PARTISAN REVJEW
very
thin
black mustache. He had dark, worried
eye1!.
He tipped
his
hat to them.
Rosa told
him
she was leaving the apartment.
"Then let me help you get your things," Annando said. He
escorted her to the maid's room and after whispering a minute they
wrapped Rosa's things in newspaper.
When they came out of the room, Armando carrying a shopping
bag, Rosa holding a shoe box wrapped in newspaper, the professor
handed her the remainder of her month's wages.
"I am sorry," he said again, "but I have my wife and daughter
to
think
of. They'll be here in a few days."
She answered nothing. Annando, smoking a cigarette butt,
gently opened the door for her and they left together.
Later the professor inspected the maid's room and saw that
Rosa had taken all her belongings but the shoes he had given her.
When his wife arrived at the apartment, shortly before Thanksgiving,
she gave the shoes to the portinaia, who wore them a week, then
gave them to her daughter-in-law.
