456
PARTISAN
REVIEW '
Pepe: he's hardly left the house since he arrived. He takes a very early
morning walk and then shuts himself up in here, all day. You'd
think
he was a wanted man-"
"Use your head, Mary-use your head!
If
I haven't wanted to
leave the house much, can't you see it's because
I
don't want to
run
into those women?"
"WeIl, why not? Have you been raping them?
both
of them?"
"You went to see them-or
her
anyway. Why didn't you ask?" .
Her tense face altering: "We didn't talk about you," she announced
haughtily.
"And what the devil did you talk about-nylons?"
"No-about my watercolors."
The two men burst out laughing, and Paco, as he shook with
laughter, propped his elbows on the windowsiIl and slowly slid down
until he was sitting on the floor.
"Mary, you're
wonderful!"
he cried. "So you marched up there
to ask that woman if I'd been raping her and she got you to talking
about your watercolors instead-"
"WeIl, yes. She asked me what
I
did and seemed so interested when
I
told her that before
I
realized what was happening we were on our
way to Rita's curio store so she could have a look at my stuff. And, Paco,
she bought two pieces: the one of Yaumati Ferry in the noon
rush,
and my pink and brown study of a Chinese funeral. She wants me
to
do her a tint of Our Lady appearing to the children in Fatima-for
her bedroom, she says. .. Oh, stop sniggering, Pepe, or I'Il smash
this
pot on your head!"
"Oh, Mary,
don't!
I'm not laughing at you, honest-the joke's on
me. What an absolute fool that woman made of me this afternoon!
I
sat there and let her puIl and pull at my heartstrings-and she
was
only pulling my leg. And the way she talked about you, Paco, I'd
never have thought you knew her weIl enough to rape her.
I
gathered,
in fact, that she didn't know you at all."
"Did she say so?"
"She couldn't even remember your name right."
"The
bitch."
"But she doesn't look it," argued Mary with some warmth. "Even
your cautious Rita, Pepe, was dazzled by her. She's every inch the great
lady. Monday afternoon, she was wearing a Chinese dress of black
wool, slit to the knee, with a stiff coIlar and a golden dragon prancing
up in front, but her jewels were authentic Javanese. She had been read–
ing about the apparitions in Fatima and was carrying the book clasped
to her breast, one finger stuck inside the pages to keep the place, and
