Alberto Moravia
TWO PROSTITUTES
Toward the beginning of the summer Giacomo found
himself entirely alone. He thought that he had many friends and
knew a number of women, but no sooner had a few acquaintances
gone off on their holidays than he was left high and dry. Actually, like
everyone else, he moved in a limited circle of persons, and now
it occurred to him that when he was an old man such leave-takings
would be final and his solitude complete.
He fell into the habit of getting up very late and staying
III
his
boarding-house room until it was time for lunch, smoking or
reading distractedly in bed. After lunch he went out for a cup of
coffee, bought a newspaper and took it back to his room. Sometimes,
when he was especially tired, he liked to let the paper fall from his
hand and go off to sleep.
In
mid-afternoon he got up, washed,
dressed and went out.
He went to a cafe in the most fashionable street, where they
served small individual bottles of German beer of which Giacomo
was very fond.
As
he slowly sipped the cold beer he observed the
sidewalk and the people seated at the outdoor tables around him.
All the idlers of the city, the prettiest girls and the best-dressed
young men, met at this point of the street and among these tables.
Many of them stood directly in front of the cafe windows, pre–
tending to chatter, but actually striking a pose for the benefit of
anyone who might be looking and, in their turn, watching out of
the corner of one eye what was going on about them. Women went
in lively fashion, with cigarettes in their hands, from one table to an–
other, laughing and talking in a loud manner, and the waiters with
their trays were barely able to fray a path among the crowd. There
was a lot of joking, calling out from person to person and gossipy
