:</p> + +<p>"Sixty hours," she said. "His strength is extraordinary."</p> + +<p>Then Boche begged Gervaise to show them once more what Coupeau +did.</p> + +<p>The demand became general, and it was pointed out to her that +she ought not to refuse, for there were two neighbors there who +had not seen her representation the night previous and who had +come in expressly to witness it.</p> + +<p>They made a space in the center of the room, and a shiver of +expectation ran through the little crowd.</p> + +<p>Gervaise was very reluctant. She was really +afraid—afraid of making herself ill. She finally made the +attempt but drew back again hastily.</p> + +<p>No, she could not; it was quite impossible. Everyone was +disappointed, and Virginie went away.</p> + +<p>Then everyone began to talk of the Poissons. A warrant had +been served on them the night before. Poisson was to lose his +place. As to Lantier, he was hovering around a woman who thought +of taking the shop and meant to sell hot tripe. Lantier was in +luck, as usual.</p> + +<p>As they talked someone caught sight of Gervaise and pointed +her out to the others. She was at the very back of the loge, her +feet and hands trembling, imitating Coupeau, in fact. They spoke +to her. She stared wildly about, as if awaking from a dream, and +then left the room.</p> + +<p>The next day she left the house at noon, as she had done +before. And as she entered Sainte-Anne's she heard the same +terrific sounds.</p> + +<p>When she reached the cell she found Coupeau raving mad! He was +fighting in the middle of the cell with invisible enemies. He +tried to hide himself; he talked and he answered, as if there +were twenty persons. Gervaise watched him with distended eyes. He +fancied himself on a roof, laying down the sheets of zinc. He +blew the furnace with his mouth, and he went down on his knees +and made a motion as if he had soldering irons in his hand. He +was troubled by his shoes: it seemed as if he thought they were +dangerous. On the next roofs stood persons who insulted him by +letting quantities of rats loose. He stamped here and there in +his desire to kill them and the spiders too! He pulled away his +clothing to catch the creatures who, he said, intended to burrow +under his skin. In another minute he believed himself to be a +locomotive and puffed and panted. He darted toward the window and +looked down into the street as if he were on a roof.</p> + +<p>"Look!" he said. "There is a traveling circus. I see the lions +and the panthers making faces at me. And there is +Clémence. Good God, man, don't fire!"</p> + +<p>And he gesticulated to the men who, he said, were pointing +their guns at him.</p> + +<p>He talked incessantly, his voice growing louder and louder, +higher and higher.</p> + +<p>"Ah, it is you, is it? But please keep your hair out of my +mouth."</p> + +<p>And he passed his hand over his face as if to take away the +hair.</p> + +<p>"Who is it?" said the keeper.</p> + +<p>"My wife, of course."</p> + +<p>He looked at the wall, turning his back to Gervaise, who felt +very strange, and looked at the wall to see if she were there! He +talked on.</p> + +<p>"You look very fine. Where did you get that dress? Come here +and let me arrange it for you a little. You devil! There he is +again!"</p> + +<p>And he leaped at the wall, but the soft cushions threw him +back.</p> + +<p>"Whom do you see?" asked the young doctor.</p> + +<p>"Lantier! Lantier!"</p> + +<p>Gervaise could not endure the eyes of the young man, for the +scene brought back to her so much of her former life.</p> + +<p>Coupeau fancied, as he had been thrown back from the wall in +front, that he was now attacked in the rear, and he leaped over +the mattress with the agility of a cat. His respiration grew +shorter and shorter, his eyes starting from their sockets.</p> + +<p>"He is killing her!" he shrieked. "Killing her! Just see the +blood!"</p> + +<p>He fell back against the wall with his hands wide open before +him, as if he were repelling the approach of some frightful +object. He uttered two long, low groans and then fell flat on the +mattress.</p> + +<p>"He is dead! He is dead!" moaned Gervaise.</p> + +<p>The keeper lifted Coupeau. No, he was not dead; his bare feet +quivered with a regular motion. The surgeon in chief came in, +bringing two colleagues. The three men stood in grave silence, +watching the man for some time. They uncovered him, and Gervaise +saw his shoulders and back.