On the first
Sunday, however, war broke out. The couple had a goodly sum of money in
the house, and they spent it freely. During the night, when they were
both drunk, they beat each other outrageously, without being able to
remember on the morrow how it was that the quarrel had commenced. They
had remained on most affectionate terms until about ten o'clock, when
Antoine had begun to beat Fine brutally, whereupon the latter, growing
exasperated and forgetting her meekness, had given him back as much as
she received. She went to work again bravely on the following day, as
though nothing had happened. But her husband, with sullen rancour,
rose late and passed the remainder of the day smoking his pipe in the
sunshine.
From that time forward the Macquarts adopted the kind of life which
they were destined to lead in the future. It became, as it were, tacitly
understood between them that the wife should toil and moil to keep her
husband. Fine, who had an instinctive liking for work, did not object
to this. She was as patient as a saint, provided she had had no drink,
thought it quite natural that her husband should remain idle, and even
strove to spare him the most trifling labour. Her little weakness,
aniseed, did not make her vicious, but just. On the evenings when
she had forgotten herself in the company of a bottle of her favourite
liqueur, if Antoine tried to pick a quarrel with her, she would set
upon him with might and main, reproaching him with his idleness and
ingratitude.
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