“Yael called,” she added. “She told me you haven’t eaten. She said you’ve been pestering Teddy. You’re the Eugene Onegin of Kiryat Yovel. Quiet now. Don’t say anything.”

Uri Gefen, Nina’s husband, was once a famous combat pilot, and later became a pilot with El Al. In 1971 he went into private business, starting a complex network of importers. He had a reputation in Jerusalem as a hunter of married women. The whole city knew that Nina had reconciled herself to his adventures, and that for several years their marriage had been purely platonic. Sometimes Uri’s lovers ended up as Nina’s friends. Uri and Nina had no children, but their charming home had become the regular Friday-evening rendezvous of a group of lawyers, army officers, civil servants, artists, and university lecturers. Fima was fond of them both, because both of them, in their different ways, had taken him under their wing. He was indiscriminately fond of anyone who could put up with him, and he had an unbounded affection for that circle of dear friends who still continued to have faith in him and endeavored to spur him on, lamenting how he frittered away his talents.