now, I thought it quite different. And
though the thick calico curtains were the same in this room as in the
others, they seemed to me to make that window look like a face with its
eyes shut.

The yard began to get dark, and the lights lit up the rooms inside. I
meant to get up from the bench, thinking, "Ox Eye will open the gate
for me;" but my body felt crushed, and I seemed to have two broad, hard
hands weighing heavily on my head. And, as though I had spoken them
aloud, the words, "Ox Eye will open the gate for me," repeated
themselves over and over again. All of a sudden a voice, with pity in
it, said, quite close to me, "Please, Marie Claire, don't sit out here
in the snow." I raised my head, and standing in front of me was a
young, quite young, sister, whose face was so beautiful that I could
not remember ever to have seen such a face before. She bent over me to
help me up, and, as I could hardly stand upright, she put my arm under
hers, and said, "Lean on me." Then I saw that she was taking me to the
kitchen, the great glass door of which was bright with light. I didn't
think of anything. The snow pricked my face, and my eyelids were
burning. When I went into the kitchen, I recognized the two girls who
were standing by the big square oven. They were Veronique the Minx,
and Melanie the Plump, and I seemed to hear Sister Marie-Aimee talking
to them by these names. Melanie nodded to me as I passed her, and
leaning on the young sister's arm, I went into a room in which there
was a night-light burning. The room was divided into two by a big
white curtain. The young sister made me sit down on a chair, which she
took from behind the curtain, and went out without saying a word. A
little while afterwards Melanie the Plump and Veronique the Minx came
in to put clean sheets on the little iron bed beside me. When they had
finished, Veronique, who had not looked at me at all till then, turned
to me and said that nobody had ever thought that I should come back.
She said it as though she were reproaching me for something shameful.
Melanie put her hands together under her chin, and put her head on one
side, just as she used to do when she was a little girl. She smiled
affectionately at me, and said, "I am very glad that you have been sent
to the kitchen." Then she patted the bed, and said, "You are taking my
place. I used to sleep here." She pointed to the curtain, and in a
low voice she said, "This is wh