He was off duty that day and was profiting by his leisure time to indulge in his mania for making little boxes.

He was seated at a table and was cutting out arabesques in a cigar box with extraordinary care.
"Say, Badingue!" cried Lantier, who had given him this surname again, out of friendship.

"I shall want that box of yours as a present for a young lady." Virginie gave him a pinch and he reached under the counter to run his fingers like a creeping mouse up her leg.
"Quite so," said the policeman.

"I was working for you, Auguste, in view of presenting you with a token of friendship." "Ah, if that's the case, I'll keep your little memento!" rejoined Lantier with a laugh.

"I'll hang it round my neck with a ribbon." Then suddenly, as if this thought brought another one to his memory, "By the way," he cried, "I met Nana last night." This news caused Gervaise such emotion that she sunk down in the dirty water which covered the floor of the shop.
"Ah!" she muttered speechlessly.
"Yes; as I was going down the Rue des Martyrs, I caught sight of a girl who was on the arm of an old fellow in front of me, and I said to myself: I know that shape.