SNOW had been falling for two days; since the morning it had ceased, and an intense frost had frozen the immense sheet. This black country, with its inky roads and walls and trees powdered with coal dust, was now white, a single whiteness stretching out without end.
Depuis deux jours, la neige tombait; elle avait cessé le matin, une gelée intense glaçait l'immense nappe; et ce pays noir, aux routes d'encre, aux murs et aux arbres poudrés des poussieres de la houille, était tout blanc, d'une blancheur unique, a l'infini.