Beautifully adorned in tuxedo black with brilliant white stripes or spots, skunks are known mainly for their aromatic properties, but they are also efficient predators of insects and other small game.

And there was, to dulcify for her the bath of this evening, the yet sharper contrast with the plight she had just come home in, sopped, shivering, clung to by her clothes.

Its direct competition, analysts say, include Trader Joe’s and Famima minimarkets, both also foreign-owned, by Germans and Japanese, respectively.

a peach stone