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By Root 1427 0

which was eventually to lead to her downfall, was to annoy Mademoiselle Guichon, the office secretary, by constantly prying into her affairs. Madame Lebleu was convinced that Mademoiselle Guichon spent every evening with the stationmaster. It had become an obsession; she had a pathological desire to catch her out, exacerbated by the fact that she had been spying on her for two years and had discovered absolutely nothing, not a whisper. Yet she was sure they were sleeping together; it drove her mad. It made Mademoiselle Guichon very angry that she could neither leave nor return to her apartment without being watched, and she had asked that Madame Lebleu be moved to the other side of the corridor. That way there would be an apartment between them, they wouldn’t be living opposite each other, and she would no longer have to walk past her door every day. It was becoming obvious that Monsieur Dabadie, the stationmaster, who hitherto had not wanted to get involved in all this arguing, was now beginning to lose sympathy with Monsieur and Madame Lebleu, which did not augur well.

The situation was made worse by other personal animosities. Philomène now supplied Séverine with new-laid eggs, and every time she saw Madame Lebleu in the corridor, she made a point of being rude to her. As Madame Lebleu deliberately left her door open to annoy everybody, whenever Philomène walked past there were always unpleasant exchanges between them. The friendship between Séverine and Philomène had reached the stage where they were sharing each other’s secrets; Philomène was bringing messages from Jacques to his mistress when he couldn’t risk coming himself. She would come with her eggs, tell her when her meetings with Jacques had to be rearranged, explain how he’d had to be careful the night before and how they’d spent an hour together at her place. Sometimes when Jacques couldn’t come, he was quite happy to while away the time at the Sauvagnats, chatting with the shed foreman. He used to go there with his fireman, Pecqueux; it was as if he needed to distract himself and was frightened of spending an evening alone. Even when Pecqueux went off drinking in the sailors’ bars, he would call on Philomène, give her a message to take to Séverine and then sit down and stay for hours. Gradually Philomène became drawn into his love affair. She grew quite fond of him; all her previous lovers had treated her roughly. Jacques had delicate hands; he seemed so very sad, but he was always polite and gentle towards her. These were delights she had never sampled. With Pecqueux, it was like being married; he was always getting drunk and he gave her more cuffs than cuddles. But when she carried some little endearment from Jacques to Séverine, she herself tasted the sweet flavour of forbidden fruit. One day she confided in him, complaining about Pecqueux. She didn’t trust him; he seemed a genial sort of chap, but when he got drunk he could be really nasty. Jacques noticed that she was looking after herself better; she was still very thin and rather unkempt, but not unattractive, with lovely soulful eyes. She was drinking less and keeping the house tidier. One evening her brother heard her talking with a man and came in, his hand raised ready to strike her, but when he saw who it was he simply offered them a bottle of cider. Philomène always made Jacques very welcome, and he seemed to enjoy his visits there; he was able to forget his worries. Philomène became a very close friend of Séverine and went round telling everyone that Madame Lebleu was an old cow!

One night she met the two lovers behind her little garden and accompanied them in the dark to the tool-shed where they used to hide.

‘You’re too kind to her,’ Philomène said to Séverine. ‘The apartment belongs to you. If it was me, I’d drag her out by her hair! I don’t know why you put up with her.’

But Jacques didn’t want to make a fuss.

‘Monsieur Dabadie’s seeing to it,’ he said. ‘It’s best to wait till it’s sorted out officially.’

‘Before the end of the month I’ll be sleeping in her bedroom,’ declared Séverine,