ee her godparents.
The child couldn't be blamed for her mother's sins. But there was no
use trying to tell Coupeau anything. Any real man in his situation would
have beaten his wife and put a stop to it all. All they wanted was for
him to insist on respect for his family. _Mon Dieu_! If she, Madame
Lorilleux, had acted like that, Coupeau wouldn't be so complacent. He
would have stabbed her for sure with his shears.

The Boches, however, who sternly disapproved of quarrels in their
building, said that the Lorilleuxs were in the wrong. The Lorilleuxs
were no doubt respectable persons, quiet, working the whole day long,
and paying their rent regularly. But, really, jealousy had driven them
mad. And they were mean enough to skin an egg, real misers. They were so
stingy that they'd hide their bottle when any one came in, so as not to
have to offer a glass of wine--not regular people at all.

Gervaise had brought over cassis and soda water one day to drink with
the Boches. When Madame Lorilleux went by, she acted out spitting before
the concierge's door. Well, after that when Madame Boches swept the
corridors on Saturdays, she always left a pile of trash before the
Lorilleuxs' door.

"It isn't to be wondered at!" Madame Lorilleux would exclaim,
"Clump-clump's always stuffing them, the gluttons! Ah! they're all
alike; but they had better not annoy me! I'll complain to the landlord.
Only yesterday I saw that sly old Boche chasing after Madame Gaudron's
skirts. Just fancy! A woman of that age, and who has half a dozen
children, too; it's positively disgusting! If I catch them at anything
of the sort again, I'll tell Madame Boche, and she'll give them both a
hiding. It'll be something to laugh at."

Mother Coupeau continued to visit the two houses, agreeing with
everybody and even managing to get asked oftener to dinner, by
complaisantly listening one night to her daughter and the next night to
her daughter-in-law.

However, Madame Lerat did not go to visit the Coupeaus because she had
argued with Gervaise about a Zouave who had cut the nose of his mistress
with a razor. She was on the side of the Zouave, saying it was evidence
of a great passion, but without explaining further her thought. Then,
she had made Madame Lorilleux even more angry by telling her that
Clump-clump had called her "Cow Tail" in front of fifteen or twenty
people. Yes, that's what the Boches and all the neighbors called her
now, "Cow Tail."

Gervaise