Gervaise herself answered now: "There, you scum! You got it that time.

It'll help to cool you." "Ah! the carrion! That's for your filth.

Wash yourself for once in your life." "Yes, yes, I'll wash the salt out of you, you cod!" "Another one! Brush your teeth, fix yourself up for your post to-night at the corner of the Rue Belhomme." They ended by having to refill the buckets at the water taps, continuing to insult each other the while.

The initial bucketfuls were so poorly aimed as to scarcely reach their targets, but they soon began to splash each other in earnest.

Virginie was the first to receive a bucketful in the face.