Chapter 160

• Proserpina
• I waited in the doctors’ clinic, feeling my anxiety grow. The doctor who had been with me through my pregnancy with Claude was not available; he was out of station said the nurse politely. Instead, I was directed to a woman who looked at me over the top of her spectacles severely. She had white hair in a short, neat style and thin, unsmiling lips.
• When she began to examine me and asked me the regular questions, I could see she was taken aback to know I had had three children.