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was in danger
of getting cold he ate it too, swabbing the flat dish clean with a piece of the
fresh baked bread.
     
    "Here
comes Madame," the waiter said. "I'll bring another plat for
her."
     
    She
had put on a skirt and cashmere sweater and pearls and the toweled her head but
combed it damp and straight and wet and the tawny color of her hair did not
show to make the contrast with her incredibly darkened face. "It's such a
beautiful day," she said. "I'm sorry to be late."
     
    "Where
are you dressed for?"
     
    "Biarritz.
I thought I'd drive in. Do you want to come?"
     
    "You
want to go alone."
     
    "Yes,"
she said. "But you're welcome."
     
    As
he stood she said, "I'm going to bring you back a surprise."
     
    "No,
don't."
     
    "Yes.
And you'll like it."
     
    "Let
me go along and keep you from doing anything crazy.
     
    'No.
It's better if I do it alone. I'll be back in the afternoon. And don't wait for
lunch."
     
    David
read the papers and then walked out through the town looking for chalets that
might be for rent or for a part of town that might be good to live in and found
the newly built up area pleasant but dull. He loved the view across the bay and
the estuary to the Spanish side and the old gray stone of Fuenterrabiá and
shining white of the houses that spread out from it and the brown mountains
with the blue shadows. He wondered why the storm had gone so quickly and
thought it must have been only the northern edge of a storm that came in across
the Bay of Biscay. Biscay was Vizcaya but that was the Basque province further
down the coast well beyond San Sebastian. The mountains that he saw beyond the
roofs of the border town of Irun were in Guipuzcoa and beyond them would be
Navarra and Navarra was Navarre. And what are we doing here, he thought, and
what am I doing walking through a beach resort town looking at newly planted
magnolias and bloody mimosas and watching for to-rent signs on phony Basque
villas? You didn't work hard enough this morning to make your brain that stupid
or are you just hung over from yesterday? You didn't work at all really.
     
    And
you better soon because everything's going too fast and you're going with it
and you'll be through before ever you know it. Maybe you're through now. All
right. Don't start. At least you remember that much. And he walked on through
the town, his vision sharpened by spleen and tempered by the ash beauty of the
day.
     
    The
breeze from the sea was blowing through the room and he was reading with his
shoulders and the small of his back against two pillows and another folded
behind his head. He was sleepy after lunch but he felt hollow with waiting for
her and he read and waited. Then he heard the door open and she came in and for
an instant he did not know her. She stood there with her hands below her
breasts on the cashmere sweater and breathing as though she had been running.
     
    "Oh,
no," she said. "No."
     
    Then
she was on the bed pushing her head against him saying, "No. No. Please
David. Don't you at all?"
     
    He
held her head close against his chest and felt it smooth close clipped and
coarsely silky and she pushed it hard against him again and again.
     
    'What
did you do, Devil?"
     
    She
raised her head and looked at him and her lips pressed against his and she
moved them from side to side and moved on the bed so her body was pressed
against his.
     
    "Now
I can tell," she said. "I'm so glad. It was such a big chance. I'm
your new girl now so we'd better find out."
     
    "Let
me see.
     
    "I'll
show you but let me go a minute."
     
    She
came back and stood by the bed with the sun on her through the window. She had
dropped the skirt and was bare foot wearing only the sweater and the pearls.
"Take a good look," she said. "Because this is how I am."
     
    He
took a good look at the long dark legs the straight standing body the dark face
and the sculptured tawny head and she looked at him and said, "Thank you.
     
    "How
did you do it?"
     
    "Can
I tell