Bush and his entourage, including Maria, ended up in Paris. Maria was standing in the Champs-Elysées with the press corps on Bastille Day, July 14, watching an interminable parade of military might, and looking forward to going home and making love to George again, when Jasper spoke to her. He pointed to a huge poster of Evie Williams advertising face cream. “She had a crush on me when she was fifteen years old,” he said.

Maria looked at the picture. Evie Williams had been blacklisted by Hollywood for her politics, but she was a big star in Europe, and Maria recalled reading that her personal line of organic beauty products was making her more money than movies ever had.

“You and I have never met,” Jasper said. “But I got to know your godson, Jack Jakes, when I was living with Verena Marquand.”

Maria shook his hand warily. Talking to reporters was always dangerous. No matter what you said, the mere fact that you had had a conversation put you in a weak position, for then there could always be an argument about what you had actually said. “I’m glad to meet you at last,” she said.

“I admire you for your achievements,” he said. “Your career would be remarkable for a white man. For an African American woman, it’s astonishing.”

Maria smiled. Of course Jasper was charming—that was how he got people to talk. He was also completely untrustworthy, and would betray his mother for the sake of a story. She said neutrally: “How are you enjoying Europe?”

“Right now it’s the most exciting place in the world,” he said. “Lucky me.”

“That’s great.”

“By contrast,” Jasper said, “this trip has not been a success for President Bush.”

Here it comes, Maria thought. She was in a difficult position. She had to defend the president and the policies of the State Department, even though she agreed with Jasper’s assessment. Bush had failed to take leadership of the freedom movement in Eastern Europe: he was too timid. But she said: “We think it’s been something of a triumph.”

“Well, you have to say that. But, off the record, was it right for Bush to urge Jaruzelski—a Communist tyrant of the old school—to run for president in Poland?”

“Jaruzelski may well be the best candidate to oversee gradual reform,” Maria said, though she did not believe it.

“Bush infuriated Lech Wałesa by offering a paltry aid package of a hundred million dollars, when Solidarity had asked for ten billion.”

“President Bush believes in caution,” Maria argued. “He thinks the Poles need to reform their economy first, then get aid. Otherwise the money will be wasted. The president is a conservative. You may not like that, Jasper, but the American people do. That’s why they elected him.”

Jasper smiled, acknowledging a point scored, but he pressed on. “In Hungary, Bush praised the Communist government for removing the fence, not the opposition who put the pressure on. He kept telling the Hungarians not to go too far, too fast! What kind of advice is that from the leader of the free world?”