And he remained for five minutes on the footway, to make sure that she had gone in.

But one morning while he was drinking a glass with a friend in a wineshop in the Rue Saint-Denis, he perceived the hussy darting down the street.

For a fortnight she had been deceiving him; instead of going into the workroom, she climbed a story higher, and sat down on the stairs, waiting till he had gone off.

When Coupeau began casting the blame on Madame Lerat, the latter flatly replied that she would not accept it.

She had told her niece all she ought to tell her, to keep her on her guard against men, and it was not her fault if the girl still had a liking for the nasty beasts.