hey must be expecting me at the shop. You'll
easily find someone else prettier than I, Monsieur Coupeau, and who
won't have two boys to drag about with her."

He looked at the clock inserted in the frame-work of the mirror, and
made her sit down again, exclaiming:

"Don't be in such a hurry! It's only eleven thirty-five. I've still
twenty-five minutes. You don't have to be afraid that I shall do
anything foolish; there's the table between us. So you detest me so much
that you won't stay and have a little chat with me."

She put her basket down again, so as not to disoblige him; and they
conversed like good friends. She had eaten her lunch before going out
with the laundry. He had gulped down his soup and beef hurriedly to be
able to wait for her. All the while she chatted amiably, Gervaise
kept looking out the window at the activity on the street. It was now
unusually crowded with the lunch time rush.

Everywhere were hurried steps, swinging arms, and pushing elbows. Some
late comers, hungry and angry at being kept extra long at the job,
rushed across the street into the bakery. They emerged with a loaf of
bread and went three doors farther to the Two-Headed Calf to gobble down
a six-sou meat dish.

Next door to the bakery was a grocer who sold fried potatoes and mussels
cooked with parsley. A procession of girls went in to get hot potatoes
wrapped in paper and cups of steaming mussels. Other pretty girls bought
bunches of radishes. By leaning a bit, Gervaise could see into the
sausage shop from which children issued, holding a fried chop, a sausage
or a piece of hot blood pudding wrapped in greasy paper. The street was
always slick with black mud, even in clear weather. A few laborers had
already finished their lunch and were strolling aimlessly about, their
open hands slapping their thighs, heavy from eating, slow and peaceful
amid the hurrying crowd. A group formed in front of the door of
l'Assommoir.

"Say, Bibi-the-Smoker," demanded a hoarse voice, "aren't you going to
buy us a round of _vitriol_?"

Five laborers came in and stood by the bar.

"Ah! Here's that thief, Pere Colombe!" the voice continued. "We want the
real old stuff, you know. And full sized glasses, too."

Pere Colombe served them as three more laborers entered. More blue
smocks gathered on the street corner and some pushed their way into the
establishment.

"You're foolish! You only think of the present," Gervaise was saying to
Coupeau.