He grumbled at everything, sniffed at the dishes of potatoes--a mess he could not eat, he would say, without having the colic.

The least jangling now turned to quarrels, in which they accused one another of being the cause of all their troubles, and it was a devil of a job to restore harmony before they all retired for the night.
Lantier sensed a crisis coming and it exasperated him to realise that this place was already so thoroughly cleaned out that he could see the day coming when he'd have to take his hat and seek elsewhere for his bed and board.

He had become accustomed to this little paradise where he was nicely treated by everybody.

He should have blamed himself for eating himself out of house and home, but instead he blamed the Coupeaus for letting themselves be ruined in less than two years.

He thought Gervaise was too extravagant.