SUNNY HONEYMOON
647
in which they said it. What was this tone, exactly, and why did it
rub him the wrong way? There was a note of complicity in it, he
concluded, a reference to some secret bond different from that of
either friendship or family. For a moment he wondered if it weren't
just what one would find between fellow employees in a bank or
government office. But, upon reflection, he realized that it was en–
tirely different.
It
was ... he searched for some time, groping for an
exact definition ... it was the tone of voice of two monks or two nuns
meeting one another. And why then did it rub him the wrong way?
Not because he disapproved of Livio's and Simona's political ideas;
in the course of a rational discussion he might very well allow that
these had some basis. No, there was nothing rational about his hos–
tility; its cause was obscure even to himself and at times it seemed
to be one with his jealousy, as if he were .afraid that Simona would
escape him through her Party connections. As these thoughts ran
through his mind, his face grew dark and discontented, so that when
Simona joined him, all smiles, a moment later, she exclaimed in
surprise:
"What's wrong? Why are you unhappy?"
"Nothing . . . It's just the heat."
"Let's go in the water. ... But first, where can we undress?"
"Just follow me ... this way."
He knew the place well and now led Simona through a narrow
passage among the rocks. Behind these rocks they stepped across some
other lower ones and then went around a huge mass which sealed off
a tiny beach of very fine, black sand at the foot of glistening, black
rocky walls around a pool of shallow water filled with black seaweed.
The effect was that of a room, with the sky for a ceiling, a watery
floor and walls of stone.
"No bath-house can match this," Giacomo observed, looking
around him.
"At last I can shed my clothes," said Simona with a sigh of
relief.
She put her bag down on the sand and bent over to take out
her bathing-suit, while leaning against the rocks Giacomo stripped
himself in a second of his shirt and trousers. The sight of him stark
naked caused her to give a nervous laugh.
"This is the sort of place to go swimming with no suits on, isn't
it?" she said.
