“I’m going to change the situation here,” he said. “Now watch carefully!” Rapidly, he moved a number of the little soldiers. In a minute or so, the overall design of the armies had changed drastically. “I have confronted them with new problems,” he said. “Did you notice the civilians? You see the woman and her children? I have a crate full of farmers and animals. Von Clausewitz said total war means everything—citizens and property—should be attacked. Have you read On War? My father reads me parts of it when he feels up to it. You’d be astonished at how much I understand.” He picked up a foot soldier between two fingers, held it toward Annie, then shouted, “Bang!”

“You have to kill so many,” she murmured.

“It’s not real death.”

“Last winter in New York, I saw a man walking almost naked out in the cold. Someone said he’d been gassed during the World War. There must be terrible suffering when you’re like that.”

Andrew stooped over the board, making some new arrangement. When he looked at her again, there was a stubborn expression on his face.

“But I said—it’s not real. Anyhow, man is a killer by nature. It’s only that he won’t admit it.”

“Show me your house,” she asked quickly. The little gnome looked very fierce.

“It’s boring,” he said stiffly. “Just a boring house with furniture. The other place, where we go when we’re broke, is better. It’s a shack.”

He was being contrary. What could he know about shacks? She looked at his beautifully polished shoes. She brooded on what lay ahead for her. For the moment, she doubted Walter’s existence; he had simply disappeared, leaving her the inexplicable burden of his name. He’d disappeared, stealing her name.

“I’m not a killer,” Andrew said pleadingly.

She started as though she’d been asleep. “Oh, I know that!” she assured him. He smiled and replaced on the board a riderless horse that was rearing up from his fingers, its eyes starting from its head, its stirrups flying.

She stayed awhile longer. They sat at the piano together and Andrew showed her how to play “Chopsticks.” The intolerable sense of emptiness was returning. She wanted to move on.

“I’d better go,” she said.

“Not yet, please…”

“Yes. I have to get to work very early.”

He looked solemn at once. “Yes. Then you should go. I know all about work.”

They shook hands formally at the door but Andrew looked desolate as he turned away into the empty house.