And he would go up himself for the ten francs so boldly and yet so amiably that the chainmaker never dared refuse them.
Madame Lerat also gave two five-franc pieces now.
Mother Coupeau could have kissed Lantier’s hands. He was, moreover, the grand arbiter in all the quarrels between the old woman and Gervaise.
Whenever the laundress, in a moment of impatience, behaved roughly to her mother-in-law and the latter went and cried on her bed, he hustled them about and made them kiss each other, asking them if they thought themselves amusing with their bad tempers.
And Nana, too; she was being brought up badly, according to his idea.
In that he was right, for whenever the father spanked the child, the mother took her part, and if the mother, in her turn, boxed her ears, the father made a disturbance.
Nana delighted at seeing her parents abuse each other, and knowing that she was forgiven beforehand, was up to all kinds of tricks.
Her latest mania was to go and play in the blacksmith shop opposite; she would pass the entire day swinging on the shafts of the carts; she would hide with bands of urchins in the remotest corners of the gray courtyard, lighted up with the red glare of the forge; and suddenly she would reappear, running and shouting, unkempt and dirty and followed by the troop of urchins, as though a sudden clash of the hammers had frightened the ragamuffins away.
Lantier alone could scold her; and yet she knew perfectly well how to get over him.
This tricky little girl of ten would walk before him like a lady, swinging herself about and casting side glances at him, her eyes already full of vice.
He had ended by undertaking her education: he taught her to dance and to talk patois.
A year passed thus.
In the neighborhood it was thought that Lantier had a private income, for this was the only way to account for the Coupeaus’ grand style of living.
No doubt Gervaise continued to earn money; but now that she had to support two men in doing nothing, the shop certainly could not suffice; more especially as the shop no longer had so good a reputation, customers were leaving and the workwomen were tippling from morning till night.
The truth was that Lantier paid nothing, neither for rent nor board.
During the first months he had paid sums on account, then he had contented himself with speaking of a large amount he was going to receive, with which later on he would pay off everything in a lump sum.
Gervaise no longer dared ask him for a centime.
She had the bread, the wine, the meat, all on credit.
The bills increased everywhere at the rate of three and four francs a day.
She had not paid a sou to the furniture dealer nor to the three comrades, the mason, the carpenter and the painter.
All these people commenced to grumble, and she was no longer greeted with the same politeness at the shops.
She was as though intoxicated by a mania for getting into debt; she tried to drown her thoughts, ordered the most expensive things, and gave full freedom to her gluttony now that she no longer paid for anything; she remained withal very honest at heart, dreaming of earning from morning to night hundreds of francs, though she did not exactly know how, to enable her to distribute handfuls of five-franc pieces to her tradespeople.
In short, she was sinking, and as she sank lower and lower she talked of extending her business. Instead she went deeper into debt.
Clemence left around the middle of the summer because there was no longer enough work for two women and she had not been paid in several weeks.
During this impending ruin, Coupeau and Lantier were, in effect, devouring the shop and growing fat on the ruin of the establishment.
At table they would challenge each other to take more helpings and slap their rounded stomachs to make more room for dessert.
The great subject of conversation in the neighborhood was as to whether Lantier had really gone back to his old footing with Gervaise.
On this point opinions were divided.
According to the Lorilleuxs, Clump-Clump was doing everything she could to hook Lantier again, but he would no longer have anything to do with her because she was getting old and faded and he had plenty of younger girls that were prettier.
On the other hand, according to the Boches, Gervaise had gone back to her former mate the very first night, just as soon as poor Coupeau had gone to sleep.
The picture was not pretty, but there were a lot of worse things in life, so folks ended by accepting the threesome as altogether natural. In fact, they thought them rather nice since there were never any fights and the outward decencies remained.
Certainly if you stuck your nose into some of the other neighborhood households you could smell far worse things.
So what if they slept together like a nice little family. It never kept the neighbors awake.
Besides, everyone was still very much impressed by Lantier’s good manners.
His charm helped greatly to keep tongues from wagging.
Indeed, when the fruit dealer insisted to the tripe seller that there had been no intimacies, the latter appeared to feel that this was really too bad, because it made the Coupeaus less interesting.
Gervaise was quite at her ease in this matter, and not much troubled with these thoughts.
Things reached the point that she was accused of being heartless.
The family did not understand why she continued to bear a grudge against the hatter.
Madame Lerat now came over every evening. She considered Lantier as utterly irresistible and said that most ladies would be happy to fall into his arms.
Madame Boche declared that her own virtue would not be safe if she were ten years younger.
There was a sort of silent conspiracy to push Gervaise into the arms of Lantier, as if all the women around her felt driven to satisfy their own longings by giving her a lover.
Gervaise didn’t understand this because she no longer found Lantier seductive.
Certainly he had changed for the better. He had gotten a sort of education in the cafes and political meetings but she knew him well.
She could pierce to the depths of his soul and she found things there that still gave her the shivers.
Well, if the others found him so attractive, why didn’t they try it themselves.
In the end she suggested this one day to Virginie who seemed the most eager.
Then, to excite Gervaise, Madame Lerat and Virginie told her of the love of Lantier and tall Clemence.
Yes, she had not noticed anything herself; but as soon as she went out on an errand, the hatter would bring the workgirl into his room.
Now people met them out together; he probably went to see her at her own place.