"What are you doing? Are you going out?" At first she did not reply. Then when he angrily repeated the question she answered: "Certainly I am. I am going to wash all these things. The children cannot live in dirt." He threw two or three handkerchiefs toward her, and after another long silence he said: "Have you any money?" She quickly rose to her feet and turned toward him; in her hand she held some of the soiled clothes. "Money! Where should I get money unless I had stolen it? You know very well that day before yesterday you got three francs on my black skirt. We have breakfasted twice on that, and money goes fast. No, I have no money. I have four sous for the lavatory. I cannot make money like other women we know." He did not reply to this allusion but rose from the bed and passed in review the ragged garments hung around the room. He ended by taking down the pantaloons and the shawl and, opening the bureau, took out a sack and two chemises. All these he made into a bundle, which he threw at Gervaise. "Take them," he said, "and make haste back from the pawnbroker's." "Would you not like me to take the children?" she asked. "Heavens! If pawnbrokers would only make loans on children, what a good thing it would be!" She went to the Mont-de-Piete, and when she returned a half-hour later she laid a silver five-franc piece on the mantelshelf and placed the ticket with the others between the two candlesticks. "This is what they gave me," she said coldly. "I wanted six francs, but they would not give them. They always keep on the safe side there, and yet there is always a crowd." Lantier did not at once take up the money. He had sent her to the Mont-de-Piete that he might not leave her without food or money, but when he caught sight of part of a ham wrapped in paper on the table with half a loaf of bread he slipped the silver piece into his vest pocket. "I did not dare go to the milk woman," explained Gervaise, "because we owe her for eight days. But I shall be back early. You can get some bread and some chops and have them ready. Don't forget the wine too." He made no reply. Peace seemed to be made, but when Gervaise went to the trunk to take out some of Lantier's clothing he called out: "No--let that alone." "What do you mean?" she said, turning round in surprise. "You can't wear these things again until they are washed! Why shall I not take them?" And she looked at him with some anxiety. He angrily tore the things from her hands and threw them back into the trunk. "Confound you!" he muttered. "Will you never learn to obey? When I say a thing I mean it--" "But why?" she repeated, turning very pale and seized with a terrible suspicion. "You do not need these shirts; you are not going away. Why should I not take them?"