Chapter 9.
The first of December. It was late in the afternoon, on a clear day. The fading autumn still coloured the scene, bathing the countryside with a gentle, trembling warmth which made the pools of water evaporate before one's eyes, their thin transparent vapour rising as the red ball of the setting sun was still hanging above the oak trees skirting the road. Madeleine watched the sun gradually disappear, and then it was night. She arrived at the Place de la Mairie with her horse and cart. She saw the lights in the windows of the Kommandantur. The shops in the square had already pulled down their blinds, the houses had closed their shutters. Only the Café du Soleil allowed a thin light to penetrate to the pavement through its double curtains. That meant that Céline, the proprietress
