What on earth is she scrubbing there?
A filthy petticoat.

I'll wager it's seen some lovely sights, that petticoat!" Madame Boche was evidently trying to make herself agreeable to Gervaise.
The truth was she often took a cup of coffee with Adele and Virginia, when the girls had any money.

Gervaise did not answer, but hurried over her work with feverish hands.

She had just prepared her blue in a little tub that stood on three legs.

She dipped in the linen things, and shook them an instant at the bottom of the colored water, the reflection of which had a pinky tinge; and after wringing them lightly, she spread them out on the wooden bars up above.