“For two days there was a boring, fine, completely autumn rain. The clouds gathered over the village and covered it with their gray damp bodies. The birches drooped, the streets were empty and wet, people sat at home, looking out the windows. They languished. On the morning of the third day, the rain stopped, the clouds cried and dissolved, leaving a liquid gloom in the sky; the day was warm and muggy, steam rose from the ground, fog descended at night...”