14
ALBERTO .... ORAVIA
here to give her back these gloves . . . but it would be much
better
if
you would go and do so.
Go
on then-go and give
her the gloves," and he thrust a pair of crumpled gloves into
his
hand.
"Go
on; and tell her that as far as I am concerned
it's all over. And of course the succession
is
open, the coast is
clear.
Go
on, and make the most of it. She'll be very pleased ...
it's just what she wants."
"But, my dear chap, I ..."
"What are you waiting for? Get along, go on!" Luciano
gave
him
an ill-mannered push which forced him into the door–
way.
''Go
on ... You'll be delighted, you know you will. And
I've spared you the trouble of finding out the address, I've
brought you right to the door . . . Or d'you want me to come
and undress her for you, eh?"
"But Luciano ..."
The other man was paying no further attention, by this
time, to anything he said. "Well, that's agreed, then. Be nice
to her, ask her out to dinner, don't be stingy ... Good luck to
you." He saluted
him
with a wave of the hand and disappeared.
Now that he was alone again, Sergio felt more sweat–
drenched than ever. To the heat there was now added the
dis–
agreeable sensation of a false position. What was happening
to
him
seemed to be a thing of the highest improbability; yet
it was not its improbability that troubled
him,
so much as
Luciano's attitude and
his
own. The improbability might be
explained in
this
way: either Luciano was jealous of
him
with–
out any reason, or Albina had made use of him to make her
lover jealous. But what gave him food for thought was, on the
one hand, the quiet contempt of
his
friend, as though it were
obvious that he was aiming to supplant him in Albina's favors;
and, on the other,
his
own sudden inclination to accept this
role of traitor that was being fastened upon him. Sergio had,
