For a moment, Arianna stared at him with her big eyes, then started searching in the pockets of her jeans. They were very tight and she had to struggle to pull out the pack of cards. She handed it to the servant, who in turn carried it to Arlorio. He took it, weighed it in his hand, and, still smiling, threw it over his shoulder, sending it sailing down the cliff. Then even Arianna smiled.

We followed the servant in silence. When we reached the old Alfa Romeo, I went ahead of him and opened the trunk. The servant put in the suitcase and then dusted off his hands. “Good-bye, signorina,” he said. “I hope to see you again in Rome.” Arianna nodded and got in the car.

For the first hundred kilometers neither of us spoke. Arianna was silent, looking out the window at the stony mountains as they faded in the sunset. The sea was taking on the color of pearls. There was great sadness in the speed at which the days were getting shorter. As if they were trying to redeem something that was irredeemable. With a sense of heartache, I thought about September, when the ferocity of summer would abate.

“Why did you want me to come and get you?” I said.

She didn’t reply immediately. Then she said, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

I knew perfectly well why she’d done it. She’d wanted to show me off to Arlorio just as she’d shown him off to me that evening outside the gates of Sant’Elia’s villa. Arlorio’s advantage was that he didn’t know. But, then, I guess he had all the advantages. For me, it was over.

The road was running alongside the railroad tracks now. It was getting dark. In the dark it wasn’t too difficult to keep quiet. The straight, tree-lined road was full of shadows and the wind came in cool through the windows. We came to the lights of the first little town on the Castelli, where we stopped at a trattoria and had a quick bite. Then we left again immediately and within an hour we were on the outskirts of Rome.

“Shall I drive you home?” I said, but she said she was never going back to Eva’s. “Where, then?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I thought your place. For a few days.”

“No,” I said.

“You figured it all out, didn’t you?” she said, trying to smile.

The city was coming back to life. More and more people were returning every day and somehow everything would go back to being the way it was before. Nothing ever changed in this city, that’s the way it was.

I said I’d take her to a hotel.

“All right,” she said, searching in her handbag for something. The car filled with the scent of lilac. “Forgive me,” she said. “I’m really sorry.”

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