The big girl approached and laid her hand in her father’s. 'Feel how cold I am,' said she. 'Bah! ' replied the father, 'I am much colder than that. ' The mother exclaimed impetuously:— 'You always have something better than any one else, so you do! even bad things.
' 'Down with you! ' said the man. The mother, being eyed after a certain fashion, held her tongue. Silence reigned for a moment in the hovel.
The elder girl was removing the mud from the bottom of her mantle, with a careless air; her younger sister continued to sob; the mother had taken the latter’s head between her hands, and was covering it with kisses, whispering to her the while:— 'My treasure, I entreat you, it is nothing of consequence, don’t cry, you will anger your father.
' 'No! ' exclaimed the father, 'quite the contrary! sob! sob! that’s right. ' Then turning to the elder:— 'There now! He is not coming! What if he were not to come! I shall have extinguished my fire, wrecked my chair, torn my shirt, and broken my pane all for nothing.
' 'And wounded the child! ' murmured the mother. 'Do you know,' went on the father, 'that it’s beastly cold in this devil’s garret! What if that man should not come! Oh! See there, you! He makes us wait! He says to himself: ‘Well! they will wait for me!
That’s what they’re there for. ’ Oh! how I hate them, and with what joy, jubilation, enthusiasm, and satisfaction I could strangle all those rich folks! all those rich folks!
These men who pretend to be charitable, who put on airs, who go to mass, who make presents to the priesthood, preachy, preachy, in their skullcaps, and who think themselves above us, and who come for the purpose of humiliating us, and to