THE HUMAN
VOICE
take
him
back I'll have to have him sent somewhere. There's no
point in having this dog get sick and become vicious .... He won't
bite anyone
if
he's with you. He'll love the people you love . . • .
Well, what I meant was: he'll love the people you live with ....
Yes, dear, of course. But he's a dog. In spite of his intelligence you
can't expect him to guess .... I was always perfectly natural with
him.
Heaven knows what he's seen .... I mean, perhaps he doesn't
recognize me, perhaps I've frightened him somehow .... You never
can tell .... Not at
all ....
Look, Aunt Jeanne, the night when
I told her that her son had been killed. She is very pale and very
small.-Well, she became all red and gigantic .... A red giant;
she bumped the ceiling with her head and she was all covered with
hands, and she filled the room with her shadow, and she was terri–
fying ....
she was terrifying
....
Please forgive me. Simply her
dog. Hiding under the bureau, barking as though it were after some
animal . . . . But I don't know, darling! How do you expect me
to know? I'm not myself. I must have done some dreadful things.
Just think, I tore up that package of photographs, and the envelope,
with one rip; and I never even noticed it. That would
be
something,
even for a man.... The license ones .... What? .... No, because
I don't need any papers now .... No loss at all. I was frightful
.... Never! It was my luck to meet you on a trip. Now,
if
I took
a trip, I might have the bad luck to meet you again . . . . Don't
insist .... Let me .... Hello, hello, Madame, ring off. We're
talking. Hello! Certainly not, Madame .... But, my dear Madame,
we are not trying to be interesting. All you have to do is not to stay
on the line ....
If
you think we're silly, why are you wasting your
time instead of hanging up? .... Oh! .... Dearest, dearest, don't
be
angry! . . . . At last! . . . . no, no. That was me, that time. I
jiggled the hook. She's hung up. She hung up just after she said that
horrid thing .... Hello! .... You seem put out .... Yes, you're
put out because of what you just heard, I can tell from your voice
.... You're upset! . . . . I . . .. but darling, she must be a very
sick woman, and she doesn't know you. She thinks you're like other
men .... No, no, darling! It isn't the same thing at all! ....
Sorry? for what? .... Hello! .... stop, stop, don't think of that
silliness. It's all over .... You're so sensitive! .... Who? It doesn't
matter who .... The day before yesterday I met that person whose
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