At the
further end a glazed partition concealed a dark kitchen. On each side of
the dining-room was a sleeping apartment.
The old lady after kissing her son and daughter-in-law withdrew. The
cat went to sleep on a chair in the kitchen. The married couple
entered their room, which had a second door opening on a staircase that
communicated with the arcade by an obscure narrow passage.
The husband who was always trembling with fever went to bed, while the
young woman opened the window to close the shutter blinds. She remained
there a few minutes facing the great black wall, which ascends and
stretches above the arcade. She cast a vague wandering look upon this
wall, and, without a word she, in her turn, went to bed in disdainful
indifference.
CHAPTER II
Madame Raquin had formerly been a mercer at Vernon. For close upon
five-and-twenty years, she had kept a small shop in that town. A few
years after the death of her husband, becoming subject to fits of
faintness, she sold her business. Her savings added to the price of this
sale placed a capital of 40,000 francs in her hand which she invested so
that it brought her in an income of 2,000 francs a year. This sum amply
sufficed for her requirements.
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