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Chapter 14

One Friday evening, early in July, Anna was expecting Eric for supper. She had quit work an hour earlier. In a nearby Charcuterie she bought all the spicy things she knew Eric liked. Then she made her way home through the Père Lachaise Gardens.

The leaves, still wet from the noon rain were glowing against the dusk. Lonesome-looking violets huddled together like girls whispering secrets. The grass bowed before the arrival of darkness. A melancholic aura wafted across the cemetery wall. Caught up in the mood of twilight, Anna sat down beneath a tree. The deserted garden gave her a feeling of seclusion. She felt a need for quietness, for slow-paced meditation.

She snuggled her head against the tree. A gust of wind shook the branches and showered her with raindrops. A pang of self-pity gripped her heart. "Why are you crying, you foolish trees?" she caught herself saying. Then she laughed at her tears streaming down her cheeks, realizing that she was a mature young lady who must hide her grief. She seized her shopping-bag and dashed home, pursued by the phantom of her shame...

That evening she sat at the window, waiting. The clock ticked away the minutes, then the hours, but Eric didn't show up. A dark presentiment veiled her being. What kept him away? And then she was sucked into a whirlpool of

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