to embellish their shops, for a shopkeeper might wish to have gold put
about everywhere, and he, the landlord, could not put out gold. Then he
related that he had spent more than twenty thousand francs in fitting
up his premises in the Rue de la Paix. Gervaise, with her woman's
obstinacy, kept repeating an argument which she considered unanswerable.
He would repaper a lodging, would he not? Then, why did he not treat the
shop the same as a lodging? She did not ask him for anything else--only
to whitewash the ceiling, and put some fresh paper on the walls.

Boche, all this while, remained dignified and impenetrable; he turned
about and looked up in the air, without expressing an opinion. Coupeau
winked at him in vain; he affected not to wish to take advantage of his
great influence over the landlord. He ended, however, by making a slight
grimace--a little smile accompanied by a nod of the head. Just then
Monsieur Marescot, exasperated, and seemingly very unhappy, and
clutching his fingers like a miser being despoiled of his gold, was
giving way to Gervaise, promising to do the ceiling and repaper the shop
on condition that she paid for half of the paper. And he hurried away
declining to discuss anything further.

Now that Boche was alone with the Coupeaus, the concierge became quite
talkative and slapped them on the shoulders. Well, well, see what
they had gotten. Without his help, they would never have gotten the
concessions. Didn't they notice how the landlord had looked to him
out of the corner of his eye for advice and how he'd made up his mind
suddenly when he saw Boche smile? He confessed to them confidentially
that he was the real boss of the building. It was he who decided who
got eviction notices and who could become tenants. He collected all the
rents and kept them for a couple of weeks in his bureau drawer.

That evening the Coupeaus, to express their gratitude to the Boches,
sent them two bottles of wine as a present.

The following Monday the workmen started doing up the shop. The
purchasing of the paper turned out especially to be a very big affair.
Gervaise wanted a grey paper with blue flowers, so as to enliven and
brighten the walls. Boche offered to take her to the dealers, so that
she might make her own selection. But the landlord had given him formal
instructions not to go beyond the price of fifteen sous the piece. They
were there an hour. The laundress kept looking in despair at a very
pretty chi