Elephant-taming methods. I sense that I’ll have to arm myself with great patience just to endure twenty-four hours in this place. He tries to calm me down about my suitcase. “Are you invited to a reception at the Élysée? Well, then. It makes no difference at all what you run around in. I masquerade as a luxury gigolo just so that nobody will notice how broke I am. You can buy soap cheaply here, and I can lend you a razor. If it’s absolutely necessary, we can stroll over to the boulevard Saint-Michel and spend fifty francs on three shirts and six pairs of catamite briefs.”

I was irritated by his bogus linguistic nonchalance; the cheap freshness, preciously studded with the affectedly correct pronunciation of “ boulevard Saint-Michel” (although I’m grateful to him for not saying “Boul’ Mich’ ” ). Also, I left two manuscripts on the plane, things I’m supposed to read. He doesn’t find this so awful either: Schelmie must have copies she can send me. It makes me furious: Schelmie has no copies; I took the manuscripts precisely in order to spare her such measures of solicitude; now they’re lost for good (this will lead to incalculably tiresome arguments with Scherping).

“Maiden efforts by promising young talents?” he asks, reaching for my cigarettes. “Or even one of yours?”

For an instant, I’m alert, eager, almost delighted. What is he after? Treating me with numb-fingered caution, the way you treat a paranoiac: you clear anything out of his way that you think might anger him. A moment later, he trips me up from behind. Yet inside, he is so nervous that he trembles. I catch myself thinking, irritatedly, So he’s concerned about me. I make him uneasy. Why does he put up with me? He needs me. I’m necessary to him because I work for Scherping and I can turn the faucet on and off for his advances. His writhing helplessness is poignant. His scattered life grinds him down. One has to protect him.

I compliment him on his suit. I mean it honestly, but it sounds a bit venomous. (My exact words are: “Once again you look almost indecently elegant.”) He smiles sneakily. It amuses me to see him wondering what he can get me with. (I anxiously await the outcome.)