The potted plants and the pictures on the wall hung above the double bed. On the opposite side, in the loft where the nursery was situated, there was an empty room where the children could play. Here also, in one of the loft’s upper stories, the sound of a cheerful song came back to them through the windows. The song was by no means old or familiar, but it was one of those pleasant, little-known folk songs that one knows only too well, like the Vande Patten, or the Staines, or the Cowens, or Kraftwerk.