"Nothing but magazines today, Monsieur Mintié."
"How is that!... No letters at all! You must be mistaken, my boy. Look ... look again...."
He made the mailman search in his letter bag, untie the bundles and go through them again....
"Nothing!... Why it's impossible!"
And he would return to the kitchen, seat himself in the rocking chair heaving a sigh:
"Just think of it," he would say to Marie who gave him a bowl of milk, "just think of it, Marie, if his poor mother had been alive!"
During the day, when in town, he used to visit people who had sons in the army; the conversation was always the same.
"Well, have you heard from your boys."
"Why, no, M'sieur Mintié. How about you, have you heard anything from Jean?"
"I haven't either."