On the signboard, made of a long narrow plank, figured, in black letters the word: MERCERY.

And on one of the panes of glass in the door was written, in red, the name of a woman: _Therese Raquin_.

To right and left were deep show cases, lined with blue paper.
During the daytime the eye could only distinguish the display of goods, in a soft, obscured light.
On one side were a few linen articles: crimped tulle caps at two and three francs apiece, muslin sleeves and collars: then undervests, stockings, socks, braces.

Each article had grown yellow and crumpled, and hung lamentably suspended from a wire hook.

The window, from top to bottom, was filled in this manner with whitish bits of clothing, which took a lugubrious aspect in the transparent obscurity.