Should they speak to this lifeless form?
Should they refrain from troubling about it?
Little by little, they decided to treat Madame Raquin as though nothing had happened to her.

They ended by feigning to completely ignore her condition.

They chatted with her, putting questions and giving the answers, laughing both for her and for themselves, and never permitting the rigid expression on the countenance to baffle them.
It was a strange sight: these men who appeared to be speaking sensibly to a statue, just as little girls talk to their dolls.

The paralysed woman sat rigid and mute before them, while they babbled, multiplying their gestures in exceedingly animated conversations with her.

Michaud and Grivet prided themselves on their correct attitude.