He changed from his street clothes into a galabiya, for that, he decided, was more in keeping with the Oriental room than pajamas. Looking contentedly around the elegant place, he reflected that happiness was enough to cure him; he could let up on the regime. A sudden lightheartedness prompted him to ask in a booming voice, “What’s the shower water up to?”

Her voice responded behind the bathroom door, “Something very impolite!” The door opened, she darted past him, wrapped in a towel, and shot into the bedroom. He closed his eyes in contentment. May this nest repeat the ecstasies of the pyramids, and what he now holds in his hands, may it satisfy her longings. For its sake he has tread on other hearts and learned recklessness and cruelty. May she not vanish as Margaret did. Your colleague, the great lawyer, said to you in your office, “You look too dapper these days for a successful, hardworking lawyer.”

You laughed. “Less so for a happy lawyer.”

He glanced at him with misgiving, the brazen lover, then quickly changed the conversation to politics, his favorite subject. “So, what are people doing these days?” he asked.

Uninterested in politics, you answered, “Searching madly for ecstasy.”

He didn’t understand. He’s a womanizer, but you’re not. You’re neither brazen nor frivolous, but who distinguishes between the slayer and the worshipper, or believes you’re building a temple from the wreckage?

The bedroom door opened halfway, and her head appeared. “Making up is tedious. I’m dying for a kiss.”

He rushed over to her and held her cheeks between his hands, pressing her mouth closed, and as he kissed her, he savored the fragrance of her soap, the scent of her skin. “Shall I come in?” he whispered.

Laughing, she pushed him away and said, “Don’t be primitive.”

He reclined again on the divan, and looked at the radio-television console in front of him. In a playful mood, he got up and turned both of them on at once and was assaulted by a discussion of juvenile crimes running simultaneously with “Listener’s Request.” He turned them off, but still feeling playful, went to the bedroom door and knocked. “Hi,” the voice called.

“I love you.”

“With all my heart.”

“What do you want most in life?”

“Love.”

He continued in a playful tone. “Have you ever thought of the meaning of life?”

“It has no meaning apart from love.”

“Have you finished making yourself up?”

“Just a minute more.”

He persisted. “Doesn’t it bother you, love, that we play while the world around us is serious?”

She laughed exuberantly. “Don’t you see that it’s we who are serious while the world around us plays?”

“Where do you get such eloquence?”

“After a while you’ll learn the secret.”