the neck with only a bit of his cravat showing. The only
one in a full dress suit was Monsieur Madinier and passers-by gazed at
this well-dressed gentleman escorting the huge bulk of mother Coupeau in
her green shawl and black bonnet with red ribbons.

Gervaise looked very gay and sweet in her dress of vivid blue and
with her new silk mantle fitted tightly to her shoulders. She listened
politely to the sneering remarks of Lorilleux, who seemed buried in
the depths of the immense overcoat he was wearing. From time to time,
Gervaise would turn her head a little to smile brightly at Coupeau, who
was rather uncomfortable under the hot sun in his new clothes.

Though they walked very slowly, they arrived at the mayor's quite half
an hour too soon. And as the mayor was late, their turn was not reached
till close upon eleven o'clock. They sat down on some chairs and waited
in a corner of the apartment, looking by turns at the high ceiling and
bare walls, talking low, and over-politely pushing back their chairs
each time that one of the attendants passed. Yet among themselves they
called the mayor a sluggard, saying he must be visiting his blonde to
get a massage for his gout, or that maybe he'd swallowed his official
sash.

However, when the mayor did put in his appearance, they rose
respectfully in his honor. They were asked to sit down again and they
had to wait through three other marriages. The hall was crowded with the
three bourgeois wedding parties: brides all in white, little girls
with carefully curled hair, bridesmaids wearing wide sashes, an endless
procession of ladies and gentlemen dressed in their best and looking
very stylish.

When at length they were called, they almost missed being married
altogether. Bibi-the-Smoker having disappeared. Boche discovered him
outside smoking his pipe. Well! They were a nice lot inside there to
humbug people about like that, just because one hadn't yellow kid gloves
to shove under their noses! And the various formalities--the reading
of the Code, the different questions to be put, the signing of all the
documents--were all got through so rapidly that they looked at each
other with an idea that they had been robbed of a good half of the
ceremony. Gervaise, dizzy, her heart full, pressed her handkerchief to
her lips. Mother Coupeau wept bitterly. All had signed the register,
writing their names in big struggling letters with the exception of the
bridegroom, who not being able