helpmate. Of Pauline, the Quenus' daughter, we see but little in the
story, but she becomes the heroine of another of M. Zola's novels, "La
Joie de Vivre," and instead of inheriting the egotism of her parents,
develops a passionate love and devotion for others. In a like way Claude
Lantier, Florent's artist friend and son of Gervaise of the "Assommoir,"
figures more particularly in "L'Oeuvre," which tells how his painful
struggle for fame resulted in madness and suicide. With reference to the
beautiful Norman and the other fishwives and gossips scattered through
the present volume, and those genuine types of Parisian _gaminerie_,
Muche, Marjolin, and Cadine, I may mention that I have frequently
chastened their language in deference to English susceptibilities,
so that the story, whilst retaining every essential feature, contains
nothing to which exception can reasonably be taken.

E. A. V.





THE FAT AND THE THIN



CHAPTER I

Amidst the deep silence and solitude prevailing in the avenue several
market gardeners' carts were climbing the slope which led towards Paris,
and the fronts of the houses, asleep behind the dim lines of elms on
either side of the road, echoed back the rhythmical jolting of the