MARS
517
a trap." "A trap for the fox's tail," sang the fat
Proven~al,
dropping
onto the sofa. At once he shot up again with an agonized shriek;
cautiously, as though expecting a wasp, he reached for his behind
and removed a stopper which had penetrated it with its pin. At 'once
they were all surrounding him, but he compos,ed himself and made
the best of the situation. Holding aloft the tiny Fortuna in his finger–
tips, and halting their onrush with a whistle, he praised her breasts,
two improbably round and high little apples which everybody was
invited to appraise.
And then the inevitable happened: once the first bedbug, or
the first berry in the grass is found, plenty of the same will appear
everywhere. The elfin throng was discovered at once, and while they
were looking at them, turning them this way and that and stabbing
themselves with their pins, the sweet poison of seduction penetrated,
not to the inmost center, but nevertheless roused in the sleeping bull
of lust that furious arrogance which is caused by the delicate, danger–
ous sting of the treacherous arrow. The young officers embraced each
other and began to dance together with the wistful expressions of
sailors long on board ship and remote from women; others pinned
the figures on the green felt of the billiard table, arranging them in
obscene groups and celebrating the age-old union of beast and man
that found its expression in the figure of the centaur.
The time had come to call for old wines and Kupferberg Gold.
The host himself descended to the cellar to fetch the inferior brands
labeled with fake early dates and stored in a secret place. Leaving the
light-flooded main vault he switched on his electric torch and turned
into a side passage on a lower level that had once connected the cellar
with the refectory.
In the passage he found his wife. Johanna had hurried down
anticipating his intention; in a rapid voice she warned him that one
or another of the officers would surely be able to tell old wines. When
the trays with the empty glasses were returned she had found in one
glass some tinfoil with the stamp of the costly and delicate vintage
she had now gone to fetch-palpably indicating that he who put it
there was an expert. They had better take care lest their conniving
cause them trouble and shame. The host, who had made his plans
and calculated his profit, answered angrily that he wouldn't think of
deferring to the guests. But at the same time he picked up a cork-
