Only on this occasion he had forgotten Gervaise's presence.

She had just finished rinsing and wiping the shop, and she stood near the counter waiting for her thirty sous.

However, the kiss on Virginie's eye left her perfectly calm, as being quite natural, and as part of a business she had no right to mix herself up in.
Virginie seemed rather vexed.

She threw the thirty sous on to the counter in front of Gervaise.

The latter did not budge but stood there waiting, still palpitating with the effort she had made in scrubbing, and looking as soaked and as ugly as a dog fished out of the sewer.
"Then she didn't tell you anything ?" she asked the hatter at last.
"Who ?" he cried.