Caroline Patey analyses the strange anecdote of Virginia Woolf's first ever translation in French and the effect it had on her French reception. In 1926, 'Commerce' published a translation of 'Time Passes'/'Le temps passe' before the novel was even out in Great Britain and in English. Subsequent research has shown that the translator - Charles Mauron - was working on a version different from both holograph version and printed text. What is thus the status of the 'third' text? Did the choice of Commerce inflect Woolf's image in France? And above all how did Mauron's version contribute to her literary image in the hexagon?