ame Lerat, whenever they were ringing the
hatter's praises, that he could very well do without her admiration,
because all the women of the neighborhood were smitten with him.

Coupeau went braying about everywhere that Lantier was a friend and a
true one. People might jabber about them; he knew what he knew and did
not care a straw for their gossip, for he had respectability on his
side. When they all three went out walking on Sundays, he made his wife
and the hatter walk arm-in-arm before him, just by way of swaggering in
the street; and he watched the people, quite prepared to administer a
drubbing if anyone had ventured on the least joke. It was true that he
regarded Lantier as a bit of a high flyer. He accused him of avoiding
hard liquor and teased him because he could read and spoke like an
educated man. Still, he accepted him as a regular comrade. They
were ideally suited to each other and friendship between men is more
substantial than love for a woman.

Coupeau and Lantier were forever going out junketing together. Lantier
would now borrow money from Gervaise--ten francs, twenty francs at a
time, whenever he smelt there was money in the house. Then on those days
he would keep Coupeau away from his work, talk of some distant errand
and take him with him. Then seated opposite to each other in the corner
of some neighboring eating house, they would guzzle fancy dishes which
one cannot get at home and wash them down with bottles of expensive
wine. The zinc-worker would have preferred to booze in a less
pretentious place, but he was impressed by the aristocratic tastes of
Lantier, who would discover on the bill of fare dishes with the most
extraordinary names.

It was hard to understand a man so hard to please. Maybe it was from
being a southerner. Lantier didn't like anything too rich and argued
about every dish, sending back meat that was too salty or too peppery.
He hated drafts. If a door was left open, he complained loudly. At the
same time, he was very stingy, only giving the waiter a tip of two sous
for a meal of seven or eight francs. He was treated with respect in
spite of that.

The pair were well known along the exterior boulevards, from Batignolles
to Belleville. They would go to the Grand Rue des Batignolles to eat
tripe cooked in the Caen style. At the foot of Montmartre they obtained
the best oysters in the neighborhood at the "Town of Bar-le-Duc." When
they ventured to the top of the height as fa