"Without me, what will become of them?" "It bores into my heart." "It feels like stone inside." "Let's go." "Let go of me." "Mouchette." "Him again." "Go away, Arséne." "Leave." "It's time, don't stay here." "Leave, please." "Yes." "And come back." "Luisa." "Mr Mathieu." "Heat is what I need." "It helps me breathe." "No more hope?" "Three days, said Columbus." "Pointing to the endless sky." "The end of the horizon." "Three days and I will give a new world." "To you who hope no longer." "On the deep vastness." "His eyes opened to see." "Hope!" "No more hope!" "Sing!" "Hope!" "No more hope!" "Three days, said Columbus." "Hope!" "No more hope!" "Three days, said Columbus." "Hope!" "No more hope!" "Three days, said Columbus." "Pointing to the endless sky." "Mouchette." "Mouchette." "Look." "You promised, Luisa." "Me?" "I must have misunderstood." "I may have promised yesterday." "But now I wonder if I will like you, Mr Mathieu?" "I would like to please you." "But you love another." "Please answer, Luisa." "Let's not hesitate, ladies and gentlemen." "Come." "Three tickets for one franc." "Seven for two francs." "Look closely!" "If your ticket says "winner", you can pick a doll." "A lovely prize." "A picture." "A bedside lamp." "An iron." "Don't hesitate." "And we have a winner." "We have a winner." "Another doll of the winner's choosing." "Look carefully, ladies and gentlemen." "Help yourselves." "And we have another winner." "Help yourselves." "We have another winner." "Don't hesitate, ladies and gentlemen." "Look carefully." "If your ticket says "winner", you can pick a doll." "A lovely prize." "A painting." "A bedside lamp." "An iron." "And we have a winner." "We have a winner." "Help yourselves." "We have another winner." "Don't hesitate, ladies and gentlemen." "He's making fun of you." "Who?" "Arséne." "Of me?" "Of you, Mathieu." "I'll get him." "Arséne is in love with you, isn't he?" "Do you love him?" "Why are you meddling?" "Is it any of your business?" "Yes." "I'm warning you, I'll get him." "You won't hurt him." "He's not afraid of you, you're too afraid of him." "We'll see." "He'll spend the night outside, he has his rubber mat." "Arséne had better watch out." "Take it, if you want." "Take it." "No?" "Don't think this makes us even, Arsene." "And, since we are here, you'd better leave Luisa alone." "Luisa?" "Luisa." "You make a strange special guard, Mr Mathieu." "Heed my advice." "I don't like people getting in my way." "If people provoke me..." "Go ahead and try." "What are you doing here?" "I got lost." "Couldn't you take the road like your friends?" "If you go home to your father without both your clogs, beware." "We're not staying." "Dry yourself first." "What time did you get out of school?" "Drink, this will warm you up." "6:00." "I left before the others." "Alone?" "Yes." "No one saw you?" "I don't know." "No." "You wanted to go home through the wood." "Yes." "Listen very carefully." "You didn't come home through the wood, but by the Liniéres road." "You even went to Liniéres to buy marbles." "Marbles?" "Sweets, whatever." "Buy with what?" "Here's some money." "You can say you found it." "You stopped at the crossroads." "You saw me come out of the bistro." "I said I was back from checking some snares in Bassompierre." "Snares?" "Should I mention the snares?" "Yes." "Even to the gendarme?" "Yes." "I'll go and get your clog." "No one must know we were here." "Understood?" "Here." "No harm, no foul." "No ashes here." "Shine that here." "Listen to the storm." "Come, I have a plan." "We'll manage without him." "There's wood and candles." "We'll keep burning them." "In the morning, there'll be a pile of ashes." "I'll say I spent all day and night here, out of the rain." "Understood?" "Listen, child." "I've either said too much or not enough." "I must tell you everything." "Try to look me in the eyes." "I may be mad drunk, but I have all my wits." "I think I've just killed somebody." "Guard Mathieu." "How do you know?" "He had his mat over his shoulder." "He was going to spend the night outside." "To get you, as he says." "This time, I got him." "We rolled into the water." "I checked my flask, the top had come off." "I held it out to him and, for a while, we were friends again." "But I don't know what came over him." "We were both drunk." "Don't worry, it happens sometimes." "My mind goes blank." "I saw myself setting the spring trap, just as I see you." "He fell forwards." "His legs jerked." "First quickly, then slowly." "And then he stopped moving." "He fell in the water, it turned red." "But earlier on, when I went to get your clog," "I heard those gunshots and thought he wasn't really dead, just pretending." "I recognised his gun." "An old English 12 mm, very short." "Mr Arséne, if the guard really isn't dead, there's no use saying I saw you in front of the cafe." "We need something else." "He'll talk." "He'll talk?" "He'll say "no", I'll say "yes"." "Journalists like that." "If I could help you, Mr Arséne, you need to remember." "Remember!" "Remember?" "I was there." "With my nose in the water." "Royally drunk." "I'll say I was hidden in the wood, that I saw the guard insult you and attack you." "Please listen." "I'll also say he was drunk." "You can trust me." "I hate them." "I used to stand up to them all." "Child, I can't see straight." "My neck is seizing up." "I'm going to have a fit." "Hope!" "No more hope!" "Three days, said Columbus." "Pointing to the endless