Domestic fiction; Married women -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction; Working class women -- Fiction
“Listen to this now,” continued Lantier. “Here’s some society news: ‘A
marriage is arranged between the eldest daughter of the Countess de
Bretigny and the young Baron de Valancay, aide-de-camp to His Majesty.
The wedding trousseau will contain more than three hundred thousand
francs’ worth of lace.”
“What’s that to us?” interrupted Bibi-the-Smoker. “We don’t want to
know the color of her mantle. The girl can have no end of lace;
nevertheless she’ll see the folly of loving.”
As Lantier seemed about to continue his reading, Salted-Mouth,
otherwise Drink-without-Thirst, took the newspaper from him and sat
upon it, saying:
“Ah! no, that’s enough! This is all the paper is good for.”
Meanwhile, My-Boots, who had been looking at his hand, triumphantly
banged his fist down on the table. He scored ninety-three.
“I’ve got the Revolution!” he exulted.
“You’re out of luck, comrade,” the others told Coupeau.
They ordered two fresh bottles. The glasses were filled up again as
fast as they were emptied, the booze increased. Towards five o’clock it
began to get disgusting, so much so that Lantier kept very quiet,
thinking of how to give the others the slip; brawling and throwing the
wine about was no longer his style. Just then Coupeau stood up to make
the drunkard’s sign of the cross. Touching his head he pronounced
Montpernasse, then Menilmonte as he brought his hand to his right
shoulder, Bagnolet giving himself a blow in the chest, and wound up by
saying stewed rabbit three times as he hit himself in the pit of the
stomach. Then the hatter took advantage of the clamor which greeted the
performance of this feat and quietly made for the door. His comrades
did not even notice his departure. He had already had a pretty good
dose. But once outside he shook himself and regained his
self-possession; and he quietly made for the shop, where he told
Gervaise that Coupeau was with some friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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