in question.

It so happened that on the evening before, Coupeau returned home in a
most abominable condition, just as Nana was lost in admiration before
the presents spread out on the top of the chest of drawers. The Paris
atmosphere was getting the better of him again; and he fell foul of his
wife and child with drunken arguments and disgusting language which no
one should have uttered at such a time. Nana herself was beginning
to get hold of some very bad expressions in the midst of the filthy
conversations she was continually hearing. On the days when there was a
row, she would often call her mother an old camel and a cow.

"Where's my food?" yelled the zinc-worker. "I want my soup, you couple
of jades! There's females for you, always thinking of finery! I'll sit
on the gee-gaws, you know, if I don't get my soup!"

"He's unbearable when he's drunk," murmured Gervaise, out of patience;
and turning towards him, she exclaimed:

"It's warming up, don't bother us."

Nana was being modest, because she thought it nice on such a day. She
continued to look at the presents on the chest of drawers, affectedly
lowering her eyelids and pretending not to understand her father's
naughty words. But the zinc-worker was an awful plague on the nights
when he had had too much. Poking his face right against her neck, he
said:

"I'll give you white dresses! So the finery tickles your fancy. They
excite your imagination. Just you cut away from there, you ugly little
brat! Move your hands about, bundle them all into a drawer!"

Nana, with bowed head, did not answer a word. She had taken up the
little tulle cap and was asking her mother how much it cost. And as
Coupeau thrust out his hand to seize hold of the cap, it was Gervaise
who pushed him aside exclaiming:

"Do leave the child alone! She's very good, she's doing no harm."

Then the zinc-worker let out in real earnest.

"Ah! the viragos! The mother and daughter, they make the pair. It's a
nice thing to go to church just to leer at the men. Dare to say it isn't
true, little slattern! I'll dress you in a sack, just to disgust you,
you and your priests. I don't want you to be taught anything worse than
you know already. _Mon Dieu!_ Just listen to me, both of you!"

At this Nana turned round in a fury, whilst Gervaise had to spread out
her arms to protect the things which Coupeau talked of tearing. The
child looked her father straight in the face; then, forgetting the
modest