o longer escorted
her or even bothered to give her a pinch now and again. She did not seem
to notice this finish of a long liaison slowly spun out, and ending
in mutual insolence. It was a chore the less for her. Even Lantier's
intimacy with Virginie left her quite calm, so great was her
indifference now for all that she had been so upset about in the past.
She would even have held a candle for them now.

Everyone was aware that Virginie and Lantier were carrying on. It was
much too convenient, especially with Poisson on duty every other night.
Lantier had thought of himself when he advised Virginie to deal in
dainties. He was too much of a Provincial not to adore sugared things;
and in fact he would have lived off sugar candy, lozenges, pastilles,
sugar plums and chocolate. Sugared almonds especially left a little
froth on his lips so keenly did they tickle his palate. For a year he
had been living only on sweetmeats. He opened the drawers and stuffed
himself whenever Virginie asked him to mind the shop. Often, when he was
talking in the presence of five or six other people, he would take the
lid off a jar on the counter, dip his hand into it and begin to nibble
at something sweet; the glass jar remained open and its contents
diminished. People ceased paying attention to it, it was a mania of
his so he had declared. Besides, he had devised a perpetual cold, an
irritation of the throat, which he always talked of calming.

He still did not work, for he had more and more important schemes than
ever in view. He was contriving a superb invention--the umbrella hat, a
hat which transformed itself into an umbrella on your head as soon as
a shower commenced to fall; and he promised Poisson half shares in the
profit of it, and even borrowed twenty franc pieces of him to defray the
cost of experiments. Meanwhile the shop melted away on his tongue. All
the stock-in-trade followed suit down to the chocolate cigars and pipes
in pink caramel. Whenever he was stuffed with sweetmeats and seized with
a fit of tenderness, he paid himself with a last lick on the groceress
in a corner, who found him all sugar with lips which tasted like burnt
almonds. Such a delightful man to kiss! He was positively becoming all
honey. The Boches said he merely had to dip a finger into his coffee to
sweeten it.

Softened by this perpetual dessert, Lantier showed himself paternal
towards Gervaise. He gave her advice and scolded her because she no
longer