She would not even want to look that man in the face.
"I know that Etienne is his son, and that's a relationship that remains," she said.

"If Lantier wants to see his son, I'll send the boy to him because you can't stop a father from seeing his child.

But as for myself, I don't want him to touch me even with the tip of his finger.
That is all finished." Desiring to break off this conversation, she seemed to awake with a start and called out to the women: "You ladies! Do you think all these clothes are going to iron themselves?
Get to work!" The workwomen, slow from the heat and general laziness, didn't hurry themselves, but went right on talking, gossiping about other people they had known.
Gervaise shook herself and got to her feet.

Couldn't earn money by sitting all day.

She was the first to return to the ironing, but found that her curtains had been spotted by the coffee and she had to rub out the stains with a damp cloth.