like and icy, above this revelry, perforated
only with lines of gas lamps extending to the four corners of heaven.

Gervaise stood in front of l'Assommoir, thinking that if she had had a
couple of sous she could have gone inside and drunk a dram. No doubt a
dram would have quieted her hunger. Ah! what a number of drams she had
drunk in her time! Liquor seemed good stuff to her after all. And
from outside she watched the drunk-making machine, realizing that her
misfortune was due to it, and yet dreaming of finishing herself off with
brandy on the day she had some coin. But a shudder passed through
her hair as she saw it was now almost dark. Well, the night time was
approaching. She must have some pluck and sell herself coaxingly if
she didn't wish to kick the bucket in the midst of the general revelry.
Looking at other people gorging themselves didn't precisely fill her own
stomach. She slackened her pace again and looked around her. There was
a darker shade under the trees. Few people passed along, only folks in
a hurry, who swiftly crossed the Boulevards. And on the broad, dark,
deserted footway, where the sound of the revelry died away, women were
standing and waiting. They remained for long intervals motionless,
patient and as stiff-looking as the scrubby little plane trees; then
they slowly began to move, dragging their slippers over the frozen soil,
taking ten steps or so and then waiting again, rooted as it were to the
ground. There was one of them with a huge body and insect-like arms and
legs, wearing a black silk rag, with a yellow scarf over her head; there
was another one, tall and bony, who was bareheaded and wore a servant's
apron; and others, too--old ones plastered up and young ones so dirty
that a ragpicker would not have picked them up. However, Gervaise tried
to learn what to do by imitating them; girlish-like emotion tightened
her throat; she was hardly aware whether she felt ashamed or not; she
seemed to be living in a horrible dream. For a quarter of an hour she
remained standing erect. Men hurried by without even turning their
heads. Then she moved about in her turn, and venturing to accost a man
who was whistling with his hands in his pockets, she murmured, in a
strangled voice:

"Sir, listen a moment--"

The man gave her a side glance and then went off, whistling all the
louder.

Gervaise grew bolder, and, with her stomach empty, she became absorbed
in this chase, fiercely rushing after her d