Pere Achille informed him that the ladies were at their respective country seats where the partners joined them every evening.
Fromont Jeune had left the factory very early; Risler Aine had just gone.

Frantz decided to speak to old Sigismond.

But it was Saturday, the regular pay-day, and he must needs wait until the long line of workmen, extending from Achille's lodge to the cashier's grated window, had gradually dispersed.
Although very impatient and very depressed, the excellent youth, who had lived the life of a Paris workingman from his childhood, felt a thrill of pleasure at finding himself once more in the midst of the animated scenes peculiar to that time and place.

Upon all those faces, honest or vicious, was an expression of satisfaction that the week was at an end.
You felt that, so far as they were concerned, Sunday began at seven o'clock Saturday evening, in front of the cashier's little lamp.
One must have lived among workingmen to realize the full charm of that one day's rest and its solemnity.

Many of these poor creatures, bound fast to unhealthful trades, await the coming of the blessed Sunday like a puff of refreshing air, essential to their health and their life.