by Auguste, on the Boulevard de la Chapelle. It was a small cafe with
moderate charges and had a dancing place in the rear, beneath the three
acacias in the courtyard. They would be very comfortable on the first
floor. During the next ten days, he got hold of guests in the house
where his sister lived in the Rue de la Goutte-d'Or--Monsieur Madinier,
Mademoiselle Remanjou, Madame Gaudron and her husband. He even ended
by getting Gervaise to consent to the presence of two of his
comrades--Bibi-the-Smoker and My-Boots. No doubt My-Boots was a boozer;
but then he had such a fantastic appetite that he was always asked to
join those sort of gatherings, just for the sight of the caterer's
mug when he beheld that bottomless pit swallowing his twelve pounds
of bread. The young woman on her side, promised to bring her employer
Madame Fauconnier and the Boches, some very agreeable people. On
counting, they found there would be fifteen to sit down to table,
which was quite enough. When there are too many, they always wind up by
quarrelling.

Coupeau however, had no money. Without wishing to show off, he intended
to behave handsomely. He borrowed fifty francs of his employer. Out of
that, he first of all purchased the wedding-ring--a twelve franc gold
wedding-ring, which Lorilleux procured for him at the wholesale price of
nine francs. He then bought himself a frock coat, a pair of trousers
and a waistcoat at a tailor's in the Rue Myrrha, to whom he gave merely
twenty-five francs on account; his patent leather shoes and his hat
were still good enough. When he had put by the ten francs for his
and Gervaise's share of the feast--the two children not being charged
for--he had exactly six francs left--the price of a low mass at the
altar of the poor. He had no liking for those black crows, the priests.
It would gripe him to pay his last six francs to keep their whistles
wet; however, a marriage without a mass wasn't a real marriage at all.