“What a fucked-up son of a bitch,” she said. “Not even a postcard. But what are you wearing?” she went on, looking at my khaki pants. “Didn’t you have a pair of jeans? Come on, let me introduce you to the others. Have you already met Mauro?” she said, referring to Arlorio. I shook several hands. Everyone was very casual and tanned. Just then Arlorio appeared at the top of the tower and made a broad gesture as if blessing them. “Introibo ad altare Dei.” Christ! Everyone laughed, but Arianna’s face turned serious for a fraction of a second. Then she took me by the hand and smiled. “You already know each other, I assume?” she said in her conceited way. Arlorio nodded gravely and blessed me too. “I have to pack,” she said. “Will you come with me to my room?” We went back along part of the concrete path, between the oleanders, then turned onto another path that was very short and led to a room isolated from the rest of the house. It had a large window that looked out on the sea and was filled with light. The furniture consisted of a table, an antique pier glass, and a bed covered in the same white-and-red-flowered material as the swimsuits.

I watched Arianna as she filled a suitcase in silence. She acted as if I wasn’t there, and when she took off her swimsuit, I felt humiliated. Not bothering with panties, she put on a very threadbare pair of jeans and a transparent lace blouse and red rubber sandals on her feet. “I’m ready,” she said.

We went back to the terrace. They were all lying on white chairs and when they saw us they raised a chorus of protests. “What a bore you are!” one girl said. “Couldn’t you have left with us on Sunday?” Arlorio, leaning on the parapet that overhung the cliff, smiled and said we should both stay until Sunday. Arianna glared at him, then started saying good-bye to the others. That took a while, as it involved making appointments for when she would be in Rome. The last person she said good-bye to was Arlorio. He was still smiling, which irritated her. “Bye,” she said to him. Then she turned because the servant had appeared with her suitcase. “Shall we get the hell out of here?” she said to me and set off. We’d reached the end of the terrace when we heard Arlorio’s voice again. “Arianna!” he called. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What, according to you?”

“You know perfectly well,” Arlorio said, holding out a hand.