782
PARTISAN REVIEW
shutters and urinated from the window. It wouldn't be in the Neffs
to be amused by something like that.
So
when I went down to break–
fast and the old man said he hadn't slept well I thought he had some
fire in
his
eye. And I thought, 'Why don't you have a night light
upstairs when there's a stranger in the house, you stupid, stingy old
bastard.' And then things began to go bad, but quickly. Dull? The
whole town looked cast in lead. I almost croaked of dullness. I didn't
even shave. Young Neff offered me his razor when I said I hadn't
brought one--I hadn't even brought a toothbrush. I said, 'Better not;
I'm getting over a case of impetigo, and it's catching.'
" 'But that's a children's disease,' said Mrs. Neff.
"Yes, and I felt childish, too, when I saw how my sister looked
at me. But it mOade me put my back up all the more. I never felt
more obstinate. Meanwhile, the pains in my chest were coming on
more frequently, and I didn't eat but went on smoking chain-style
until my coffee saucer was covered with butts and ashes. Which made
Mrs. Neff ask what I took for breakfast usually. I think she meant
that I had gotten into bad habits in Europe and had a drink in a
bistro
to start the day."
"And what were you doing in Europe, if you don't mind my
asking?" said Scampi.
"Mind? No, I don't, specially. Just about what old Mr. Neff
would guess about a man who wouldn't take the trouble to find the
toilet on a dark night. I sold black-market francs to tourists in front
of the American Express in Nice. I dealt in rationed gas, and I ran
with the
voyous
and Arabs, and so on. Until I got tired of that, too.
While I was thinking things over, supposedly."
"So you do have business experience. From what I've heard
people around here say, I thought you didn't."
"Yes, but not the fortune-making kind. They're right about
that," said Weyl, whom he saw smiling in the darkness. "I'd take
up anything I thought feeling had stayed in.
If
in the right things,
okay.
If
not, I wouldn't have stopped at grave-robbing. The way
I felt."
Thoughtfully and minutely attentive, Scampi heard him. Scam–
pi's hair was run back from his forehead in a way that left the whole
bony mold of his face massed forward, a rubbed, used, darkened,
