She refused at first, she was in no mood for laughing.
Otherwise she would not have said, "no," for the hatter made the proposal in too straightforward a manner for her to feel any mistrust.
He seemed to feel for her in quite a paternal way.

Never before had Coupeau slept out two nights running.

So that in spite of herself, she would go every ten minutes to the door, with her iron in her hand, and look up and down the street to see if her old man was coming.
It might be that Coupeau had broken a leg, or fallen under a wagon and been crushed and that might be good riddance to bad rubbish.

She saw no reason for cherishing in her heart any affection for a filthy character like him, but it was irritating, all the same, to have to wonder every night whether he would come in or not.

When it got dark, Lantier again suggested the music-hall, and this time she accepted.