He had madly returned to the attack, but blinded by rage, his blows fell on either side, and at times he almost fell when his kicks went into space.

And during all this onslaught, Gervaise beheld in a corner of the room little Lalie, then four years old, watching her father murdering her mother.

The child held in her arms, as though to protect her, her sister Henriette, only recently weaned.

She was standing up, her head covered with a cotton cap, her face very pale and grave.

Her large black eyes gazed with a fixedness full of thought and were without a tear.
When at length Bijard, running against a chair, stumbled onto the tiled floor, where they left him snoring, Pere Bru helped Gervaise to raise Madame Bijard.