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Updated: May 26, 2025
Goujet must have been hoping to see her, too, for within five minutes he came out as if by chance. "You have been on an errand," he said, smiling. "And now you are on your way home." Actually Gervaise had her back toward Rue des Poissonniers. He only said that for something to say. They walked together up toward Montmartre, but without her taking his arm.
Thus, every time she took the washing home to those worthy people, she felt a spasm of her heart the moment she put a foot on their stairs. "Ah! it's you, at last!" said Madame Goujet sharply, on opening the door to her. "When I'm in want of death, I'll send you to fetch him." Gervaise entered, greatly embarrassed, not even daring to mutter an excuse.
She left Nana with Madame Boche and ran to rejoin the procession, whilst the child, firmly held by the concierge under the porch, watched with a deeply interested gaze her grandmother disappear at the end of the street in that beautiful carriage. At the moment when Gervaise caught up with the procession, Goujet arrived from another direction.
Up to this time they had exchanged a good morning when they met on the stairs or in the street, but as Mme Goujet had rendered some small services on the first day of her illness, Gervaise invited them on the occasion of the baptism. These people were from the Department du Nond. The mother repaired laces, while the son, a blacksmith by trade, worked in a factory.
How she was treated before him. And she remained standing in the middle of the rooms, embarrassed and confused and waiting for the dirty clothes; but after making up the account Madame Goujet had quietly returned to her seat near the window, and resumed the mending of a lace shawl. "And the dirty things?" timidly inquired the laundress.
Goujet looked at her and then said suddenly, with trembling lips: "You made me suffer yesterday." Gervaise clasped her hands imploringly, and he continued: "I knew of course how it must end; only you should not have allowed me to think " He could not finish. She started up, seeing what his convictions were. She cried out: "You are wrong! I swear to you that you are wrong!
All she could recall was that the bolt factory was next to a yard full of scrap iron and rags, a sort of open sewer spread over the ground, storing merchandise worth hundreds of thousands of francs, according to Goujet. The street was filled with a noisy racket.
She felt they had earned that small moment of pleasure. Goujet now didn't know what to do with his hands, so he went around picking dandelions and tossing them into her basket. This amused him and gradually soothed him. Gervaise was becoming relaxed and cheerful. When they finally left the vacant lot they walked side by side and talked of how much Etienne liked being at Lille.
She shook off these memories almost with disgust. Yes, it was all over, and should he ever dare to allude to former years she would complain to her husband. She began again to think of Goujet almost unconsciously. One morning Clemence said that the night before she had seen Lantier walking with a woman who had his arm.
But suddenly she perceived that Mme Goujet not having come, there was an empty seat next to Mme Lorilleux. "We are thirteen," she said, much disturbed, as she fancied this to be an additional proof of the misfortune which for some time she had felt to be hanging over them. The ladies, who were seated, started up.
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