Chapter 98: Polinka

Polinka It is one o’clock in the afternoon. Shopping is at its height at the Nouveautés de Paris, a drapery establishment in one of the Arcades. There is a monotonous hum of shopmen’s voices, the hum one hears at school when the teacher sets the boys to learn something by heart. This regular sound is not interrupted by the laughter of lady customers nor the slam of the glass door, nor the scurrying of the boys. Polinka, a thin fair little person whose mother is the head of a dressmaking es…