Mr. Grigio slept, riding the opium wave. Ten years before, his face no doubt had been handsome, the face of an Italian swordsman, but the Mediterranean good looks had been diffused by the rising hairline and the deepening jowl. Tomorrow morning, Adam knew, the face would be a grotesque balloon.

The burned man stirred. “Dove troviamo i soldi?” he moaned.

He was wondering where he could get money. Not from the insurance company, Adam knew silently. Poor Mr. Grigio. The fat and kerosene had been placed on the oven and now, with the fire marshal’s office interested, for Mr. Grigio the fat was in the fire.

The man stirred fitfully and murmured a name, perhaps that of the woman, haunted by his conscience or a prescience of the pain to come if he lived. Adam dipped the pads in the icy bowl, wrung them, applied them, the wrist watch he had shoved up his arm ticking mockingly.

Shortly after using up and replenishing the contents of the fourth iced bowl, he paused and noticed that Miss Fultz was standing next to him, holding out a thick mug.

Astonished, he accepted the tea.

“I believe I’ve lined up a special nurse for tonight,” Miss Fultz said. “She’s due on at eleven, and I’m perfectly free between now and then. It’s only an hour. You run along.”

“I did have an appointment,” he said, finding his vocal powers.

10:05!

In the nearest telephone booth he dialed Gaby’s number and reached an amused feminine voice. “This must be Doctor Silverstone?”

“Yes.”

“This is Susan Haskell, Gaby’s roommate? She waited and waited. About an hour ago she told me when you called I should say she’d meet you on the Esplanade.”

“She went alone to wait in the dark by the river?” he asked, thinking of mugging, thinking of rape.

There was a pause. “You don’t know Gaby very well, do you?” the voice said.

“Where on the Esplanade?”

“Near that bandstand shaped like a shell, you know?”

He didn’t, but the taxi driver did. “There ain’t a concert tonight,” the cabby said.

“I know, I know.”

When he got out of the cab he walked away from Storrow Drive into the darkness, over soft grass. For a little while he thought she was not there but then he saw her sitting a good distance away on her blanket spread under a lamp post as if it were a sheltering pine.

When he dropped next to her on the blanket he got the full warmth of her smile and forgot he was tired.

“Was it something earth-shaking, the thing you almost stood me up for?”

“I just got through. I was sure you wouldn’t wait.” He indicated his whites. “I didn’t even take the time to change.”

“I’m glad you finally could come. Are you hungry?”

“Starving.”

“I gave your sandwiches away.”

He looked at her.

“You didn’t show up. These three high school boys came along, and they didn’t ravish me or anything. One of them was a little darling who let it slip they didn’t have money for supper. There’s a plum.”