</p> + +<p>The tremulous motion had now taken complete possession of the +body as well as the limbs, and a strange ripple ran just under +the skin.</p> + +<p>"He is asleep," said the surgeon in chief, turning to his +colleagues.</p> + +<p>Coupeau's eyes were closed, and his face twitched +convulsively. Coupeau might sleep, but his feet did nothing of +the kind.</p> + +<p>Gervaise, seeing the doctors lay their hands on Coupeau's +body, wished to do the same. She approached softly and placed her +hand on his shoulder and left it there for a minute.</p> + +<p>What was going on there? A river seemed hurrying on under that +skin. It was the liquor of the Assommoir, working like a mole +through muscle, nerves, bone and marrow.</p> + +<p>The doctors went away, and Gervaise, at the end of another +hour, said to the young surgeon:</p> + +<p>"He is dead, sir."</p> + +<p>But the surgeon, looking at the feet, said: "No," for those +poor feet were still dancing.</p> + +<p>Another hour, and yet another passed. Suddenly the feet were +stiff and motionless, and the young surgeon turned to +Gervaise.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," he said.</p> + +<p>Death alone had stopped those feet.</p> + +<p>When Gervaise went back she was met at the door by a crowd of +people who wished to ask her questions, she thought.</p> + +<p>"He is dead," she said quietly as she moved on.</p> + +<p>But no one heard her. They had their own tale to tell then. +How Poisson had nearly murdered Lantier. Poisson was a tiger, and +he ought to have seen what was going on long before. And Boche +said the woman had taken the shop and that Lantier was, as usual, +in luck again, for he adored tripe.</p> + +<p>In the meantime Gervaise went directly to Mme Lerat and Mme +Lorilleux and said faintly:</p> + +<p>"He is dead—after four days of horror."</p> + +<p>Then the two sisters were in duty bound to pull out their +handkerchiefs. Their brother had lived a most dissolute life, but +then he was their brother.</p> + +<p>Boche shrugged his shoulders and said in an audible voice:</p> + +<p>"Pshaw! It is only one drunkard the less!"</p> + +<p>After this day Gervaise was not always quite right in her +mind, and it was one of the attractions of the house to see her +act Coupeau.</p> + +<p>But her representations were often involuntary. She trembled +at times from head to foot and uttered little spasmodic cries. +She had taken the disease in a modified form at Sainte-Anne's +from looking so long at her husband. But she never became +altogether like him in the few remaining months of her +existence.</p> + +<p>She sank lower day by day. As soon as she got a little money +from any source whatever she drank it away at once. Her landlord +decided to turn her out of the room she occupied, and as Father +Bru was discovered dead one day in his den under the stairs, M. +Marescot allowed her to take possession of his quarters. It was +there, therefore, on the old straw bed, that she lay waiting for +death to come. Apparently even Mother Earth would have none of +her. She tried several times to throw herself out of the window, +but death took her by bits, as it were. In fact, no one knew +exactly when she died or exactly what she died of. They spoke of +cold and hunger.</p> + +<p>But the truth was she died of utter weariness of life, and +Father Bazonge came the day she was found dead in her den.</p> + +<p>Under his arm he carried a coffin, and he was very tipsy and +as gay as a lark.</p> + +<p>"It is foolish to be in a hurry, because one always gets what +one wants finally. I am ready to give you all your good pleasure +when your time comes. Some want to go, and some want to stay. And +here is one who wanted to go and was kept waiting."</p> + +<p>And when he lifted Gervaise in his great, coarse hands he did +it tenderly. And as he laid her gently in her coffin he murmured +between two hiccups:</p> + +<p>"It is I—my dear, it is I," said this rough consoler of +women. "It is I. Be happy now and sleep quietly, my dear!"</p> + +<p>THE END.</p> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK L'ASSOMMOIR ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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