LAssommoir | Page 5

she tidied her hair in front of the small mirror
hanging near the window. While she washed herself he looked at her
bare arms and shoulders. He seemed to be making comparisons in his
mind as his lips formed a grimace. Gervaise limped with her right leg,
though it was scarcely noticeable except when she was tired. To-day,
exhausted from remaining awake all night, she was supporting herself

against the wall and dragging her leg.
Neither one spoke, they had nothing more to say. Lantier seemed to be
waiting, while Gervaise kept busy and tried to keep her countenance
expressionless. Finally, while she was making a bundle of the dirty
clothes thrown in a corner, behind the trunk, he at length opened his
lips and asked:
"What are you doing there? Where are you going?"
She did not answer at first. Then, when he furiously repeated his
question, she made up her mind, and said:
"I suppose you can see for yourself. I'm going to wash all this. The
children can't live in filth."
He let her pick up two or three handkerchiefs. And, after a fresh pause,
he resumed: "Have you got any money?"
At these words she stood up and looked him full in the face, without
leaving go of the children's dirty clothes, which she held in her hand.
"Money! And where do you think I can have stolen any? You know
well enough that I got three francs the day before yesterday on my
black skirt. We've lunched twice off it, and money goes quick at the
pork- butcher's. No, you may be quite sure I've no money. I've four
sous for the wash-house. I don't have an extra income like some
women."
He let this allusion pass. He had moved off the bed, and was passing in
review the few rags hanging about the room. He ended by taking up the
pair of trousers and the shawl, and searching the drawers, he added two
chemises and a woman's loose jacket to the parcel; then, he threw the
whole bundle into Gervaise's arms, saying:
"Here, go and pop this."
"Don't you want me to pop the children as well?" asked she. "Eh! If

they lent on children, it would be a fine riddance!"
She went to the pawn-place, however. When she returned at the end of
half an hour, she laid a hundred sou piece on the mantel-shelf, and
added the ticket to the others, between the two candlesticks.
"That's what they gave me," said she. "I wanted six francs, but I
couldn't manage it. Oh! they'll never ruin themselves. And there's
always such a crowd there!"
Lantier did not pick up the five franc piece directly. He would rather
that she got change, so as to leave her some of it. But he decided to slip
it into his waistcoat pocket, when he noticed a small piece of ham
wrapped up in paper, and the remains of a loaf on the chest of drawers.
"I didn't dare go to the milkwoman's, because we owe her a week,"
explained Gervaise. "But I shall be back early; you can get some bread
and some chops whilst I'm away, and then we'll have lunch. Bring also
a bottle of wine."
He did not say no. Their quarrel seemed to be forgotten. The young
woman was completing her bundle of dirty clothes. But when she went
to take Lantier's shirts and socks from the bottom of the trunk, he called
to her to leave them alone.
"Leave my things, d'ye hear? I don't want 'em touched!"
"What's it you don't want touched?" she asked, rising up. "I suppose
you don't mean to put these filthy things on again, do you? They must
be washed."
She studied his boyishly handsome face, now so rigid that it seemed
nothing could ever soften it. He angrily grabbed his things from her and
threw them back into the trunk, saying:
"Just obey me, for once! I tell you I won't have 'em touched!"
"But why?" she asked, turning pale, a terrible suspicion crossing her

mind. "You don't need your shirts now, you're not going away. What
can it matter to you if I take them?"
He hesitated for an instant, embarrassed by the piercing glance she
fixed upon him. "Why--why--" stammered he, "because you go and tell
everyone that you keep me, that you wash and mend. Well! It worries
me, there! Attend to your own business and I'll attend to mine,
washerwomen don't work for dogs."
She supplicated, she protested she had never complained; but he
roughly closed the trunk and sat down upon it, saying, "No!" to her face.
He could surely do as he liked with what belonged to him! Then, to
escape from the inquiring looks she leveled at him, he went