nd seek her with his expressionless and death-like countenance. Now
that she was seeing the dressmaker every day Gervaise became aware of
a strange obsession. Every time Virginie began to talk Gervaise had the
feeling Lantier was going to be mentioned. So she had Lantier on her
mind throughout all of Virginie's visits. This was silly because, in
fact, she didn't care a bit about Lantier or Adele at this time. She
was quite certain that she had no curiosity as to what had happened to
either of them. But this obsession got hold of her in spite of herself.
Anyway, she didn't hold it against Virginie, it wasn't her fault,
surely. She enjoyed being with her and looked forward to her visits.

Meanwhile winter had come, the Coupeaus' fourth winter in the Rue de la
Goutte-d'Or. December and January were particularly cold. It froze hard
as it well could. After New Year's day the snow remained three weeks
without melting. It did not interfere with work, but the contrary, for
winter is the best season for the ironers. It was very pleasant inside
the shop! There was never any ice on the window-panes like there was
at the grocer's and the hosier's opposite. The stove was always stuffed
with coke and kept things as hot as a Turkish bath. With the laundry
steaming overhead you could almost imagine it was summer. You were quite
comfortable with the doors closed and so much warmth everywhere that you
were tempted to doze off with your eyes open. Gervaise laughed and said
it reminded her of summer in the country. The street traffic made no
noise in the snow and you could hardly hear the pedestrians who passed
by. Only children's voices were heard in the silence, especially the
noisy band of urchins who had made a long slide in the gutter near the
blacksmith's shop.

Gervaise would sometimes go over to the door, wipe the moisture from one
of the panes with her hand, and look out to see what was happening to
her neighborhood due to this extraordinary cold spell. Not one nose
was being poked out of the adjacent shops. The entire neighborhood was
muffled in snow. The only person she was able to exchange nods with was
the coal-dealer next door, who still walked out bare-headed despite the
severe freeze.

What was especially enjoyable in this awful weather was to have some
nice hot coffee in the middle of the day. The workwomen had no cause
for complaint. The mistress made it very strong and without a grain of
chicory. It was quite different