She signaled to him, winking her eye and smiling.

The policeman understood perfectly.
When he was on duty and anyone winked their eye to him it meant a glass of wine.

He would even walk for hours up and down before the laundry waiting for a wink.

Then so as not to be seen, he would pass through the courtyard and toss off the liquor in secret.
"Ah! ah!" said Lantier when he saw him enter, "it's you, Badingue." He called him Badingue for a joke, just to show how little he cared for the Emperor.

Poisson put up with it in his stiff way without one knowing whether it really annoyed him or not.