ALBERTO MORAVIA
(tVamos,"
said the Mexican woman, trying to draw him
towards the door. With unexpected mildness Luciano answered:
"Don't be angry; there's no harm done. We'll go on being
friends just the same . . . Mter all, it's only human, you were
attracted by Albina . . . But now you can go with Consuelo.
I've talked to her about you, and she likes the look of you . . .
Consuelo, you go off together, you two; go off and make love
together." He made an expressive gesture with his hand. But
the Mexican woman shrugged her shoulders and answered him
with a remark that was contemptuous and cutting in its tone,
as though to make
him
understand that she was a<:cepting no
advice from
him
and would act on her own initiative. Luciano
started laughing and Albina, sure now of getting what she
wanted, let go of
his
hand, went round behind the dressing–
table and proceeded to take off her coat. The Mexican succeeded
in
pulling Sergio by the arm out of the room and then shut the
door.
She spoke a few words in Spanish, as
if
to say good-bye,
and held out her hand. Sergio shook it automatically. She turned
her back on
him
and went to a door half-way along the passage.
So
she lived, evidently, in the same house as Albina. All at once
Sergio felt
his
face and ears burning and was seized again with
the same fierce desire to undress that had pursued him all the
evening. He ran after the Mexican, who was just entering her
room, and, pulling a packet of cigarettes from his pocket, of–
fered her one. She took a cigarette and, without saying a word,
uShered
him
into the room, closing the door behind them.
It was a ·square room, small and very low, furnished with
the same sort of .poor, shabby furniture as Albina's. The only
difference was that here, in place of the sofa, there was a real
double bed, with a white coverlet and a curly black iron bed–
stead. The long, low window seemed to look out under a pro–
jecting cornice, and through the glass could be seen the vibrat-
