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Giorgiadze, and the one I thought was myself.
    "And what did this Howard de Luz do?"
    "Gay told me he belonged to a noble family ... He did nothing."
    He gave a short laugh.
    "Ah, yes ... just a moment... It's coming back to me ... He'd spent a lot of time in Hollywood ... And there, Gay told me, he was the confidant of the actor, John Gilbert..."
    "John Gilbert's confidant?"
    "Yes ... Toward the end of Gilbert's life ..."
    Traffic on Avenue de New-York was moving fast but made no sound you could hear, and this increased the dream-like feeling. Cars flowed along in a muffled, fluid world, as though skimming over water. We reached the foot-bridge, before the Pont d'Alma. Howard de Luz. It might be my own name. Howard de Luz. Yes, the sound of it stirred something in me, something as fleeting as moonlight passing over some object. If I was this Howard de Luz, I had shown a certain originality in my life style, since, among so many more reputable and absorbing professions, I had chosen that of being John Gilbert's confidant.
    Just before we reached the Museum of Modern Art, we turned down a narrow street.
    "Here's where I live," he said.
    The elevator light did not work and the automatic time- switch light went out just as we started on our way up. In the dark, we heard laughter and music.
    The elevator stopped, and I could feel Blunt, next to me, trying to find the handle of the landing gate. He opened it and I jostled him leaving the elevator, as it was pitch dark. The laughter and music came from the floor we were on. Blunt turned a key in a lock.
    He left the door ajar behind us and we were in the middle of an entrance hall, weakly lit by a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. Blunt stood there, nonplussed. I wondered if I hadn't better take my leave. The music was deafening. Coming from inside the apartment, a young red-haired woman in a red bathing-wrap appeared. She considered us both, eyes wide with astonishment. The very loosely fitting wrap revealed her breasts.
    "My wife," said Blunt.
    She gave me a slight nod and with both hands drew the collar of the wrap closer.
    "I didn't know you were coming back so early," she said.
    All three of us stood there, without moving, under the light which cast a pallid glow over our faces, and I turned to Blunt.
    "You could have warned me," he said to her.
    "I didn't know..."
    A child caught out telling lies. She lowered her head. The deafening music had stopped and a tune, played on the saxophone, followed, so pure it melted into the air.
    "Are there many?" asked Blunt.
    "No, no ... a few friends ..."
    A head appeared in the narrow opening of the door, a blonde with very short hair and pale, almost pink lipstick. Then another head, dark hair, dull complexion. The light from the bulb gave these faces the look of masks, and the dark-haired woman smiled.
    "I must return to my friends ... Come back in two or three hours..."
    "All right," said Blunt.
    She left the entrance-hall preceded by the two others and shut the door. Bursts of laughter and the sound of a chase could be heard. Then, the deafening music again.
    "Come on!" said Blunt.
    Once again we were on the staircase landing. Blunt pressed the automatic time-switch and sat down on a step. He motioned to me to sit down beside him.
    "My wife's a lot younger than me ... thirty years difference . . . You should never marry a woman a lot younger than you ... Never ..."
    He had laid a hand on my shoulder.
    "It never works ... There's not a single case of its working ... Remember that, old chap ..."
    The light went out. Blunt evidently had no wish to switch it on again. Neither did I, for that matter.
    "If Gay could see me ..."
    He burst out laughing at the thought. Strange laughter, in the dark.
    "She wouldn't know me ... I've put on nearly sixty pounds, since..."
    A burst of laughter, but different from the first one, more tense, strained.
    "She'd be very disappointed ... Think of it. A bar room pianist..."
    "But why disappointed?"
    "And