Now that Gervaise was going to have fourteen persons at table, she began to fear that she would not be able to find room for them all.

She decided that they should dine in the shop; and the first thing in the morning she took measurements so as to settle which way she should place the table.

After that they had to remove all the clothes and take the ironing-table to pieces; the top of this laid on to some shorter trestles was to be the dining-table.

But just in the midst of all this moving a customer appeared and made a scene because she had been waiting for her washing ever since the Friday; they were humbugging her, she would have her things at once.

Then Gervaise tried to excuse herself and lied boldly; it was not her fault, she was cleaning out her shop, the workmen would not be there till the morrow; and she pacified her customer and got rid of her by promising to busy herself with her things at the earliest possible moment.