It pained her to hear his song, "There were three lovely girls," because she discerned in it the disdain of a man with too many sweethearts.
"What is it?
what is it ?" stuttered Bazouge; "who's unwell?
We're coming, little woman!" But the sound of this husky voice awoke Gervaise as though from a nightmare.

And a feeling of horror ascended from her knees to her shoulders at the thought of seeing herself lugged along in the old fellow's arms, all stiff and her face as white as a china plate.
"Well! is there no one there now ?" resumed Bazouge in silence.

"Wait a bit, we're always ready to oblige the ladies." "It's nothing, nothing," said the laundress at length in a choking voice.

"I don't require anything, thanks." She remained anxious, listening to old Bazouge grumbling himself to sleep, afraid to stir for fear he would think he heard her knocking again.
In her corner of misery, in the midst of her cares and the cares of others, Gervaise had, however, a beautiful example of courage in the home of her neighbors, the Bijards.

Little Lalie, only eight years old and no larger than a sparrow, took care of the household as competently as a grown person.