He frequently saw her give handfuls of chestnuts to the ragged urchins who stood in ecstasy round her smoking pot.

At other times, when the market inspector hustled her, she very nearly began to cry, apparently forgetting all about her heavy fists.
Antoine at last decided that she was exactly the woman he wanted.

She would work for both and he would lay down the law at home.

She would be his beast of burden, an obedient, indefatigable animal.

As for her partiality for liqueurs, he regarded this as quite natural.