noon
Fast following emotions caused the City to vibrate : the explosion of Courneuve , which had shaken Paris like an earthquake ; the incessant air-bomb alarms which broke in on sleep and wore out nerves . And on this morning of Saturday after a troubled night all those who were not able to close an eyelid until very late were roused again by the thunder of the mysterious cannon buried in the far distance , which , beyond the Somme , launched death in trial shots , as if from another planet . In the course of the earlier shots , which were attributed to the coming back of the aerial Gothas , people had taken refuge in a docile way inside their cellars ; but a danger that continues becomes in time a habit to which life accommodates itself ; and the peril is not far from turning out an attraction even , when the risks run are common to all and are not too great . Besides , the weather was too lovely ; it was a pity to bury one 's self alive : before noon all the world was out of doors ; and the streets and gardens , the terraces of the cafés had a festival air on this radiant and burning afternoon . It was this afternoon Pierre and Luce had selected to pass , far from the crowd , in the forest of Chaville . For the past ten days they had existed in an uplifted calm . Profound peace at the heart , and nerves on edge .