564
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Listen, Mariette," I reply to her, "I can't tie you to the foot
of the bed. Just remember that there are plenty of men who would
have given you a few smacks by now, if they had been in my place.
I'm not that kind. A woman is only a woman, but I respect her wishes.
Only I warn you, think well. The life that I'm giving you here means,
after all, beefsteak ready cooked, an aperitif, and the cinema.
As
for
sentiment, and everything that goes with it, you can always expect
that too." "What are you talking about?" she says to me. "I'm not
lacking admirers. I have only to stoop. . .. " She was sitting there,
at the end of the table, watching me from the corner of her eye.
Then I get mad, and I give her two slaps right in the face.
"Dirty brute," she comes back at me, "I'm going to tell my lover
about this. . . . " At the end of this recital, he found himself once
more faced with the question, whether Mariette would return to him.
"Do you believe that she will come back?" The words escaped
him, spoken aloud.
"Who?"
"Mariette, you know perfectly well, I told you about it."
"What the hell is it to me?"
"I asked you a civil question."
"Howald is she, your lobster?"
"Fifty-five," replied Martin, with naivete.
"She'll come back."
"You could take her for forty-five. And built ... you wouldn't
believe it. Shoulders. Breasts the way you want 'em. And hips enough
for three women. She's what I call a woman, I tell you."
"In fact, it would be a pity if she didn't come back. On the
other hand, she isn't very young. In your place, I would take ad–
vantage of this chance to burn my bridges. Your fat Mariette is
heading towards rheumatism. And not very goodnatured either, it
seems."
"I love her. That settles it."
"Then make your mind easy, Big Boy. You will see your doll
baby again, don't worry. Even the best-looking and the most be–
witching women-it isn't every day that they find a man willing to
support them. And yours is fifty-five years old. She'll come back
without your calling her."
"Understand," said Martin, "that isn't what I want, for her
