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"Henri"

At the sound of his na this way and that, like satellite dishes searching for a signal

"I beg you, monsieur," smiled Gamache, "don’t say B-A-L-L or we’ll all be lost"

The et excited whenever I’d say B-O-O-K He’d knoere co here I think he loved it evento this library every day for almost a week and except for whispered conversations with the elderly female librarian as he searched for obscure volumes on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, he hadn’t spoken to anyone

It was a relief to not talk, to not explain, or feel an explanation was desired if not deh But for now he’d yearned for and found peace in this obscure library

Though he’d been visiting his mentor for years, and had come to believe he knew old Québec inti Never even noticed it a the other lovely homes and churches, convents, schools, hotels and restaurants

But here, just up rue St-Stanislas where Émile had his old stone ho books Where else?

"Would he like water?" the elderly h Gaether they walked out of the library and down the wooden hall, past portraits of former heads of the Literary and Historical Society It was as though the place was encrusted with its own history

It gave it a feeling of calh much of old Quebec City was like that within the thick walls The only fortress city in North America, protected from attack

It was, these days, more symbolic than practical but Gamache knew symbols were at least as powerful as any bomb Indeed, while rew

Symbols were immortal

The elderly man poured water into a bowl and Ga it on a towel so as not to get water on the wide, dark floorboards Henri, of course, ignored it

The two men settled back into their seats Ga a heavy horticultural reference book He himself went back to the correspondence A selection of letters Isabelle Lacoste had thought he ues around the world, others from citizens who also wanted to let him kno they felt He read theent Lacoste sent only a sa

At the very end he read the letter he kneas there Was always there Every day It was in a now farown used to it and could now decode the scrawl