--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 wife prefer to go across the way.
They find it just too miserable here.... The simple fact is that this
place doesn't interest them. I'm not beautiful, I have prickly heat,
and my two little girls are dead.... Over there it's very different,
there is laughter all the time. A woman from Arles, a beautiful woman
with lots of lace and three gold chains round her neck, keeps the
place. The driver, her lover, brings in customers for her in the coach.
She also has a number of attractive girls for chamber maids.... This
also brings lots of business in! She gets all the young people from
Bezouces, from Redessan and from Jonquières. The coachmen go out of
their way to call in at her place.... As for me, I'm stuck in here all
day, all alone, eating my heart out.
She said all that with a distracted, vacant way, forehead still pressed
against the window pane. Obviously, there was something in the inn
opposite that really interested her.... Suddenly, over the road, a lot
started to happen. The coach edged forward in the dust. The sounds of
cracking whips and a horn was heard. The young girls squeezed together
in the doorway and shouted:
--Goodbye!... Goodbye!... And above all that, the wonderful voice,
singing, as before, most beautifully,
Took her little silver can,
To the river made her way,
She didn't notice by the water,
Three young cavaliers, quite near.
The woman's whole body shook on hearing that voice; and she turned
towards me and whispered:
--Do you hear that? That's my husband.... Don't you think he has a
beautiful voice?