68
PARTISAN REVIEW
together.
Am
I mistaken, or was there actually an ironic glint in your eye the
whole time you were listening to me?"
"The Police Eye of Providence. We live, as you probably .-ealize, in a
vintage era for 'unknown assailants.' But we are only momen ts from your
epilogue."
"Malcolm bought an airplane ticket to London on December I Itho I
spent a farewell evening with him at Villa Melton , while the men bo m the
shipping company were packing boxes. It was cold and pouring rain : there
was a fire in the fireplace. Malcolm was trying to stay calm, he put a brave
face on things , he clutched at surprising reminiscences of hi s Doberman,
Lucky, who had died quite sometime before and been buried by Tom in the
garden of the villa. The workmen came in from the next room. He told them
what to take and pack in crates. And then , without looking at me as I sat on
a stool by the fireplace , he nonchalantly took the engraving olf the wall and
threw it into the fire.
It
burst into flames , and in that li'action of a second be–
fore it burned up , it seemed to me that th e e normous Eye of Providence
slowly closed in an expression of mockery and derision."
"Tomorrow I will have our conversation transc ribed from the tape.
Come round the day after tomorrow, you can read the transcript and sign it
for approval. I'll make a present of one copy.
Afi:t.T
all,
YO ll
are a writer, so
who knows, who knows, maybe fifteen or twenty years from now, when the
dust has settled on the a rchives he re and in London , you may want
to
im–
mortalize it with your pen. That way I might find my way into literature by
the back door.
It
is rather late; let me give you a lilt home in my caL"
Translated from the Polish
by
Ronald Strom
II
