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One day, he says, one day you will marry a young man — and I’ll give you a bunch of roses for the wedding. He sees her smile and shake her head, just as he expected. He was saying it more to himself than to her. He mustn’t forget that one day he will have to hand her on. He mustn’t forget that he k…

We will only see each other occasionally, he says, but each time will be like our first time — a celebration. She listens to him attentively and nods. I can only be a luxury for you, because I am a married man. I know, she says. Perhaps that won’t be enough for you, he says. I understand that. She …

And now all the crypts are become transparent, and he and she are standing directly in the graveyard, and the island of the living is no bigger than the tiny patch of ground under their feet. While she takes off his glasses and lays them aside, and he for the first time enfolds her in his arms, hum…

After that he plays the Impromptu in A-flat Major by Schubert, and Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy, the Partita in E Minor, and the third movement of Mozart’s B-flat Piano Concerto. Sometimes he nods his head in time, sometimes he says: Isn’t that extraordinary? Sometimes it’s she who says: This is beauti…

On the way out he manages not to shake her hand, merely says: Well, be seeing you.

They walk out onto the street together, then he nods to her, turns, and walks off. She walks off the other way, but only as far as the lights. Where she stops. She knows his surname. It won’t be hard to find his a…