It was meant to be the dining room and a big round table stood in the center, but the Wathieus never ate there. Instead, like Régine’s parents, the Wathieus ate in the room that served both as a kitchen and living room. The newly laid eggs which Régine or Sylvie brought in were put into a bowl on the big table in the closed room. When villagers came to buy eggs, Sylvie went in and counted out the required number. The milk and butter which Sylvie made was kept in the cellar where it was always cool. She would bring up the butter and weigh it on a scale on that same table. At all other times the door to the room was never opened. It was in this spare room that Sylvie one day divulged a secret to Régine. They had gone in to give it a rare dusting. As they worked, Sylvie told the story in the confiding tone Régine remembered her mother using. Because of that tone, Régine listened in silence. At the back of the room was a tall cabinet with a glass door. It was filled with plates, glasses, old photographs and other knickknacks.
