The Widow Read Online Free PDF Page B

degrees?”
    â€œThere’s a thermometer.”
    They were both squatting in front of the apparatus. The heat drenched their skin with sweat.
    â€œShow me where the hundred-and-two-degree mark is.”
    â€œIf we’re going to try it, we’ll need some kerosene.”
    â€œI’ve got some. Wait a minute….”
    She got some from the shed. She cleaned the wick, lit the lamp.
    â€œYou’re sure this is the place to put it?”
    The big red bus had long since arrived at Montluçon, almost empty, having scattered its women all along the road. The driver was eating a snack in the shady dining room of a little restaurant, and he would start back at four o’clock.
    From Montluçon to St. Amand, sometimes running alongside the Cher, sometimes sweeping away from it, the Berry canal, barely twenty feet wide, bore toy boats on its calm waters, blocked here and there by toy bridges, little draw-bridges you had to work yourself by hauling on a chain.
    It was the end of May. The gooseberries were ripe. The strawberries were beginning to fill out. In one corner of the garden there was a wide bed of beans.
    â€œIf they say you’ve got to put water in, water is what you’ve got to put in!”
    Tati was suspicious. Jean groped around. Where was the proper place for the water that would keep the incubator moist?
    He had taken off his jacket. His thin shirt, with its blue and white stripes, was worn at the collar and wrists.
    He was thin, and yet there was a touch of puffiness in his face.
    â€œWe shall soon see,” he said. “If the temperature reaches a hundred and two in a few minutes …”
    â€œI’ve got some eggs all ready. All pure Leghorn. Where did you plan to spend the night?”
    He smiled, which showed he had understood. Ever since the bus, before they had exchanged a word, they had understood one another.
    â€œI don’t know. Here, perhaps? Look! Ninety-nine … Almost a hundred … a few minutes now …”
    â€œWould you sleep in the loft?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œAnd you would do what work there is to do?”
    He took his stand in front of the yard swarming with poultry.
    â€œSo long as you’re not afraid,” he uttered, stretching nonchalantly.
    â€œAfraid of what?”
    â€œYou don’t know where I come from….”
    â€œNo man has ever scared me yet!”
    â€œAnd yet, suppose …”
    â€œSuppose what?”
    â€œWell, suppose I’d just come out of prison?”
    It was as if she had guessed it already.
    â€œWell, what then?”
    â€œSuppose I made off with your savings tonight?”
    â€œYou wouldn’t find them.”
    â€œAnd suppose I murdered you?”
    â€œI’m stronger than you are, my boy!”
    â€œSuppose …”
    â€œSuppose what?”
    â€œNothing …”
    His playful mood had abated somewhat. He looked at her almost seriously. “You’re an odd woman. Tell me, now…. The old man … didn’t you say he was your father-in-law?”
    â€œAnd you’re surprised I mess around with him, eh? Well, first of all it’s no fault of mine if he’s an old tomcat. Then again, would you rather I let myself be thrown out of a house where I’ve done everything and let others benefit—pieces like that Félicie you saw?”
    â€œLook! It’s up to a hundred and two.”
    â€œDo you think it’s working, then? If so, we’d better carry it into the wine shed. Wait … I’ll give you a hand.”
    â€œBetter wait till tomorrow to put the eggs in.”
    She agreed, but reluctantly. “That means a whole day lost.”
    Then, while they were settling the incubator in the cool shade of the wine shed: “It’s up to you. As I said, I took you for a foreigner, a Polack or something. If you’d like a bed, your food, and a bit of money now and then….”
    Over the