To complete their misery it was freezing very hard, and the women watched their piles of coal diminish, thinking anxiously that they could no longer renew them at the pits now that the men were not going down.
Pour comble de misere, il gelait tres fort, les femmes voyaient diminuer leur tas de charbon, avec la pensée inquiete qu'on ne le renouvellerait plus aux fosses, tant que les hommes ne redescendraient pas.