THE
TERRACE
677
Before being secluded in the sanatorium Matilda--she her–
self said so-was violent, eccentric 'and confuSed. Suddeniy 'she:
would break off relations with a
girl
friend because, as she said,
she had discovered that her friend had the feet ofa dead person.
Or that the expression on her friend's lips did not match that of
her eyes when she smiled. She was married to her first husband
and hated him, but she was faithful. Although she met Bob
under equivocal circumstances, there was no adultery. The only
liberty she ever took was to speak
ill
of her husband, but this was
not so ominous because, as she said, adulterous wives do just the
opposite. They speak well of their husbands to everybody, espe–
cially their lovers.
Among other extravagant things, Matilda told Bob that
when her husband became tender he smelled of asphalt, and
that he had a sense of prudence which she found intolerable.
That memorable night in the hotel ba:r Matilda arrived and
said to Bob:
"Don't speak to me, Bob. Be still and wait till I'm more
calm. Then I'll talk to you. Don't ask me anything."
Bob, the athletic and serious, almost taciturn, man, looked
at her, thinking once more: "Nothing's wrong with her. Nerves.
She hates her husband but doesn't divorce him. I wonder why
she doesn't, divorce him?"
Matilda, glancing at her sanatorium companions, was mUB-'
ing: "They all know I'm only periodically insane and that the
rest of the time I'm well behaved. And they envy me, and they're
right, because it's as if I lived in two different countries."
Again she remembered that night in the bar with Bob, while
still married to her first husband. After a sip of cognac she had
asked :
"Don't you notice anything strange about me, Bob?"
She took out her cigarette case, opened it, hesitated a '
010-'
ment, cloSed it again, evidently deciding not to smoke, and
added:
'
, :, "Don't look at me, for I'm going to say something barbar-
