edler
trying to get round them. To-day she asked them for ten sous, to-morrow
it would be for twenty, and there would be no reason to stop. No,
indeed; it would be a warm day in winter if they lent her anything.

"But, my dear," cried Madame Lorilleux. "You know very well that we
haven't any money! Look! There's the lining of my pocket. You can search
us. If we could, it would be with a willing heart, of course."

"The heart's always there," growled Lorilleux. "Only when one can't, one
can't."

Gervaise looked very humble and nodded her head approvingly. However,
she did not take herself off. She squinted at the gold, at the gold tied
together hanging on the walls, at the gold wire the wife was drawing out
with all the strength of her little arms, at the gold links lying in a
heap under the husband's knotty fingers. And she thought that the least
bit of this ugly black metal would suffice to buy her a good dinner. The
workroom was as dirty as ever, full of old iron, coal dust and sticky
oil stains, half wiped away; but now, as Gervaise saw it, it seemed
resplendent with treasure, like a money changer's shop. And so she
ventured to repeat softly: "I would return them to you, return them
without fail. Ten sous wouldn't inconvenience you."

Her heart was swelling with the effort she made not to own that she had
had nothing to eat since the day before. Then she felt her legs give
way. She was frightened that she might burst into tears, and she still
stammered:

"It would be kind of you! You don't know. Yes, I'm reduced to that, good
Lord--reduced to that!"

Thereupon the Lorilleuxs pursed their lips and exchanged covert glances.
So Clump-clump was begging now! Well, the fall was complete. But they
did not care for that kind of thing by any means. If they had known,
they would have barricaded the door, for people should always be on
their guard against beggars--folks who make their way into apartments
under a pretext and carry precious objects away with them; and
especially so in this place, as there was something worth while
stealing. One might lay one's fingers no matter where, and carry off
thirty or forty francs by merely closing the hands. They had felt
suspicious several times already on noticing how strange Gervaise looked
when she stuck herself in front of the gold. This time, however, they
meant to watch her. And as she approached nearer, with her feet on the
board, the chainmaker roughly called out, without