brought her
to the ground. The Lorilleuxs now made a point of holding something to
their noses whenever they passed her room; the stench was poisonous,
said they. Those hypocrites slyly lived at the end of the passage, out
of the way of all these miseries which filled the corner of the house
with whimpering, locking themselves in so as not to have to lend twenty
sou pieces. Oh! kind-hearted folks, neighbors awfully obliging! Yes,
you may be sure! One had only to knock and ask for a light or a pinch
of salt or a jug of water, one was certain of getting the door banged
in one's face. With all that they had vipers' tongues. They protested
everywhere that they never occupied themselves with other people. This
was true whenever it was a question of assisting a neighbor; but they
did so from morning to night, directly they had a chance of pulling
any one to pieces. With the door bolted and a rug hung up to cover
the chinks and the key-hole, they would treat themselves to a spiteful
gossip without leaving their gold wire for a moment.

The fall of Clump-clump in particular kept them purring like pet cats.
Completely ruined! Not a sou remaining. They smiled gleefully at the
small piece of bread she would bring back when she went shopping and
kept count of the days when she had nothing at all to eat. And the
clothes she wore now. Disgusting rags! That's what happened when one
tried to live high.

Gervaise, who had an idea of the way in which they spoke of her, would
take her shoes off, and place her ear against their door; but the rug
over the door prevented her from hearing much. She was heartily sick of
them; she continued to speak to them, to avoid remarks, though expecting
nothing but unpleasantness from such nasty persons, but no longer having
strength even to give them as much as they gave her, passed the insults
off as a lot of nonsense. And besides she only wanted her own pleasure,
to sit in a heap twirling her thumbs, and only moving when it was a
question of amusing herself, nothing more.

One Saturday Coupeau had promised to take her to the circus. It was well
worth while disturbing oneself to see ladies galloping along on horses
and jumping through paper hoops. Coupeau had just finished a fortnight's
work, he could well spare a couple of francs; and they had also arranged
to dine out, just the two of them, Nana having to work very late that
evening at her employer's because of some pressing order. But at seven
o'