David Golder, The Ball, Snow in Autumn & The Courilof Affair (2008) by Irene Nemirovsky

Author:Irene Nemirovsky [Nemirovsky, Irene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Irene Nemirovsky
ISBN: 9780307267085
Publisher: Everyman
Published: 2008-10-04T23:00:00+00:00

VI

ANTOINETTE AND Miss Betty were finishing their dinner in the linen room; it had been served on an ironing board balanced across two chairs. Through the door they could hear the servants rushing about in the butler’s pantry, and the sound of dishes clanking. Antoinette sat motionless, her hands tight around her knees. At nine o’clock, the governess looked at her watch.

“You have to go to bed right now, dear…You won’t hear the music from your little room, so you should sleep well.”

When Antoinette did not reply, Miss Betty laughed and clapped her hands.

“Come along, Antoinette, wake up, what’s the matter?”

She took her to the dingy little box room where a fold-out bed and two chairs had been hastily set up. Across the courtyard were the brightly lit windows of the reception room and dining room.

“You can watch the people dancing from here,” Miss Betty saidjokingly. “There are no shutters.”

After she left, Antoinette got up and pressed her face against the glass, partly in eagerness, partly in fear; a large section ofwall was lit up by the golden light from the windows. Shadows passed back and forth behind the tulle curtains. The servants. Someone opened the bay-window, and Antoinette could clearly hear the sound of instruments being tuned at the end of the reception room. The musicians had already arrived. My God, it was after nine o’clock…All week long she had vaguely expected some catastrophe to wipe her from the face of the earth before anyone found out; but the evening had passed like any other. In a nearby apartment, the clock struck the half hour. Thirty, forty-five minutes to go, then … Nothing, nothing would happen. Of course it wouldn’t. The moment they had come home from their walk that evening, Madame Kampf had leapt at Miss Betty and demanded, in that furious tone of voice that always made nervous people immediately lose their heads, “You did post the invitations, didn’t you? You’re quite sure you didn’t lose any?” and Miss Betty had said, “Yes, Mrs. Kampf.” Surely she was the one responsible, she alone … And if Miss Betty were dismissed, well, too bad, it would serve her right, it would teach her a lesson.

“I don’t give a damn,” Antoinette stammered. “I don’t give a damn,” biting her hands so hard that her young, sharp teeth made them bleed.

“And as for her, she can do what she likes to me, I’m not afraid, I don’t give a damn!”

She looked out at the dark, deep courtyard below the window.

“I’ll kill myself, and before I die, I’ll say it’s all because ofher, and that will be the end of it,” she murmured. “I’m not afraid of anything, I’ve already had my revenge …”

She went back to looking out of the window. Her breath was making the glass misty; angrily she wiped it and pressed her face against it once again. Finally, out of frustration, she threw open both sides of the window. The night was fine and cold. Now, with

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