They stepped out of the shade like apparitions, and passed under the light of a gas lamp with their pale masks fully apparent; then they grew vague again as they went off into the darkness, with a white strip of petticoat swinging to and fro.

Men let themselves be stopped at times, talked jokingly, and then started off again laughing.

Others would quietly follow a woman to her room, discreetly, ten paces behind.
There was a deal of muttering, quarreling in an undertone and furious bargaining, which suddenly subsided into profound silence.

And as far as Gervaise went she saw these women standing like sentinels in the night.
They seemed to be placed along the whole length of the Boulevard.

As soon as she met one she saw another twenty paces further on, and the file stretched out unceasingly.