Now, she no longer gave a halfpenny; she worked off the amount solely by the washing.

It was not that she worked less, or that her business was not so prosperous.

But something was going wrong in her home; the money seemed to melt away, and she was glad when she was able to make both ends meet.

_Mon Dieu!_ What's the use of complaining as long as one gets by.

She was putting on weight and this caused her to become a bit lazy.
She no longer had the energy that she had in the past.