V
The nights are links in a chain. Previously life consisted of day and night; white, black; black, white. Since then life goes on unbrokenly.
VI
This morning when I caught a reflection of myself in the shop windows, I noticed I had a strange air of authority, a self-assurance quite new and indefinable, a manner crisper, more clear-cut. When I purchased my provisions I had the courage to haggle, and the market-women treated me as an equal.
My firmness and decisiveness have made Marie reveal the pale ocean of her eyes. A distance seems to have been set between us.