Coupeau, one morning that he had a hangover, exclaimed: "The old thing's always saying she's going to die, and yet she never does!" The words struck mother Coupeau to the heart.
They frequently complained of how much she cost them, observing that they would save a lot of money when she was gone.
When at her worst that winter, one afternoon, when Madame Lorilleux and Madame Lerat had met at her bedside, mother Coupeau winked her eye as a signal to them to lean over her.

She could scarcely speak.

She rather hissed than said in a low voice: "It's becoming indecent.

I heard them last night.

Yes, Clump-clump and the hatter.