One day she cruelly provoked him and turned her stomach towards him, hoping to receive a kick.

He kicked her and she let him go on kicking her in the stomach until she thought she would die.

The next day her wish was fulfilled and she had a miscarriage.
Laurent also led a frightful existence.

The days seemed insupportably long; each brought the same anguish, the same heavy weariness which overwhelmed him at certain hours with crushing monotony and regularity.
He dragged on his life, terrified every night by the recollections of the day, and the expectation of the morrow.

He knew that henceforth, all his days would resemble one another, and bring him equal suffering.