When the midwife arrived, a quarter of an hour later, she found mother and baby lying there on the floor.
The zinc-worker was still employed at the hospital.

Gervaise would not have him disturbed.

When he came home at seven o'clock, he found her in bed, well covered up, looking very pale on the pillow, and the child crying, swathed in a shawl at it's mother's feet.
"Ah, my poor wife!" said Coupeau, kissing Gervaise.

"And I was joking only an hour ago, whilst you were crying with pain! I say, you don't make much fuss about it--the time to sneeze and it's all over." She smiled faintly; then she murmured: "It's a girl." "Right!" the zinc-worker replied, joking so as to enliven her, "I ordered a girl! Well, now I've got what I wanted! You do everything I wish!" And, taking the child up in his arms, he continued: "Let's have a look at you, miss! You've got a very black little mug.

It'll get whiter, never fear.