Father Karel guided Croniamantal through long corridors. Then they went up a stairway of white marble and on the second floor, Father Karel opened a door and said:
"Your room."
He showed him the electric button and left.
The room was round, the bed and the chairs were round; on the chimney piece a skull looked like an old cheese.
Croniamantal stood by the window, under which spread the teeming darkness of a large monastery garden, from which there seemed to rise laughter, sighs, cries of joy, as if a thousand couples were embracing each other. Then a woman's voice in the garden sang a song which Croniamantal had heard before:
...Croquemitaine
Wears the rose and the lilac
The King is a-coming
—Hello Germaine
—Croquemitaine
Wilt thou come back again?
And Croniamantal began to sing the rest:
—Hello Germaine
I come to love among thine arms.
Then he heard the voice of Tristouse continuing the couplet.
And voices of men here and there, sang airs that were strange or grave, while the cracked voice of an old man stuttered: