She opened her mouth to speak but he stopped her with a long and heavy kiss, saying sharply, “Later.”

Nature played one of her infinite tunes with joyful bravura, which seemed like a miracle. But soon the tune died away, receding into oblivion and leaving behind a suspicious silence and a feeling of languor full of sadness. He lay on his side on the bed while she stayed where she was on the settee, exposing her slip and the drops of sweat on her forehead and neck to the unshaded light of the electric bulb. He looked at nothing and wished for nothing, as if he had accomplished what was required of him on earth. When his eyes turned in her direction, they denied her completely, as though she had been some strange object sprung from the womb of night, and not that enchanting person who had set him on fire: a dumb thing with no history and no future. He said to himself that the game of desire and revulsion was no more than an exercise in death and resurrection, an advance perception of the inevitable tragedy, matching in its grandeur such fleeting revelations of the unknown, in its infinite variety, as are granted. The position of Director General was one such revelation, but it could only emerge in response to a soaring effort of the will, not to its capitulation, however attractive. Thank God he was barricaded behind sensible impassivity, lethal though it was. Here was this woman, eager beyond question to return to her important subject but hesitant and ashamed. She must have hoped that he would make the first move; but despairing of this, she cast him a wistful beseeching glance and mumbled, “So?”

The unfamiliarity of her voice astounded him with its intrusion on his sacred solitude. He felt a steady repulsion toward her which nearly turned into hatred. What she was seeking to do was to pull down the edifice which he had been constructing stone by stone.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“Nothing!”

The roughness of temper characteristic of the back streets, and latent in him, was discernible in his voice.

“But surely you must’ve done something!”

“Nothing at all.”

“Haven’t you even had a look at the flat?”

“No.”

Her face darkened with chagrin.

“Forgive me for saying this, but…should I put the money in your hands?”

“No!”

“Frankly, I don’t understand you.”

“I’ve spoken clearly.”

“What do you mean? Don’t torture me! Please.”

“I don’t intend to do anything.”

“I thought you had agreed and promised,” she said in a trembling voice.

“I don’t intend to do anything.”

“If you have no time now…”

“I have no time now, nor will I in the future.”

Asila breathed heavily and said with a break in her voice, “I thought you felt differently.”

“There’s no good in me,” he confessed. “That is the fact of the matter.”