She appeared not to notice him but, as she walked past the doorway, she said, her voice low and confidential, 'They have crossed the border. They're in Spain.
-- narration, Lisette (You Must Not Meet Their Eyes...)

Importance: In the opening scene of the book, we see Mathieu waiting outside of a Paris subway station for a reason we do not initially know -- then, it is clear, he is waiting to meet Lisette. While the reader cannot know the significance of what Lisette is saying at a first glance, her meaning becomes clear in hindsight, after the reader has learned about Mathieu and the Resistance's operation in detail. Lisette is confirming with Mathieu that the pilots that themselves at the rest of the Resistance team had attempted to smuggle across the border of German Occupation had indeed made it safely. The mysterious nature of this passage emphasizes the sort of informational fog that all members of the Resistance...