To have paid the quarter's rent they would have sold their very flesh.

It was the rent which emptied the larder and the stove.
No doubt the Coupeaus had only themselves to blame.

Life may be a hard fight, but one always pulls through when one is orderly and economical--witness the Lorilleuxs, who paid their rent to the day, the money folded up in bits of dirty paper.

But they, it is true, led a life of starved spiders, which would disgust one with hard work.

Nana as yet earned nothing at flower-making; she even cost a good deal for her keep.
At Madame Fauconnier's Gervaise was beginning to be looked down upon.
She was no longer so expert.