PARTISAN REVIEW
failed to accomplish his object, if indeed he had had an object beyond
the vague adventure of a carnival night. He was more nervous than
ever, and he invited them to join him on the Canal in the manner of
a man who is weighing the security of companionship against the
advantages of the lone hand. The two friends declined, and he put
off once more in the gondola, saying, "Well, my dears, you are right;
it is just a tourist fiesta." The two retired to their window to wonder
whether the English tourists, and not themselves or Miss Grabbe, had
not been, after all, the real Venetian attraction. The
Inglesi's
arrival
might well have been anticipated in a newspaper, particularly since
they had the reputation of being rich collectors of furniture. Mr.
Sciarappa's restle..<>s behavior, irrational in a pursuer who has already
come up with his prey, was appropriate enough to the boredom and
anxiety of waiting. Indeed, sometimes, watching him drum on the
table, they had said to themselves that he behaved toward them like
a passenger who is detained between trains in a provincial railroad
station and vainly tries to interest himself in the billboard and the
ticket collector.
Miss Grabbe had taken very little part in all this mental excite–
ment. So far as the two friends could see, he had no erotic interest
for her. She was as .adamant to his virility as he to the evidence of
her money- it would have disturbed all her preconceptions to discover
sex in a business suit. She received his disappearance calmly, saying,
"I thought you wanted to get rid of him-he has probably found big–
ger fish." In general, after her first protest, she had grown accustomed
to Mr. Sciarappa, in the manner of the rich. For her he did not assume
prominence through the frequency of his attendance, but on the con–
trary he receded into the surroundings in the fashion of a piece of
furniture that is "lived with." She opened and closed him like a
guidebook whenever she needed the name of a hotel or a hairdresser
or had forgotten the Italian for what she wanted to say to the waiter.
Having money, she had little real curiosity; she was not a depend–
ent of the world. It did not occur to her to inquire why he had
come, nor did she ask when he would leave. She too spoke of him as
"Scampi," but tolerantly, without resentment, .as nice women call a
dog a rascal. She was not, despite appearances, a woman of strong
convictions; she accepted any current situation as normative and was
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