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"Like some, numbnuts?"

Ruth tilted the Glenfiddich bottle toward Beauvoir

"You know I don’t drink anymore," he said

"This isn’t alcohol I took it from the Gamaches’," she said "It’s tea Earl Grey They think I don’t know"

Beauvoir sh part of hi the alass He smelled it There was no lass away froraph he’d had copied toward her

It was black and white, and showed a substantialover one are of a businessht be casual, there was no h he’d heard a shot in the distance

"Do you know this un?"

"I heard so about it"

"That man built it His naun, I un," said Ruth

Again he nodded "Bigger than any weapon I’ve ever seen"

"Laurent was telling the truth," said the old poet

To Jean-Guy’s eyes she’d never looked older

"It was built in the hties," he said "You were here then Do you re? It must’ve made a racket in the forest You couldn’t miss it"

"It’s a question only a city person would ask You think the countryside is silent, but it isn’t It would put New York City to sha around here all the ti off branches hanging too close to Hydro lines People getting wood for the winter Between the chain saws and the laers it can be deafening And don’t getNo one would notice, or reo"