It was as if her laziness was started by a kind of smothering caused by the dirty clothes which poisoned the air in the shop.

Just as she was shaking out a child's dirty diaper, Coupeau came in.
"By Jove!" he stuttered, "what a sun! It shines full on your head!" The zinc-worker caught hold of the ironing-table to save himself from falling.

It was the first time he had been so drunk.

Until then he had sometimes come home slightly tipsy, but nothing more.

This time, however, he had a black eye, just a friendly slap he had run up against in a playful moment.