PARTISAN REVIEW
349
What is more, said Mercier, we have still thought to take, before it
is too late.
Thought to take? said Camier.
Those were my words, said Mercier.
I thought all thought was taken, said Camier, and all in order.
All is not, said Mercier.
Will you shift her or won't you? said the ranger.
Are you venal, said Mercier, since you are deaf to reason?
Silence.
Can you be bought off? said Mercier.
Certainly, said the ranger.
Give him a bob, said Mercier. To think our first disbursement
should be a sop to bribery and extortion.
The ranger vanished with a curse.
How of a piece they all are, said Mercier.
Now he'll prowl around, said Camier.
What can that matter to us? said Mercier.
I don't like being prowled around, said Camier.
Mercier took exception to this turn. Camier maintained it. This
liLLie game soon palled. It must have been near noon.
And now, said Mercier, the time is come for us.
For us? said Camier.
Precisely, said Mercier, for us, for serious matters.
What about a bite to eat? said Camier.
Thought fIrst, said Mercier, then sustenance.
A long debate ensued, broken by long silences in which thought
took place. At such times they would sink, now Mercier, now Camier,
to
such depths of meditation that the voice of one, resuming its drift,
was powerless to bring the other back, or passed unheard. Or they
would arrive simultaneously at often contrary conclusions and simul–
taneously begin to state them. Nor was it rare for one to lapse into a
brood before the other had concluded his expose. And there were times
they would look long at each other, unable to uller a word, their minds
two blanks.
It
was fresh from one such daze they decided to abandon
their inquiry, for the time being. The ahernoon was well advanced, the
rain was falling stili, the short winter day was drawing to a close.
It
is you have the provisions, said Mercier.
On the contrary, said Camier.
True, said Mercier.
