noon
After all sorts of incidents , she herself could n't find as much as a duster to wash in the whole neighborhood ; and even an old lady , whose rooms she did , had just given her the sack , charging her with swilling her liqueurs . No one would engage her , she was washed up everywhere ; and this secretly suited her , for she had fallen to that state of indifference when one prefers to croak rather than move one 's fingers . At all events , if Coupeau brought his pay home they would have something warm to eat . And meanwhile , as it was n't yet noon , she remained stretched on the mattress , for one does n't feel so cold or so hungry when one is lying down . The bed was nothing but a pile of straw in a corner . Bed and bedding had gone , piece by piece , to the second-hand dealers of the neighborhood . First she had ripped open the mattress to sell handfuls of wool at ten sous a pound .