Free The Dogs and the Wolves by Irène Némirovsky

atrocious memory of what they themselves had once been or might have been. No one dared to add: ‘what they could become again some day’.
    Ada hid behind the curtain and immediately fell half-asleep.Every now and again she put her hand into her mouth and gently bit down on it in order to stay awake. Then the silk folds of the curtains would part, her pale, sleepy face would appear, and, thinking no one could see her, she would carefully lean forward and stick out her tongue at the women.
    When she was pulled out of her hiding place, she was almost sleepwalking. She and Ben were pushed into an enormous room, which was the elderly Sinner’s office; a small table was set up, they were sat down at it and given something to eat. Ada was so exhausted that she couldn’t even answer the questions the old man asked her; she couldn’t even hear him. Later on, Ben would cruelly tease her about this. As for Ben, he spoke too quickly and too loudly, his little voice shrill and passionate.
    ‘So Israel Sinner is your uncle? I’ve heard of him. He’s an honest Jew.’
    The old man had spoken these words slowly, sounding thoughtful and with a hint of pity. When anyone spoke of a Jew from the ghetto as honest, how could you not feel sorry; sorry for the poor man to whom God had forgotten to give sharp teeth and claws so he could defend himself?
    ‘Make sure to tell him to come and see me,’ he said. ‘He’ll make some money.’ (He had instructions to pass on to his agents in Kharkov; it wouldn’t be a bad idea to entrust them to a discreet, hard-working man who didn’t seem overly intelligent.)
    He turned away so the children could eat in peace, and walked over to the window; from here, he could see the roofs of the ghetto. It would be interesting, Ada thought vaguely, to know what this old man was thinking as he looked down at that cursed part of town, so close yet so far from where he stood . . . But the thoughts of such a rich man were surely impenetrable to mere mortals, as lofty and strange as the spirits who lived in Heaven. And besides, she was so tired that everything, absolutely everything around her took on the feeling of a dreamor feverish delirium. She was only truly aware of the world around her the next day, when she was at Lilla’s friend’s house. The Sinners had contacted her father and he had taken her and Ben there. She had slept for twenty-four hours.

9
    The wealthy Sinner kept his promise and gave his relative the opportunity to be useful to him on a few occasions. The commission he agreed to pay him was minimal, but for a man like Israel Sinner, the very fact that he was being protected by a family from such glittering social circles was enough to raise his status. He was showered with respect: what qualities must he possess to be of service to the king of the upper town?
    But then his patron died, and the accountants who were dealing with the enormous estate gave Israel the responsibility of concluding several transactions, which he happily did. Other matters were entrusted to him, more substantial ones. Within two years he had become, if not exactly wealthy, at least comfortably well off. With the Jews, everything happened in leaps and bounds. Happiness and misfortune, prosperity and poverty poured down upon them like rain from the heavens upon cattle. This was what filled them simultaneously with perpetual anxiety and invincible hope.
    What was more, something else had happened that allowed Aunt Raissa to realise one of her dreams: grandfather had died. Since the night of the pogrom, he seemed to have been shocked into a sort of stupor. He could barely walk and hardly ate anything;he soon passed away, and with his death, so did the main reason that the Sinners were forced to live in the lower town.
    The family moved higher up, halfway between the top of the hill and the ghetto.
    Aunt Raissa was not the kind of woman who rested on her laurels. Now it was essential to take charge of Lilla’s