THE WOMAN FROM MEXICO
21
They
went out and started side by side down the narrow
stairs.
As
they went, their hips touched and Albina said, with
a laugh that to Sergio seemed offensive: "Rubbing up against
me, eh?"
"Go
to the devil," he said to himself. But his arm, as if
moved by an independent will, raised itself and encircled
Albina's waist. Without saying a word she gave
him,
almost in
the dark as they were, a violent blow with her hip which nearly
knocked
him
down. Sergio understood and let go of her waist.
Outside it was raining, and it was warmer than ever. "Put
up your umbrella," Albina said to
him.
He obeyed, and Albina
clung to
his
arm, with a movement that was almost affectionate.
They walked off together.
"What d'you think of Luciano?" she suddenly asked him.
Without reflecting, Sergio answered: "I
think
he's an idler
and that he'll come to a bad end."
She remarked, in a judicious tone of voice: "You're not
going about it in at all a good way. I've told you already ...
You won't succeed in making me fall in love with you by speak–
ing ill of Luciano."
Sergio replied irritably: "I think far worse of him than
that ... 1 only told you the least important part of what 1 feel."
"And yet you try to pass as
his
friend."
"But I'm
not
a friend of Luciano's," said Sergio vehement–
ly.
"Will you, or won't you, understand? 1 scarcely know him."
"Well, it may
be
so. But
he
says you're such great friends."
"We were at school together, that's all ... 1 could never
be
a friend of a type like Luciano."
"Why not?"
All of a sudden Sergio's nostrils curled
in
anger. "Because
Luciano
is
a person of unreliable character and 1 am not."
"Well, it may be so," she repeated obstinately.
"It
may
even
be,
as you say, that Luciano
is
an unreliable person. But
