The zinc-worker had not returned.

He was reeling about the neighborhood, but no one knew exactly where.

Several persons, however, stated that they had seen him at mother Baquet's, at the "Butterfly," and at the "Little Old Man with a Cough." Only some said that he was alone, whilst others affirmed that he was in the company of seven or eight drunkards like himself.

Gervaise shrugged her shoulders in a resigned sort of way.

_Mon Dieu!_ She just had to get used to it.
She never ran about after her old man; she even went out of her way if she caught sight of him inside a wineshop, so as to not anger him; and she waited at home till he returned, listening at night-time to hear if he was snoring outside the door.