474
DORIS LESSING
and bounded past Luigi's shoulder and straight through the
bead curtain into the barber's shop, where it landed with a
thud.
"Judith was sorry when she left us," said Mrs. Rineiri
uncertainly. "She was crying."
"I'm sure she was."
"And so," said Mrs. Rineiri, with finality, laying her
hands down again, and looking past me at the bead curtain.
That was the end. Luigi nodded brusquely at me, and went
into the back. I said goodbye to Mrs. Rineiri and walked back
to the lower town. In the square I saw the child, sitting on
the running board of a lorry parked outside the trattoria, draw–
ing in the dust with his bare toes, and directing in front of
him
a blank, unhappy stare.
I had to go through Florence, so I went to the address
Judith had been at. No, Miss Castlewell had not been back.
Her papers and books were still here. Would I take them back
with me to England? I made a great parcel and brought them
back to England.
I telephoned Judith and she said she had already written
for the papers to be sent, but it was kind of me to bring them.
There had seemed to be no point, she said, in returning to
Florence.
"Shall I bring them over?"
"I would be very grateful, of course."
Judith's flat was chilly, and she wore a bunchy sage–
green woolen dress. Her hair was still a soft gold helmet, but
she looked pale and rather pinched. She stood with her back
to a single bar of electric fire-lit because I demanded it–
with her legs apart and her arms folded. She contemplated me.
"I went to the Rineiri's house."
"Oh. Did you?"
"They seemed to miss yon."
She said nothing.
"I saw the cat too."
