“I think you do,” she said.

“And what does Stresa think?” I said.

I distinctly heard her catch her breath. Then I heard her voice, cracked with pain. “Who told you?” she said in desperation.

Just then, Graziano came out of the station house. He was smiling and waving his hand as if to silence applause. “I fooled them,” he said as he got in the car.

“What did you do?” I said.

“I apologized. Where shall we go to celebrate my regained freedom?”

“I’m going home,” Arianna said. She was looking straight ahead in that conceited way of hers.

“Why?” Graziano said, but nobody replied, so after a moment he said, “All right, if that’s the way things are,” and lit a cigar.

Nobody said another word until we got to Piazza del Popolo. There, Arianna waited for us to get out, still looking straight ahead. Graziano hesitated for a moment, chewed his cigar a couple of times, then got out after me. He stood there watching the little English car disappear at the far end of the square.

“Well,” he said, “it’s always the best who leave.”

“Let’s go sit down,” I said, pointing to the obelisk. The square was deserted and you could hear the noise of the fountains. We sat down with our backs to the Pincio.

“What’s happening to you, Leo?” Graziano said.

“I’m tired,” I said, “very tired.”

“The whole world’s tired,” he said. “What can we do?” Then he produced the bottle of scotch from his pocket and took a big slug. He looked at it in disgust. “These pick-me-ups pick me up less and less,” he said, putting the bottle back in his pocket. “What a bummer,” he said, letting his gaze wander over the deserted square. “I think I’m in love with Arianna too.”

8

And then came August, the black month. Under an oppressive sun, the city was deserted, the streets empty, the echoing cobbled squares covered in a layer of burning dust. Water was running low and the fountains were crumbling, showing all the signs of old age, with the cracks plastered over and tufts of yellowish grass sticking out. Cats hid in the shade of cars and only toward sunset did people start coming out of their homes to gather around the watermelon stands, waiting for the wind. According to the newspapers, it was the hottest summer in the past ten years.