TWO PROSTITUTES
the one to be his conquest, or that he should at least make some ad–
vance. Inconspicuously he put his hand on her knee under the table.
She looked .at him hypocritically and said:
"Where are you from?"
"From Ancona," Giacomo answered.
His hand roughly pushed aside her dress and travelled from the
knee up her thigh. Above very tight garters her bare skin seemed
to be bursting. She had on all sorts of fancy underwear, silks, laces,
tiny buttons and an elaborate system of suspenders.
"That's a beautiful city," she said, without moving or pushing
Giacomo's hand away.
Her dress was riding way up to one side, leaving one leg bare.
"Do you think I can't see you?" shouted her sister, with, how–
ever, no jealousy in her voice. "But as far as I'm concerned, go right
ahead."
Giacomo withdrew his hand, but a moment later he was sorry
and put it back, for she had seemed to ask nothing better. For the
sake of being fair he put his other arm around the younger sister's
waist. She laughed and looked at him sideways out of her big,
malicious eyes, holding her glass in her hand. Giacomo bent over
and brushed her neck with his lips.
The older sister pushed Giacomo's hand away and pulled down
her dress. She seemed to do this not out of anger but because some
people were passing by the entrance to the small room.
"What do you do in Milan?" Giacomo asked.
"What do I do?" she repeated with a laugh.
"She's a model," supplied her sister.
"I used to be," said the younger woman deliberately. "Now I
do just what you do here."
"Why do you say such a thing?" asked the other irritably.
"You're trying to pass yourself off for something different from
what you are."
"What do you know about that!" said Lori slowly with mock
astonishment. She was slightly drunk and the color and expression
of her eyes wavered from one moment to the next. "And what is it
that
you
do, if I may ask?"
"I don't do anything," said Rina, shrugging her shoulders con–
temptuously. "I'm a lady of leisure...."