sky." "The end of the horizon." "Three days and I will give a new world." "To you who hope no longer." "On the deep vastness." "His eyes opened to see." "Are you singing?" "Come on, I'll drop you off on the way." "Where are we really going, Mr Arséne?" "Where are we going?" "Home." "And the guard?" "Did you kill him?" "With what?" "My gun?" "With the trap, Mr Arséne." "You used the spring trap." "The trap?" "Let me through." "Let you through?" "Where are you going in the middle of the night?" "Home, Mr Arséne." "Straight home, I swear." "I'll remember everything, don't worry." "Hang on a minute!" "Why are you meddling?" "If you breathe one word of this, I'll wring your neck." "Mr Arséne, I'd rather kill myself than hurt you." "Why are you so afraid of hurting me?" "Mouchette?" "Mouchette?" "Mouchette?" "Mouchette?" "Is it you?" "Where have you come from?" "Your father and brother are outside." "Try to find some matches and warm some milk for the baby." "Put the linen on the line." "It shouldn't stay wet all night." "Otherwise, he'll get angry." "Why are you standing there?" "Stay." "Otherwise, I won't be able to blow out the lamp." "What time is it?" "I can't hear the church clock." "The storm must have made the wind change." "Storm..." "What storm, you poor child?" "It was a storm." "Not a storm?" "Listen, Mum..." "Give him to me." "Make him be quiet." "I don't want to hear him." "I'm suffocating!" "Go and get the litre of gin hidden under the empty bags in the basement." "If I must die, let it at least be without pain." "I made a real mess." "Try not to listen to bad workers and drunks in the future." "Mum, I need to tell you..." "Mum." "Mum?" "Mum!" "Where are you going?" "To get milk for the baby." "She was a brave woman." "How dare you stare at me like that, you little dunce?" "Shit!" "Mouchette!" "Come and have a cup of coffee." "So, your poor mother died?" "So quickly!" "Don't fret, child." "It happens to all of us." "At least it was painless, poor woman." "You broke my bowl?" "What's wrong with you?" "Little slut!" "Mouchette!" "We'll get you." "Mouchette!" "What are you doing here?" "It's lucky you turned up, I need to talk to you." "Sit down." "Arséne and I had a fight yesterday about a trap." "He was drunk." "We had a run-in, but outside of work." "It's nobody's business." "But the gendarmes arrested him early this morning." "They say he put explosives in the river." "Arséne claims he saw you in the wood." "If that's true..." "It is true." "Yes, sir." "Go on!" "Admit he went to your place last night to prepare his alibi." "Why else would you be here?" "I saw Mr Arséne last night in his hut." "What were you doing in his hut?" "Sheltering from the storm." "The storm?" "The rain." "You've become very delicate, afraid of a little rain." "Mr Arséne took me there." "Where were you coming from when you met him?" "Don't lie!" "From school." "You go to school at night?" "It wasn't night yet." "I sheltered in the wood, and Mr Arsene said..." "What did he say?" "He was out of his mind." "He was walking straight." "Idiot!" "He never walks straighter than with a litre of gin in his gut." "He said you'd fought, and that you were drunk too, Mr Mathieu." "OK, you left school, sheltered in his hut, the rain stopped around midnight." "After that, you went home I presume?" "I only went home in the early morning." "I stayed almost all night." "The night?" "You spent the night in Arséne's hut?" "All night?" "Let her be." "I knew it!" "Smell for yourself, Mathieu." "The poor kid still stinks of gin." "Arséne must have got her drunk." "When I saw you come in earlier on, I knew you hadn't slept at home." "Look at your hair!" "Your eyes haven't even recovered from the alcohol yet." "I think you're telling the truth, but not all of it." "Go, Mathieu." "Leave us alone." "Don't go, Mr Mathieu!" "Leave it." "You'll drive her mad." "As you wish. it drives me mad to think that a lout you wouldn't give a hare to..." "You don't even care whether he got the child drunk or not." "What does that have to do with me?" "With the gendarmes, yes." "The father should press charges." "A father?" "You call that a father?" "Your mother died today, so I can't bear to question you, but come back tomorrow." "I'll give you 10 francs for it." "You only need answer me if you want to." "Mr Arséne is my lover." "Ask him, he'll tell you." "Mouchette!" "What's wrong with you?" "Are you feeling OK?" "I need to go home." "Your poor mother..." "I bet you don't have a sheet to bury her in." "Before our Lord, we used to embalm them with perfume and herbs." "Around here, we don't even wash them any more." "The vicar says the dead are in heaven." "I don't want to contradict him, but I have my own ideas." "We used to love the dead." "They were gods." "That's what religion should be." "You'll find a few dresses in here that you can wear." "I've known you for a while, you know." "Do you remember, I gave you a green apple?" "It should fit you." "I will keep vigil over your mother." "I'll take this nice sheet." "I love the dead." "I understand them well." "When I was your age, I was scared of them." "Now I talk to them, and they answer me." "With a whisper, a slight breeze." "Have you ever thought about death, Mouchette?" "Are you asleep?" "Your heart is asleep." "Try not to awaken it too quickly, you have time." "Listen, you old bag." "I only want to help you." "You are evil." "You probably don't understand." "You have evil in your eyes."