Their home had become a regular shambles where they wrangled the whole day long.

However, they had not yet come to blows, with the exception of a few impulsive smacks, which somehow flew about at the height of their quarrels.

The saddest part of the business was that they had opened the cage of affection; all their better feelings had taken flight, like so many canaries.

The genial warmth of father, mother and child, when united together and wrapped up in each other, deserted them, and left them shivering, each in his or her own corner.

All three--Coupeau, Gervaise and Nana--were always in the most abominable tempers, biting each other's noses off for nothing at all, their eyes full of hatred; and it seemed as though something had broken the mainspring of the family, the mechanism which, with happy people, causes hearts to beat in unison.