lukewarm sugar and water. That did not prevent his going off to his work
in the morning as usual. He even took advantage of his lunch-hour to
make a declaration of the birth at the mayor's. During this time Madame
Boche, who had been informed of the event, had hastened to go and
pass the day with Gervaise. But the latter, after ten hours of sleep,
bewailed her position, saying that she already felt pains all over her
through having been so long in bed. She would become quite ill if they
did not let her get up. In the evening, when Coupeau returned home, she
told him all her worries; no doubt she had confidence in Madame Boche,
only it put her beside herself to see a stranger installed in her room,
opening the drawers, and touching her things.

On the morrow the concierge, on returning from some errand, found her
up, dressed, sweeping and getting her husband's dinner ready; and it was
impossible to persuade her to go to bed again. They were trying to make
a fool of her perhaps! It was all very well for ladies to pretend to be
unable to move. When one was not rich one had no time for that sort of
thing. Three days after her confinement she was ironing petticoats at
Madame Fauconnier's, banging her irons and all in a perspiration from
the great heat of the stove.

On the Saturday evening, Madame Lorilleux brought her presents for her
godchild--a cup that cost thirty-five sous, and a christening dress,
plaited and trimmed with some cheap lace, which she had got for six
francs, because it was slightly soiled. On the morrow, Lorilleux, as
godfather, gave the mother six pounds of sugar. They certainly did
things properly! At the baptism supper which took place at the Coupeaus
that evening, they did not come empty-handed. Lorilleux carried a bottle
of fine wine under each arm and his wife brought a large custard pie
from a famous pastry shop on Chaussee Clignancourt. But the Lorilleuxs