"What on earth have you come here for?" cried Maheude, without even moving from her chair. "I don't want to have anything more to do with you; get along."
Then Catherine tried to find words:
"Mother, it's some coffee and sugar; yes, for the children. I've been thinking of them and done overtime."
She drew out of her pockets a pound of coffee and a pound of sugar, and took courage to place them on the table. The strike at the Voreux troubled her while she was working at Jean-Bart, and she had only been able to think of this way of helping her parents a little, under the pretext of caring for the little ones. But her good nature did not disarm her mother, who replied:
"Instead of bringing us sweets, you would have done better to stay and earn bread for us."
She overwhelmed her with abus
