506
PARTISAN REVIEW
more presented a picture of well-being-even his little black mus–
tache, slightly curled at the tips, and the burgundy-red web of
his
net-veined cheeks were becoming to him. Her sense of security,
which
had been put to flight by the ghostly sounds, was restored; indeed,
for no external reason, it became almost euphoric. Shoving her bulk
forward she slid from the bed, parted the window curtains, and drank
in with mouth and ears the subdued roar of the night. She had long
been deprived of all sensual pleasure, except for surreptitiously sam–
pling the guests' wine and food, and urging them to drink up with
quick encouraging glances, anticipating the total daily profit with
every penny taken into the till.
The drums by the charnel house could no longer be heard. But
dormant Fate needs but the slightest prick of a possibility to
rise
and display its power. Like a thousandfold echo of the martial music,
the mounting wind now resounded from streets and corners; it
whistled, groaned and howled in the arcade around the church and
swept away the massed clouds so suddenly that the crouching chi–
meras seemed to leap from the rose-colored masonry and bare their
fangs.
A thunderstorm was approaching from over the Rhine.
As
she
leaned out to draw the shutters she knocked against the window and
immediately heard her husband start up, muttering under his breath.
-Listen, she silenced him.-The French are here.
He got up quickly, pulled on his drawers, and listened for a long
while at the window over the dark street, as if, like a screaming
shell, that which they both feared would give warning of its arrival
from far off.
-You must be out of your mind, he said, dismissing his own
error and trying, man-like, to cover it up by scolding his wife for her
bare feet, her credulity, and for heedlessly exposing herself to the
night air in her condition. The woman, gathering her dark-blond
hair into a knot, did not argue but went obediently back to bed. He
put his arm round her shoulders, and she bowed her neck deeper
than was her wont. In bed she pulled her knees up and stared into
the darkness which was being rent by ever more frequent flashes of
lightning, followed by weak, still distant thunder.
Having regained his composure, the man tried to make her lie
down. Stroking her quivering body he reached up to her breast:
