Le Petit Salon Analysis

‘Le Petit Salon’ was approximately twenty feet away from the office of the Baron, and its name that suggested the idea of a small and cozy nest, did not prepare me for the vast and lavishly furnished living room where the guests who awaited there, seemed to be lost in its abundant space. As I came in, I felt in my ears for just a negligible fraction of time, the implosion of a deep icy silence, the same profound and dark absence of sound that must have reigned in the nothingness preceding the universal ‘Big Bang’. And suddenly, after that split second of total postponement, life returned to the assembly. As I came in, they looked at me with the frozen expression one could observe on the faces of a group of actors, suddenly interrupted in the

“The Baron seems quite normal and if he does have some difficulty sleeping, he is not alone, I’m sure!” As I was saying those words, I asked myself if what I just heard about the Baron’s health could have, if not a bearing on the case, at least an intrinsic significance which could help me understand the psychological aspect of this weird affair. In any event, my encouragement turned out to be for Monsieur and Madame Valloix, a source of both advice and reassurance. They soon forgot their son-in-law’s auditory hyperesthesia, as well as the storm outside. Later, they even forgot my presence, and I was left with the questions which haunted me: Who wrote the anonymous letter? As I found myself alone for an instant, I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder, as soft and fragile, as the flutter of a sparrow. I did not turn around right away, then I heard behind me, a sweet voice of crystalline radiance, that ravished my ears. “You’re a policeman, aren’t you?” That was when I turned around, and saw a blond girl, smiling. She was about twelve years old, and I knew immediately who she was. I wondered how this beautiful pearl, newly formed, could have been born in that silk-lined dark shell of a house, haunted by an evil