her
Coupeau, the Lorilleuxs, and Madame Lerat, whom he had met at the
latter's.

"I've brought you the whole gang!" cried Coupeau. "It can't be helped!
They wanted to see you. Don't open your mouth, it's forbidden. They'll
stop here and look at you without ceremony, you know. As for me, I'm
going to make them some coffee, and of the right sort!"

He disappeared into the kitchen. Mother Coupeau after kissing Gervaise,
became amazed at the child's size. The two other women also kissed the
invalid on her cheeks. And all three, standing before the bed, commented
with divers exclamations on the details of the confinement--a most
remarkable confinement, just like having a tooth pulled, nothing more.

Madame Lerat examined the baby all over, declared she was well formed,
even added that she could grow up into an attractive woman. Noticing
that the head had been squeezed into a point on top, she kneaded it
gently despite the infant's cries, trying to round it a bit. Madame
Lorilleux grabbed the baby from her; that could be enough to give the
poor little thing all sorts of vicious tendencies, meddling with it like
that while her skull was still soft. She then tried to figure out who
the baby resembled. This almost led to a quarrel. Lorilleux, peering
over the women's shoulders, insisted that the little girl didn't look
the least bit like Coupeau. Well, maybe a little around the nose,
nothing more. She was her mother all over again, with big eyes like
hers. Certainly there were no eyes like that in the Coupeau family.

Coupeau, however, had failed to reappear. One could hear him in the
kitchen struggling with the grate and the coffee-pot. Gervaise was
worrying herself frightfully; it was not the proper thing for a man to
make coffee; and she called and told him what to do, without listening
to the midwife's energetic "hush!"

"Here we are!" said Coupeau, entering with the coffee-pot in his hand.
"Didn't I just have a bother with it! It all went wrong on purpose! Now
we'll drink out of glasses, won't we? Because you know, the cups are
still at the shop."

They seated themselves around the table, and the zinc-worker insisted
on pouring out the coffee himself. It smelt very strong, it was none
of that weak stuff. When the midwife had sipped hers up, she went off;
everything was going on nicely, she was not required. If the young woman
did not pass a good night they were to send for her on the morrow. She
was scarcely down the