He held out his hand, and muttered in a low voice: "Charity, if you please!" They looked at one another.

Ah! _Mon Dieu!_ They were reduced to this--Pere Bru begging, Madame Coupeau walking the streets! They remained stupefied in front of each other.

They could join hands as equals now.

The old workman had prowled about the whole evening, not daring to stop anyone, and the first person he accosted was as hungry as himself.

Lord, was it not pitiful! To have toiled for fifty years and be obliged to beg! To have been one of the most prosperous laundresses in the Rue de la Goutte-d'Or and to end beside the gutter! They still looked at one another.