Activity

'Don't let it upset you. I'm not one to be jealous of a child, especially Nadine!' She walked over to Henri and sat down on the arm of his chair. 'On Christmas Eve I told you a man like you isn't subject to the same laws as other men. I still believe that. There's a commonplace form of faithfulness…

They exchanged a soft, lingering look. A few hours later he was holding her naked body in his arms and saying, 'You're too beautiful, much too beautiful.' No, he really couldn't blame himself. How could he have helped but be captivated by Paula's beauty, by her voice, by the mystery of her words, b…

'Thirty-nine years!' I said aloud. Before the war I was too young for the years to have weighed upon me. And then for five years, I forgot myself completely. And now I've found myself again, only to learn that I'm condemned. Old age is awaiting me; there's no escaping it. Even now I can see its beg…

'I have to leave soon, you know,' I said.

'Not right away. Don't go. Don't leave me!' He grabbed me by the shoulders. I was a life preserver. But in what shipwreck?

It would have been too difficult to explain my feeling. There was a look of hate in his eyes and I was ashamed to have let myself be taken in by the mirage of carnal pleasure. A man, I discovered, isn't a Turkish bath.