Little by little, a feeling of primitive exhilaration filled her being. She jumped on to the pile of ropes better to breathe in the wind. The sea shimmered slightly, illuminated by the lights on the ship. She felt almost weightless, as if lifted into the air with joy, carried away by a force more powerful than herself. ‘This is youth,’ she mused, smiling. ‘There’s no better feeling in the world.’

She saw Max coming towards her; she recognised his walk and the glow of the little pipe he was smoking. ‘Is that you?’ he asked wearily.

He went over to her, leaned against the railings next to her and watched the sea in silence; one of the ship’s lanterns lit up his face. How he had changed! He was one of those men who, when they are young, seem to have finer features and look more handsome than they actually are; he wasn’t even thirty, but already his clean-shaven face, drawn at the corners of his mouth, was thicker, heavier; it had begun to crumple, turn ugly; he no longer had his beautiful silky eyelashes or the scornful crease at the corner of his handsome mouth; it was paler now, leaving him looking weary and irritated; you could see the gold fillings in his teeth.

He whistled softly to the dog. ‘Up, Svea, you’re in my spot. Move over a bit, Hélène.’

He came and sat down beside her, holding the bulldog on his lap.

‘Those lights to the right,’ said Hélène softly, ‘that must be Le Havre. How bright it looks. I think I can make out the coastline near Honfleur. Yes, it’s France, France!’

‘You’re happy, aren’t you?’ he asked, sighing.

‘Yes. Why wouldn’t I be? I love France, and those lights are a good omen.’

‘Presumptuous youth,’ he scoffed. ‘The lights, the music, the shouting … You don’t see them as being in honour of an event as insignificant as the signing of a peace treaty. In your eyes they’re for you. How silly young girls can be.’

‘Now, now,’ she said, taking his hand. ‘You’d be quite happy to be in my shoes. Look at you. Fed up, irritable … and why? I’m content, I feel light-hearted, happy. And it’s because I’m seventeen, darling, and that’s a joyful time of life.’

She slowly raised her bare arm to her lips and licked the smooth, suntanned skin to taste the salt left there by ten days at sea.

Max looked at her with curiosity. ‘Shall I tell you something?’ he asked after thinking for a moment. ‘I hope you won’t be offended. You haven’t grown up in the way you’d like me to think, you’ve simply got younger. At fifteen you were a little old lady. Now, at last, you’re the age you should be.’

‘Well, well,’ she whispered, ‘so you’ve noticed that?’

He nodded. ‘I notice everything, understand everything, and when I don’t understand, it’s because I don’t want to.’

‘Oh, really?’ she said, while she was actually thinking, ‘So, the game is on. We’ll soon see who wins …’

She was trembling with a cunning, cruel excitement, but at the same time she felt truly sad. ‘I’m no better than them, in the end …’

She remembered an unhappy little girl whose heart was filled with love; she affectionately contemplated that image, deep within her, and spoke to it: ‘Patience, you’ll see …’

The ship sailed on between the two illuminated coastlines; between France and England, fanfare answered fanfare as fireworks mirrored fireworks; and in the reddish sea mist the boat slowly drifted towards the brightly shining ports decorated with flags and banners.

Hélène clenched her trembling hands together in a childlike gesture, just as she had in the past. ‘I used to come here when I was a child.