"A curtain of glistening white flakes was falling ceaselessly towards the ground, blurring outlines and powdering every object with an icy coating. In the deep silence of the town, buried in a wintry calm, nothing could be heard but in that vague, indefinable, rustling whisper, felt rather than heard, of the falling snow, a mingling of airy particles which seemed to be filling the sky and covering the world."

-- from "Boule de Suif"