ey sat on
stools all afternoon doing nothing.

Whilst idleness and poverty entered, dirtiness naturally entered also.
One would never have recognised that beautiful blue shop, the color
of heaven, which had once been Gervaise's pride. Its window-frames and
panes, which were never washed, were covered from top to bottom with the
splashes of the passing vehicles. On the brass rods in the windows
were displayed three grey rags left by customers who had died in the
hospital. And inside it was more pitiable still; the dampness of the
clothes hung up at the ceiling to dry had loosed all the wallpaper; the
Pompadour chintz hung in strips like cobwebs covered with dust; the big
stove, broken and in holes from the rough use of the poker, looked
in its corner like the stock in trade of a dealer in old iron; the
work-table appeared as though it had been used by a regiment, covered as
it was with wine and coffee stains, sticky with jam, greasy from spilled
gravy.

Gervaise was so at ease among it all that she never even noticed the
shop was getting filthy. She became used to it all, just as she got
used to wearing torn skirts and no longer washing herself carefully. The
disorder was like a warm nest.

Her own ease was her sole consideration; she did not care a pin for
anything else. The debts, though still increasing, no longer troubled
her. Her honesty gradually deserted her; whether she would be able to
pay or not was altogether uncertain, and she preferred not to think
about it. When her credit was stopped at one shop, she would open
an account at some other shop close by. She was in debt all over the
neighborhood, she owed money every few yards. To take merely the Rue de
la Goutte-d'Or, she no longer dared pass in front of the grocer's, nor
the charcoal-dealer's, nor the greengrocer's; and this obliged her,
whenever she required to be at the wash-house, to go round by the
Rue des Poissonniers, which was quite ten minutes out of her way. The
tradespeople came and treated her as a swindler. One evening the dealer
from whom she had purchased Lantier's furniture made a scene in the
street. Scenes like this upset her at the time, but were soon forgotten
and never spoiled her appetite. What a nerve to bother her like that
when she had no money to pay. They were all robbers anyway and it served
them right to have to wait. Well, she'd have to go bankrupt, but she
didn't intend to fret about it now.

Meanwhile mother Coupeau had re