ains at Madame Fauconnier's. She would not go home at
once, but remained there wriggling about on a chair, and continuing
her ironing every time the pain allowed her to do so; the curtains
were wanted quickly and she obstinately made a point of finishing them.
Besides, perhaps after all it was only a colic; it would never do to
be frightened by a bit of a stomach-ache. But as she was talking of
starting on some shirts, she became quite pale. She was obliged to leave
the work-shop, and cross the street doubled in two, holding on to the
walls. One of the workwomen offered to accompany her; she declined, but
begged her to go instead for the midwife, close by, in the Rue de la
Charbonniere. This was only a false alarm; there was no need to make a
fuss. She would be like that no doubt all through the night. It was not
going to prevent her getting Coupeau's dinner ready as soon as she
was indoors; then she might perhaps lie down on the bed a little, but
without undressing. On the staircase she was seized with such a violent
pain, that she was obliged to sit down on one of the stairs; and she
pressed her two fists against her mouth to prevent herself from crying
out, for she would have been ashamed to have been found there by any
man, had one come up. The pain passed away; she was able to open
her door, feeling relieved, and thinking that she had decidedly been
mistaken. That evening she was going to make a stew with some neck
chops. All went well while she peeled the potatoes. The chops were
cooking in a saucepan when the pains returned. She mixed the gravy as
she stamped about in front of the stove, almost blinded with her tears.
If she was going to give birth, that was no reason why Coupeau should
be kept without his dinner. At length the stew began to simmer on a
fire covered with cinders. She went into the other room, and thought she
would have time to lay the cloth at one end of the table. But she was
obliged to put down the bottle of wine very quickly; she no longer had
strength to reach the bed; she fell prostrate, and she had more pains
on a mat on the floor. When the midwife arrived, a quarter of an hour
later, she found mother and baby lying there on the floor.

The zinc-worker was still employed at the hospital. Gervaise would not
have him disturbed. When he came home at seven o'clock, he found her
in bed, well covered up, looking very pale on the pillow, and the child
crying, swathed in a shawl at it's mother's fee