They went to fetch the bundles in the left hand room where Etienne slept, and returned with enormous armfuls which they piled up on the floor at the back of the shop.

The sorting lasted a good half hour.

Gervaise made heaps all round her, throwing the shirts in one, the chemises in another, the handkerchiefs, the socks, the dish-cloths in others.

Whenever she came across anything belonging to a new customer, she marked it with a cross in red cotton thread so as to know it again.

And from all this dirty linen which they were throwing about there issued an offensive odor in the warm atmosphere.
"Oh! La, la.