Germinal - Emile Zola [97]
Chaval bought Catherine a mirror for nineteen sous and a scarf for three francs. As they went up and down the rows they kept bumping into Mouque and Bonnemort, who had come to see the fair and were slowly trudging through it, side by side, deep in thought. But another chance encounter made them cross, as they caught sight of Jeanlin inciting Bébert and Lydie to steal some bottles of gin from a temporary bar which had been set up on the edge of some waste ground. All Catherine could do was give her brother a clout, for Lydie had already fled clutching a bottle. Those little devils would end up in prison one day.
Then they came to the Severed Head, and Chaval thought he would take Catherine in to watch a songbird competition which had been advertised on the door for the past week. Fifteen nailers had turned up from the nail-works at Marchiennes, each with a dozen cages; and these little cages, each one covered so that the sightless bird inside remained quite still, were already in place, hanging from a fence in the yard. The object was to see which bird would repeat its song the greatest number of times in one hour. Each nailer would stand next to his own cages, recording the tally on a slate and keeping an eye on his neighbours just as they kept an eye on him. And then the birds began: the chichouïeux with their deeper note, the batisecouics with their high-pitched trill, all of them hesitant at first, venturing only a few snatches of song, then gradually getting each other going, increasing the tempo, and eventually becoming so carried away by the spirit of competition that some of them actually fell off their perch and died. The nailers would urge them on roughly, shouting at them in Walloon to keep singing, more, more, just one last little burst of song; while the spectators, a hundred or more of them, stood there in silence, riveted, surrounded by this infernal music of a hundred and eighty finches all repeating the same song at different intervals. A batisecouic won first prize, which was a metal coffee-pot.
Catherine and Chaval were still there when Zacharie and Philomène arrived. They shook hands and stood around together. But suddenly Zacharie flew into a rage when he caught a nailer, who had come along with his comrades out of curiosity, pinching his sister in the thigh. Catherine went bright red and told him to be quiet, terrified at the prospect of a punch-up and all these nailers rounding on Chaval if he were to make an issue of them pinching her. She had felt the man’s hand all right but thought it better not to say anything. But her lover simply sneered at him, and the four of them left; the matter seemed to be forgotten. Hardly had they arrived at Piquette’s for another drink, however, than the nailer showed up again, quite unconcerned, laughing in their faces with an air of provocation. Zacharie, his family honour at stake, had promptly set upon the insolent man.
‘That’s my sister, you bastard!…You wait and see if I don’t bloody teach you some respect!’
People rushed to separate the two men, while Chaval, who had remained very calm, reacted as before:
‘Leave him be. This is my business. And as far as I’m concerned, he can go to hell!’
Maheu arrived with his group, and he tried to comfort Catherine and Philomène, who were already in tears. By now people were laughing, and the nailer had gone. Piquette’s was Chaval’s local, and so to help everyone forget about the incident he ordered a round. Étienne found himself clinking glasses with Catherine, and they all drank together, the father, the daughter and her lover, the son and his mistress, all politely saying: ‘Cheers everyone!’ Then Pierron insisted on