And mother Coupeau and she had lamented together in the back-room as they reckoned that they required at least twenty francs.

How could they obtain them, those four pieces of a hundred sous each?
Mother Coupeau who had at one time done the charring for a little actress of the Theatre des Batignolles, was the first to suggest the pawn-shop.

Gervaise laughed with relief.

How stupid she was not to have thought of it! She quickly folded her black silk dress upon a towel which she then pinned together.

Then she hid the bundle under mother Coupeau's apron, telling her to keep it very flat against her stomach, on account of the neighbors who had no need to know; and she went and watched at the door to see that the old woman was not followed.