thy heat.

And the flies! Oh, God, the flies! I have never seen so many. They were
on the ceiling, stuck to the windows, in the glasses, in clusters
everywhere.... When I opened the door, there was a buzzing as if I had
just entered a bee hive. At the back of the room, in a window, there
was a woman standing, her face pressed against the glass and totally
absorbed in looking through it. I called to her twice:

--Hello, landlady!

She turned round slowly and revealed a pitiful peasant's face,
wrinkled, cracked, earth coloured, and framed in long strands of
brownish lace, like old women wear hereabouts. And yet, she wasn't an
old woman, perhaps the tears had wilted her.

--What can I do for you? She asked me, drying her eyes.

--Just a sit down and a drink....

She looked at me, utterly astonished, and didn't move as if she hadn't
understood.

--This is an inn, isn't it?

The woman sighed:

--Yes ... it's an inn, in a manner of speaking.... But why aren't you
over the road like everybody else? It's a much livelier place....

--It's a bit too lively for my liking.... I'd rather stay here.

And without waiting for her reply, I sat down at a table. Once she had
satisfied herself that I was genuine, she began to flit to and fro
busily, opening drawers, moving bottles, wiping glasses, and flicking
the flies away.... You could see that a customer was quite an event for
her. Now and then the unfortunate woman would hold her head as if she
was despairing of getting to the end of it.

Then she disappeared into a back room; I heard her take up some keys,
fiddle with the locks, rummage in the bread bin, huff and puff, do some
dusting, wash some plates. And from time to time ... a muffled sob....
After a quarter of an hour of this performance, a plate of dried
raisins, an old Beaucaire loaf as hard as the dish it came on, and a
bottle of cheap wine, were placed before me.

--There you are, said the strange creature, and rushed back to her
place at the window.

* * * * *

I tried to engage her in conversation as I was drinking up.

--You don't often get people here do you, madam?

-- Oh, no, monsieur, never, no one.... It was very different at the
time when we were the only the coaching inn around here. We did the
lunches for the hunt during the soter bird season, as well as coaches
all the year round.... But since the other place has opened up, we've
lost everything.... The world and his wif