Suite Française

Mixed in with this cruelty was a slight affectation that was a product of his youth as well as a certain leaning towards sadism. For example, although he was harsh towards people, he displayed the greatest solicitude towards animals. It was at his instigation that the Headquarters at Calais had issued an order several months earlier. Bo

These acts of kindness were sometimes the result of musical, literary or, as on this spring morning when he walked into the Sabaries' farmhouse, artistic impressions: Bo

At that very moment a large clock struck midday. Bo

He wanted to make Madeleine speak; he wanted to hear her voice again, her young, slightly lilting voice.

"Do you live here alone? Your husband must be a prisoner?"

"Oh, no," she said quickly.

At the thought of Benoît, a German prisoner who had escaped, she was afraid again; it struck her that the German would guess and arrest him. "I'm so stupid," she thought, and instinctively softened: she had to be nice to the conqueror.

"Will you be here long?" she asked in a frank, humble voice. "Everyone's saying three months."

"We don't know ourselves," Bo

"Oh? Is it?"

"It will be in a few days. In any case, it would be all over by the time we got there. And I think they'll keep us here all summer, unless they send us to Africa or England."

"And… do you like it?" said Madeleine, intentionally feigning i

"Man is made to be a warrior, just as woman is made to please the warrior," Bo

Madeleine didn't reply. Actually, she had very little idea what Benoît thought, even though they'd been brought up together. Benoît was taciturn and cloaked in a triple armour of decency: masculine, provincial and French. She didn't know what he hated or what he liked, just that he was capable of both love and hatred.

"My God," she said to herself, "I hope he doesn't take against this German."

She continued to listen but said little, straining all the while to hear any sounds on the road. Carts passed by, the church bells chimed for evening prayers. You could hear the bells ring out one after the other across the countryside; first the light silvery note of the little chapel on the Montmort estate, then the deep sound from the village, then the hurried little peal from Sainte-Marie that you could only hear in bad weather, when the wind blew in from the tops of the hills.

"The family will be home soon," murmured Madeleine.

She placed a creamy earthenware jug of forget-me-nots on the table.

"You won't be eating here, will you?" she suddenly asked.

He reassured her. "No, no, I've paid to have my meals in town. I'll only have some coffee in the morning."

"Well, that's easy enough, Monsieur."

It was an expression they used a lot around Bussy. She said it in an affectionate sort of way, with a smile. It didn't mean a thing, though; it was a mere politeness and didn't actually mean you would get anything. A mere politeness and, if the promise wasn't kept, there was another expression ready and waiting, this time spoken with a tinge of regret and apology: "Ah, well, you can't always do what you want."

But the German was delighted. "How kind everyone is here," he said naively.

"You think you so, Monsieur?"

"And I hope you'll bring me my coffee in bed?"

"We only do that for sick people," said Madeleine ironically.

He wanted to take her hands; she quickly pulled away.

"Here's my husband."

He wasn't there yet, but he would be soon; she recognised the sound of the mare's hooves on the road. She went out into the courtyard; it was raining. Through the gates came the old horse and trap, unused since the other war but now a replacement for the broken-down car. Benoît held the reins. The women were sitting under wet umbrellas.

Madeleine ran towards her husband and put her arm round his neck. "There's a Boche," she whispered in his ear.

"Is he going to be living with us?"

"Yes."

"Damn!"

"So what?" said Cécile. "They're not so bad if you know how to handle them, and they pay well."

Benoît unharnessed the mare and took her to the stable. Cécile, intimidated by the German but conscious of having an advantage because she was wearing her best Sunday dress, a hat and silk stockings, proudly walked into the room.