PARTISAN REVIEW
"There's going to be quite a rain."
"Livio's gone," she said by way of an answer.
"Who is that Livio, anyhow?" Giacomo asked without moving.
"A Party comrade, a friend."
"I don't care for him."
"I know that," she said with a smile. "You made it pretty
plain.
As
he was going away he pointed to you as you lay there
asleep and said: 'What's the matter? Has he got it in for me?' "
"I haven't got it in for him.... But he has no manners. I'm
on my honeymoon, and he acts as if it were his."
"He's a good fellow."
"You used to be in love with him. Admit it!"
She came out with a peal of innocent, silvery laughter.
"You must be crazy. I couldn't possibly fall in love with him.
He doesn't appeal to me in the least."
"But the way you talked to one another ..."
"He's a Party comrade," she repeated, "and that's the way we
talk." She was silent for a moment and then said with unexpected
bitterness: "He's unintelligent, that's why he doesn't appeal to me."
"He doesn't seem to me much more stupid than the next man."
"He said a lot of foolish things," she went on angrily. "That
we'd kill people off, for instance ... He knows better and spoke that
way just to show off. . . . But such loose talk is harmful to the
Party."
"You're the one that's got it in for him now."
"No, I haven't got it in for him, but he had no business to talk
that way." Then she added, more coolly:
"As
a matter of fact, he's
of value to the Party, even if he isn't too bright. He's absolutely
loyal; you could ask him to do anything."
"And what value have I?" Giacomo was bold enough to ask
jokingly.
"You can't have any value, since you're not one of us."
Giacomo was displeased by this answer. He got up and looked
at the lowering sky.
"We'd better get back home before it rains, what do you say?"
"Yes, I think we had better."
Giacomo hesitated for a moment, put his arm around her waist
and asked softly:
"When we get there, will you be mine ... at last?"
