explained Gervaise. "But I shall be back early; you can get some bread
and some chops whilst I'm away, and then we'll have lunch. Bring also a
bottle of wine."

He did not say no. Their quarrel seemed to be forgotten. The young woman
was completing her bundle of dirty clothes. But when she went to take
Lantier's shirts and socks from the bottom of the trunk, he called to
her to leave them alone.

"Leave my things, d'ye hear? I don't want 'em touched!"

"What's it you don't want touched?" she asked, rising up. "I suppose
you don't mean to put these filthy things on again, do you? They must be
washed."

She studied his boyishly handsome face, now so rigid that it seemed
nothing could ever soften it. He angrily grabbed his things from her and
threw them back into the trunk, saying:

"Just obey me, for once! I tell you I won't have 'em touched!"

"But why?" she asked, turning pale, a terrible suspicion crossing her
mind. "You don't need your shirts now, you're not going away. What can
it matter to you if I take them?"

He hesitated for an instant, embarrassed by the piercing glance she
fixed upon him. "Why--why--" stammered he, "because you go and tell
everyone that you keep me, that you wash and mend. Well! It worries me,
there! Attend to your own business and I'll attend to mine, washerwomen
don't work for dogs."