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PARTISAN REVIEW
poor, impoverished, unclean, and unjustifiable. And when I was
buried in the prisoners' dirty linen, what I was really doing was ap–
proaching men as I approach women - through their underclothes.
How gay can you get! Error, aberration, youthful folly! A man is to
be approached through his wallet! This first wallet, found, stolen,
found-stolen, was like a personal link between an unknown man and
me . But when I say unknown! I knew his name, his date of birth, his
address, his profession. I possessed his 'photo and that of his wife
and two children, Raymonde, five years old, and Bertrand, three and
a half. There was also an extremely affectionate letter that wasn't
signed by his wife .... So that was it: on the one hand, women's gar–
ments, and on the other, men's nestling bills. What's the connection,
you ask me? But it's simple: with nestling bills, you buy garments.
Because you see, I soon understood that between nestling bills and
garments there's a sort of ... how can
r
put it ... a sort of affinity, of
complicity! Yes, complicity. Men's natural function is to provide the
nestling bills that get transformed into furbelows .
So naturally, I didn't stop at this first wallet. I continued the
hunt for the nestling bill. A strange kind of hunt, upsetting, danger–
ous, voluptuous.
An,
the nestling bill is something quite different
from the woodpigeon or the grouse!
It
isn't enough to get up early in
the morning. Yes, I became a pickpocket. That's what they call it. I
picked things out of pockets . Jacket pockets and pants pockets. But
not out of jackets left lying over the back of a chair! No, I picked
straight from the animal. Because the prey must still be warm. I was
hunting warm wallets. It's like someone who goes hunting- well,
rabbits for example. The rabbit he picks up must still be quivering.
If
it's a cold, stiff corpse, it disgusts the hunter. Therefore, jackets
and pants still on the animal. Yes, pants too, because some men
keep their wallet in their revolver pocket. Obviously, that's much
easier to pick than the inside pocket of a jacket. But on the other
hand, it's money that doesn't have the same quality, if you see what I
mean. The meney from the inside jacket pocket is money from the
heart, the very best kind of money ever made. Bills from there , bills
nestling in the moisture of the armpit, like eggs in their nest in the
spring. The money from the revolver pocket of a pair of pants, oh
sure, it's easier, but it's backside money, it lacks quality. All the
same, though, when the opportunity presents itself ... a nice fat
wallet sticking out of a revolver pocket. . . .
At first, Antoinette was delighted with all these gorgeous un–
dies that came showering down into her drawers until she didn't
