Domestic fiction; Married women -- Fiction; Paris (France) -- Fiction; Working class women -- Fiction
On returning to the body, she found Nana sitting up in bed rubbing her
eyes. The child understood, and with her vicious urchin’s curiosity,
stretched out her neck to get a better view of her grandmother; she
said nothing but she trembled slightly, surprised and satisfied in the
presence of this death which she had been promising herself for two
days past, like some nasty thing hidden away and forbidden to children;
and her young cat-like eyes dilated before that white face all
emaciated at the last gasp by the passion of life, she felt that
tingling in her back which she felt behind the glass door when she
crept there to spy on what was no concern of chits like her.
“Come, get up,” said her mother in a low voice. “You can’t remain
here.”
She regretfully slid out of bed, turning her head round and not taking
her eyes off the corpse. Gervaise was much worried about her, not
knowing where to put her till day-time. She was about to tell her to
dress herself, when Lantier, in his trousers and slippers, rejoined
her. He could not get to sleep again, and was rather ashamed of his
behavior. Then everything was arranged.
“She can sleep in my bed,” murmured he. “She’ll have plenty of room.”
Nana looked at her mother and Lantier with her big, clear eyes and put
on her stupid air, the same as on New Year’s day when anyone made her a
present of a box of chocolate candy. And there was certainly no need
for them to hurry her. She trotted off in her night-gown, her bare feet
scarcely touching the tiled floor; she glided like a snake into the
bed, which was still quite warm, and she lay stretched out and buried
in it, her slim body scarcely raising the counterpane. Each time her
mother entered the room she beheld her with her eyes sparkling in her
motionless face—not sleeping, not moving, very red with excitement, and
appearing to reflect on her own affairs.
Lantier assisted Gervaise in dressing mother Coupeau—and it was not an
easy matter, for the body was heavy. One would never have thought that
that old woman was so fat and so white. They put on her stockings, a
white petticoat, a short linen jacket and a white cap—in short, the
best of her linen. Coupeau continued snoring, a high note and a low
one, the one sharp, the other flat. One could almost have imagined it
to be church music accompanying the Good Friday ceremonies. When the
corpse was dressed and properly laid out on the bed, Lantier poured
himself out a glass of wine, for he felt quite upset. Gervaise searched
the chest of drawers to find a little brass crucifix which she had
brought from Plassans, but she recollected that mother Coupeau had, in
all probability, sold it herself. They had lighted the stove, and they
passed the rest of the night half asleep on chairs, finishing the
bottle of wine that had been opened, worried and sulking, as though it
was their own fault.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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