THE WOMAN FROM MEXICO
19
Albina put down her brush; her hair was now all smoothed
out and unravelled and lay in a fan shape over her shoulders.
Then she turned tow,ards him: "Come here," she said.
She had used the familiar "tu," and this troubled Sergio.
He rose and took a step forward. "I said 'Come here,''' she
insisted.
Sergio took another step. "And now," said the woman
playfully, in the way one speaks to a dog, "lie down! "
"What ever d'you mean?"
"Lie down!"
Sergio bent
his
knees inside the heavy folds of his overcoat
and knelt down, finding himself face to face with Albina sitting
on her stool. She lifted her strong, rounded arm and, placing
her hand on the back of his neck, began: "It's not true that
I don't like you ... In fact I certainly
do
like you ..."
"What am I doing?" thought Sergio. But he brought his
face close to Albina'S, as
if
to kiss her. She immediately pushed
him
away. "No, no ... Be good, now. I said I liked you, but
that's not quite reason enough ... Oh, he's an artful one, isn't
he?" She laughed in a rather awkward way, showing her small,
white teeth, and dealt
him
a blow in the chest, a real peasant
woman's blow, strong and hard. Sergio lost his balance and
fell back on the floor in a sitting position.
Furious with himself, he struggled to his feet again. He
realized that, what with admitting to having pressed Albina's
foot and having then tried to kiss her, he had given a decisive
acknowledgment that Luciano was right. And without any
result, into the bargain. He asked irritably: "Once and for all,
do you like me or do you not?"
"You wouldn't let me finish," replied Albina. "Yes, I do
like you, but it's no good, I'm not for you . . . I belong to
Luciano." She uttered these last words in a tone of challenging,
purblind loyalty-just exactly, thought Sergio, like a woman of
