192
PARTISAN REVIEW
"And it's terribly cold. Two fireplaces were going, but it was
just like outside."
"Tell everything in order. From the very beginning when you
arrived. "
"As soon as we arrived Lelik and I were given a huge old book
on Paris to look at. Then the bell started ringing and different
former students started showing up in fur coats, from seventeen to
forty years old. And a few mothers. Mademoiselle looked all wor–
ried, and kept running to the kitchen with cups, and I helped her a
little. Oh, and Mama, how wonderful that I didn't exchange that
box after all-remember, you said: the candies are important, and
not the box. No Mama, the box
was
important-for Christmas.
Candy in a box-is a present, just candy-is just candy. And the
box will always be there-for letters, ribbons, or anything. She was
so pleased and wanted to pass them around, but I convinced her to
save them for her trip, because tomorrow she's going to the country
to her sisters. Lelik brought her apples and oranges, and he tried un–
successfully to buy her hard candies at the store. He said that ten
francs worth would have been a whole lot. But his mother wouldn't
let him. She passed out the oranges and kept the apples-probably
for her sisters. So she'll go with gifts.
"Mama, she's probably very poor, more than we thought,
probably everything goes for the apartment and her sisters-because
the only refreshments were petit-beurres. And a choice of cocoa or
tea. Some young cousin of hers, also in a fur coat, helped her. But
she was wearing her eternal black dress, with the same velvet collar
and the little brooch with Joan of Arc on it-the silver one,
remember? She probably thinks, like you do, that it isn't right for
the hostess to be dressed up since it's
her
home, but maybe she
doesn't have anything else to wear, I, at least, haven't ever seen her
in anything but that black dress .... "
"So then what happened?"
"Then some fat creature I took for a little girl joined us, but the
little girl turned out to have on powder and lipstick , and so I didn't
know what to think. Anyway, we decided to entertain it (the
creature) with a game of Truth, and did such a good job that it
disappeared after five minutes , probably because the little girl-the
kindergartener-called her a boule de graisse, and then boule de
viande-and of course we kept up with her. And then it got dark and
Mademoiselle pointed out the Eiffel Tower, which was just as near
or as far as from our windows. As it always looks from everywhere.
