m he
consoled. It pained her to hear his song, "There were three lovely
girls," because she discerned in it the disdain of a man with too many
sweethearts.

"What is it? what is it?" stuttered Bazouge; "who's unwell? We're
coming, little woman!"

But the sound of this husky voice awoke Gervaise as though from a
nightmare. And a feeling of horror ascended from her knees to her
shoulders at the thought of seeing herself lugged along in the old
fellow's arms, all stiff and her face as white as a china plate.

"Well! is there no one there now?" resumed Bazouge in silence. "Wait a
bit, we're always ready to oblige the ladies."

"It's nothing, nothing," said the laundress at length in a choking
voice. "I don't require anything, thanks."

She remained anxious, listening to old Bazouge grumbling himself to
sleep, afraid to stir for fear he would think he heard her knocking
again.

In her corner of misery, in the midst of her cares and the cares of
others, Gervaise had, however, a beautiful example of courage in the
home of her neighbors, the Bijards. Little Lalie, only eight years old
and no larger than a sparrow, took care of the household as competently
as a grown person. The job was not an easy one because she had two
little tots, her brother Jules and her sister Henriette, aged three and
five, to watch all day long while sweeping and cleaning.

Ever since Bijard had killed his wife with a kick in the stomach, Lalie
had become the little mother of them all. Without saying a word, and of
her own accord, she filled the place of one who had gone, to the extent
that her brute of a father, no doubt to complete the resemblance, now
belabored the daughter as he had formerly belabored the mother. Whenever
he came home drunk, he required a woman to massacre. He did not even
notice that Lalie was quite little; he would not have beaten some old
trollop harder. Little Lalie, so thin it made you cry, took it all
without a word of complaint in her beautiful, patient eyes. Never would
she revolt. She bent her neck to protect her face and stifled her sobs
so as not to alarm the neighbors. When her father got tired of kicking
her, she would rest a bit until she got her strength back and then
resume her work. It was part of her job, being beaten daily.

Gervaise entertained a great friendship for her little neighbor. She
treated her as an equal, as a grown-up woman of experience. It must be
said that Lalie had a pale and serious loo