She
was at first successful, but in time grew lazy and fond of good living,
while Coupeau continued idle and became increasingly intemperate.
Business began to go, and Gervaise became more careless, even taking
more drink occasionally than she had been wont to do. About this
time Lantier, her former lover, appeared again, and made friends with
Coupeau, who agreed to take him into the house as a lodger. After that,
the descent of Gervaise was rapid. Lantier never paid anything for his
support, Coupeau drank more heavily than ever, and Gervaise, who was
gradually drifting into intemperance, resumed her old connection
with her lover. All the time work was being neglected, and debts were
accumulating with alarming rapidity. Eventually Madame Virginie Poisson
took over the shop, and with it Lantier, who transferred his affections
along with the lease, and the Coupeaus removed into a small house high
up in the same building. Coupeau suffered from repeated attacks of
delirium tremens, and eventually died in an asylum. Gervaise continued
to sink still lower, until no work was too menial or too repulsive for
her to undertake for the price of drink, and one day in the winter of
1869 she was found dead in a garret of that great tenement house where
she had passed so much of her life.
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