But they met in the street, and always decided to wait, after an interchange of insults and ardent prayers.
Every fresh attack made them more suspicious and ferocious than before.
From morning till night they were spying upon one another.

Laurent barely set his foot outside the lodging in the arcade, and if, perchance, he did absent himself, Therese never failed to accompany him.
Their suspicions, their fright lest either should confess, brought them together, united them in atrocious intimacy.

Never, since their marriage, had they lived so tightly tied together, and never had they experienced such suffering.

But, notwithstanding the anguish they imposed on themselves, they never took their eyes off one another.

They preferred to endure the most excruciating pain, rather than separate for an hour.
If Therese went down to the shop, Laurent followed, afraid that she might talk to a customer; if Laurent stood in the doorway, observing the people passing through the arcade, Therese placed herself beside him to see that he did not speak to anyone.