And all three exchanged a few words, as though nothing had happened.

Goujet, his face deadly pale, looked on the ground, fancying that he had disturbed them, and that she had merely struggled so as not to be kissed before a third party.
The next day Gervaise moved restlessly about the shop.

She was miserable and unable to iron even a single handkerchief.

She only wanted to see Goujet and explain to him how Lantier happened to have pinned her against the wall.

But since Etienne had gone to Lille, she had hesitated to visit Goujet's forge where she felt she would be greeted by his fellow workers with secret laughter.