While she was robing her sitting room in its dress uniform, she felt a kind of intoxication. She rolled a carpet down the stairs until it reached the bottom of the landing, the ceremonial effect had to be noticed as soon as one crossed the threshold. She polished her Empire-style mirror, which was framed by a gold fillet studded with acanthus leaves.
She walked along the ancient carpets as though listening to a fable, or telling one. But which fable was it? The story of her family, which adhered to set guidelines.
II
Mrs Bellotti presided over everything in silence. Serra was talking about something, one of his programmes, which everyone was acquainted with and which they thus hardly paid any attention to; programmes which had nothing to do with the painful, dramatic notes that one coul
