Gervaise found herself very thirsty, and drank several large glasses of water with a small amount of wine added.
"I'll settle for this," said Coupeau, going at once to the bar, where he paid four francs and five sous.
It was now one o'clock and the other guests began to arrive.

Madame Fauconnier, a fat woman, still good looking, first put in an appearance; she wore a chintz dress with a flowery pattern, a pink tie and a cap over-trimmed with flowers.

Next came Mademoiselle Remanjou, looking very thin in the eternal black dress which she seemed to keep on even when she went to bed; and the two Gaudrons--the husband, like some heavy animal and almost bursting his brown jacket at the slightest movement, the wife, an enormous woman, whose figure indicated evident signs of an approaching maternity and whose stiff violet colored skirt still more increased her rotundity.

Coupeau explained that they were not to wait for My-Boots; his comrade would join the party on the Route de Saint-Denis.
"Well!" exclaimed Madame Lerat as she entered, "it'll pour in torrents soon! That'll be pleasant!" And she called everyone to the door of the wineshop to see the clouds as black as ink which were rising rapidly to the south of Paris.

Madame Lerat, eldest of the Coupeaus, was a tall, gaunt woman who talked through her nose.