He forced a smile. “I’m not mad, Maria. Not at you, anyway.”

“You can tell me anything,” she said. “I adore you. I would never sit in judgment on you, you must know that. Just say how you feel.”

“I’m angry because I’m weak, I guess,” he said. “We have a majority in Congress only if we include conservative Southern Democrats. If I bring in a civil rights bill, they’ll sabotage it—and that’s not all. In revenge, they’ll vote against all the rest of my domestic legislation program, including Medicare. Now, Medicare could improve the lives of colored Americans even more than civil rights legislation.”

“Does that mean you’ve given up on civil rights?”

“No. We have midterm elections next November. I’ll be asking the American people to send more Democrats to Congress so that I can fulfill my campaign promises.”

“Will they?”

“Probably not. The Republicans are attacking me on foreign policy. We’ve lost Cuba, we’ve lost Laos, and we’re losing Vietnam. I had to let Khrushchev put up a barbed-wire fence right across the middle of Berlin. Right now my back is up against the goddamn wall.”

“How strange,” Maria reflected. “You can’t let Southern Negroes vote because you’re vulnerable on foreign policy.”

“Every leader has to look strong on the world stage, otherwise he can’t get anything done.”

“Couldn’t you just try? Bring in a civil rights bill, even though you’ll probably lose it. At least then people would know how sincere you are.”

He shook his head. “If I bring in a bill and get defeated I’ll look weak, and that will jeopardize everything else. And I’d never get a second chance on civil rights.”

“So what should I tell Grandpa?”

“That doing the right thing is not as easy as it looks, even when you’re president.”

He stood up, and she did the same. They toweled each other dry, then went into his bedroom. Maria put on one of his soft blue cotton nightshirts.

They made love again. If he was tired, it was brief, like the very first time; but tonight he was at ease. He reverted to a playful mood, and they lay back on the bed, toying with one another, as if nothing else in the world mattered.

Afterward he went to sleep quickly. She lay beside him, blissfully happy. She did not want the morning to come, when she would have to get dressed and go to the press office and begin her day’s work. She lived in the real world as if it were a dream, waiting only for the call from Dave Powers that meant she could wake up and come back to the only reality that mattered.

She knew that some of her colleagues must have guessed what she was doing. She knew he was never going to leave his wife for her. She knew she should be worried about getting pregnant. She knew that everything she was doing was foolish and wrong and could not possibly have a happy ending.