Then she began to cry.

She would never have strength enough to wait until seven.

Her body swayed backwards and forwards, she oscillated like a child nursing some sharp pain, bending herself double and crushing her stomach so as not to feel it.

Ah! an accouchement is less painful than hunger! And unable to ease herself, seized with rage, she rose and stamped about, hoping to send her hunger to sleep by walking it to and fro like an infant.

For half an hour or so, she knocked against the four corners of the empty room.