e:

"The baroness had people there,
Her sisters four, oh! rare surprise;
And three were dark, and one was fair;
Between them, eight bewitching eyes."

Then the whole party, carried away, joined in the chorus. The men beat
time with their heels, whilst the ladies did the same with their knives
against their glasses. All of them singing at the top of their voices:

"By Jingo! who on earth will pay
A drink to the pa--to the pa--pa--?
By Jingo! who on earth will pay
A drink to the pa--to the pa--tro--o--l?"

The panes of glass of the shop-front resounded, the singers' great
volume of breath agitated the muslin curtains. Whilst all this was going
on, Virginie had already twice disappeared and each time, on returning,
had leant towards Gervaise's ear to whisper a piece of information. When
she returned the third time, in the midst of the uproar, she said to
her:

"My dear, he's still at Francois's; he's pretending to read the
newspaper. He's certainly meditating some evil design."

She was speaking of Lantier. It was him that she had been watching. At
each fresh report Gervaise became more and more grave.

"Is he drunk?" asked she of Virginie.

"No," replied the tall brunette. "He looks as though he had merely had
what he required. It's that especially which makes me anxious. Why does
he remain there if he's had all he wanted? _Mon Dieu!_ I hope nothing is
going to happen!"

The laundress, greatly upset, begged her to leave off. A profound
silence suddenly succeeded the clamor. Madame Putois had just risen and
was about to sing "The Boarding of the Pirate." The guests, silent and
thoughtful, watched her; even Poisson had laid his pipe down on the
edge of the table the better to listen to her. She stood up to the full
height of her little figure, with a fierce expression about her, though
her face looked quite pale beneath her black cap; she thrust out her
left fist with a satisfied pride as she thundered in a voice bigger than
herself:

"If the pirate audacious
Should o'er the waves chase us,
The buccaneer slaughter,
Accord him no quarter.
To the guns every man,
And with rum fill each can!
While these pests of the seas
Dangle from the cross-trees."

That was something serious. By Jove! it gave one a fine idea of the real
thing. Poisson, who had been on board ship nodded his head in approval
of the descriptio