The ladies retired early; and the men, while smoking, organized a game of ecarte and invited Mr. Follenvie to join them, because they wanted to question him skillfully as to the means to be used to overcome the Officer’s resistance. but he had his mind concentrated on the cards; he did not hear anything, did not answer anything, and kept on repeating:  “Attend to the game, Gentlemen! attend to the game!”—­His attention was so tense that he even forgot to expectorate, which produced at times a wheezing in his chest like the sounds of an organ.  His whistling lungs gave out every note of the asthmatic scale from the deep and hollow tones up to the shrill crowing of young roosters trying to sing.

He even refused to go up when his wife, overcome with sleep, came to get him.  Then she went away all alone, because she was an early riser, getting up with the sun, whereas her husband kept late hours, always ready to spend the night with friends.  He called to her:—­“Put my eggnog near the fire!”—­and continued the game.  When the travelers saw that they could not get anything out of him, they announced that it was time to retire, and they all went to bed.

They rose quite early again the next morning with a vague hope, a greater desire to be able to proceed on their journey, and a dread of having to spend another day in this wretched little inn.  Alas! the horses remained in the stable, the driver was invisible.  Having nothing better to do, they went and wandered around the coach.

Luncheon was very gloomy, and there had developed a general coolness toward Boule de Suif, for night, which brings counsel, had somewhat modified their judgment.  They almost bore a grudge against the girl for not having surreptitiously gone to the Prussian Officer to afford a pleasant surprise to her companions when they awoke.  Nothing more simple!  Beside, who would have suspected it?  She might have saved appearances by having the Officer say that he had taken pity on their distress.  To her it would have been of little consequence.

But nobody as yet gave expression to such thoughts.

In the afternoon, as they were bored to death, the Count proposed to take a walk around the village.  Each one wrapped himself up carefully and the small company set off, with the exception of Cornudet, who preferred to remain by the fire, and the good Nuns who spent their days in Church or at the Parish house.

The cold, growing daily more and more intense, bit mercilessly the nose and ears of the strollers; their feet pained them so much that each step was a torture; and when the country opened up before them, it looked so frightfully dismal under the boundless sheet of white, that they all retraced their steps hastily, with souls frozen and hearts heavy.

The four women walked in front and the three men followed them a little behind.