74
PARTISAN REVIEW
17.
The following Sunday Daphne and
I
visited my bro ther Helmut and
hi s family at their house in the country. Helmut was in a great mood.
He dismissed the bombing, saying that he had never been quite
sati sfi ed with the des ign of the post offi ce and secretl y had always
wanted another go at it. Of course, it was too bad about the two men
who di ed, and all that mail. God knows how much of it was intended
for him. Before dinner we all dutifull y posed for Helmut who took our
photographs on the wide terrace overlooking the dense fores t in the
distance where Klude spends hi s summer months in a small house in a
clearing deep inside the wood. Helmut offered to drive Daphne
to
see
the house the next day. Knowing tha t she was Ameri can he spoke a t
great length of his stay in Ameri ca and how much he enj oyed living in
Bos ton. He kept o n about his visits to Montana and Wyoming,
Arkansas and Southern California, one amusing a necdote aft er
another, then, when she least expected it, he bega n to qu es ti on her
about herself and her famil y. Helmut was smiling at her as she
described the town in Illinois where she had grown up, her fri ends, her
decision to come to Germany after a year in Geneva.
Geneva ?
I
said.
Yes, she had a number of fri ends in Geneva. She also gave English
lessons in Geneva.
My brother interrupted her. T o get back to your fa ther.
I
left the room .
Could she conceivabl y h ave met Paul a?
One has so little control over the irres ponsibl e meandering of
one's brain, over the improbabl e connecti ons tha t are acti va ted as
thoughts by impul ses fr om the brain, although, occasionall y, these
remote farfetched hypotheti cal links have a way of coming true. Almos t
anything the brain can conjure up is plausible.
18.
Daphne living in Geneva.
Daphne moving into the building where
I
li ve.
Why that particul ar building.
Because it had been adverti sed in the loca l paper.
But had it?
On Tuesday afternoon, when I returned from the Ii bra ry, the doorman
informed me that Daphne had moved out of her apartment during my
