Gervaise smiled slightly as she listened.

Oh! she was not thinking of scolding, she felt too much embarrassed for that.

She had been expecting to see her former lover again some day ever since their dinner party; but at such an hour, when she was about to go to bed, the unexpected arrival of the two men had startled her.

Her hands were quivering as she pinned back the hair which had slid down her neck.
"You know," resumed Coupeau, "as he was so polite as to decline a drink outside, you must treat us to one here.

Ah! you certainly owe us that!" The workwomen had left long ago.