Description

Sophie Mittelette steps off a rattling train in Grenoble with only a modest purse and a battered basket of provisions. Fresh from a harsh apprenticeship in a convent kitchen and the memory of a tragic loss in Saint‑Gervais, she hopes the promise of an old friend, Juliette, will offer a chance at honest work and a steadier life. The narrative sketches the cramped stations, the clatter of departing travelers, and the quiet determination in Sophie's eyes as she counts her fourteen francs and steadies her resolve.

Juliette, now the fashionable proprietor of a bustling hair‑dressers' salon, greets Sophie with a blend of surprise and sisterly warmth. Through the back‑room of her shop—lined with wooden skulls, tangled hairpieces, and empty bottles—Sophie glimpses a world of respectable commerce that starkly contrasts her own precarious past. As the two women reminisce about lost acquaintances and shared hardships, Sophie's longing for freedom and dignity grows, setting the stage for the choices she must soon confront.

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