With one hand she held the article firmly on the plank; with the other, which grasped the short couch-grass brush, she extracted from the linen a dirty lather, which fell in long drips.

Then, in the slight noise caused by the brush, the two women drew together, and conversed in a more intimate way.
"No, we're not married," resumed Gervaise.

"I don't hide it.

Lantier isn't so nice for any one to care to be his wife.

If it weren't for the children! I was fourteen and he was eighteen when we had our first one.
It happened in the usual way, you know how it is.