of December and he shivered. He sprang on the tile floor, saying to
himself that he would be warm at night.

A week previously, Madame Raquin, knowing how short he was of money, had
slipped a purse into his hand containing 500 francs, which represented
all her savings. The young man had accepted this present without
difficulty, and had rigged himself out from tip to toe. Moreover, the
money of the old mercer permitted him to make Therese the customary
presents.

The black trousers, dress coat, white waistcoat, shirt and cambric tie,
hung spread out on a couple of chairs. Laurent washed, perfumed himself
with a bottle of eau de Cologne, and then proceeded to carefully attire
himself. He wished to look handsome. As he fastened his collar, a collar
which was high and stiff, he experienced keen pain in the neck. The
button escaped from his fingers. He lost patience. The starched linen
seemed to cut into his flesh. Wishing to see what was the matter, he
raised his chin, and perceived the bite Camille had given him looking
quite red. The collar had slightly galled the scar.

Laurent pressed his lips together, and turned pale; the sight of this
mark seaming his neck, frightened and irritated him at this moment. He
crumpled up the collar, and selected another which he put on with every
precaution, and then finished dressing himself. As he went downstairs
his new clothes made him look rigid. With his neck imprisoned in the
inflexible linen, he dared not turn his head. At every movement he made,
a pleat pinched the wound that the teeth of the drowned man had made in
his flesh, and it was under the irritation of these sharp pricks, that
he got into the carriage, and went to fetch Therese to conduct her to
the town-hall and church.