Anne drinks wine throughout the story, initially in order to stifle her trembling when she visits the café to go see Chauvin; the pace of wine drinking reflecting the dramatic arc of the work: building, climaxing in the 7th chapter, then diminishing again in the 8th chapter. She consumes progressively more wine during each meeting with Chauvin, at times "mechanically", and in Chapter 7, she drinks too much wine and winds up vomiting out the wine she had been drinking that day. In the final, 8th chapter, she then drinks the wine "in small mouthfuls" (« à petites gorgées»).