told you too much." She tipped some dust from her eyelashes with her fingertip; then removed my arm from her shoulders. "Lily." "I must go. And I wisif I could meet you outside Bourani. As if everything was normal." She gave me a strange look, a moment's gentle, frank smile, and stood up. I caught her hand. "You have me under your spell. You know that?" "You have me just as much in your power. If you tell Maurice what I've told you... will you seriously, very seriously, promise not to?" "I promise, very seriously." "Nothing?" "Don't worry. Nothing." "You _will_ understand tonight." Then the wretched bell rang, trisyllabically, for me again. I looked at my watch. It was teatime. "You must go now as well." "To hell with the bell. Unless you come to tea too." "No. I must go. I know he's watching us." "He said he would?" She gave the slightest of nods, then looked urgently at me. "Please, _please_, if you like me at all, go away now." "Where will you go?" "I shall stay here till you've gone." "But I'll see you tonight." "I don't know. I don't know. It's not for me to --" The bell rang peremptorily again. "I must see you before next weekend." "I can't promise anything." "I could meet you here. Not come to the house." "No, no. You mustn't. Please. You must go." She looked faintly distraught under the false smiles, and pushed me to make me go. "I'll come on Tuesday, no, damn, oh God and Wednesday I've got duties--tomorrow?" "No." "Thursday." "No. _Please_." "Kiss me goodbye." She hesitated, then leaning forward rather as she had that morning, she brushed my cheek with her lips; and whispered. "The weekend after, I promise." She freed her hand almost with violence; but her look countermanded it. I went. At the gulley I waved, and she waved back. I said "Yes?" and she gave a minute nod; on the other side, I waved again. Then I saw Conchis. He was some sixty yards away through the trees. His back to us, he appeared to be watching some bird high in the trees beyond him through binoculars. Alter a moment he lowered them, turned, and made as if he had just seen me. I glanced back. Lily was walking slowly to the east. She looked dejected.
35
As I walked over the carpet of pine needles to meet him, I decided to be slightly annoyed; and then, when I was close to him, something about his quizzical look made me change tactics. It obviously did not pay at Bourani to look or speak as one felt. I believed, in terms of believing a person's eyes and voice and gestures, that Lily had not been lying to me--at least in regard to some strain, some tension in her relationship with Conchis; but I knew very well that she could have been lying to me. "Hello." "Good afternoon, Nicholas. I must apologise for that sudden absence. There has been a small scare on Wall Street." Wall Street seemed to be on the other side of the universe; not just of the world. I tried to look concerned. "Oh." "I had to go to Nauplia to telephone Geneva." "I hope you're not bankrupt." "Only a fool is ever bankrupt. And he is bankrupt forever. You have been with Lily?" "Yes." We began to walk back towards the house. I sized him up, and said, "And I've met her twin sister." He touched the powerful glasses around his neck. "I thought I heard a subalpine warbler. It is very late for them to be still on migration." It was not exactly a snub, but a sort of conjuring trick: how to make the subject disappear. "Or rather, _seen_ her twin sister." He walked several steps on; I had an idea that he was thinking fast. "Lily had no sister. Therefore has no sister here." "I only meant to say that I've been very well entertained in your absence." He did not smile, but inclined his head. We said nothing more. I had the distinct feeling that he was a chess master caught between two moves; immensely rapid calculation of combinations. Once he even turned to say something, but changed his mind. We reached the gravel. "Did you like my Poseidon?" "Wonderful. I was going to --" He put his hand on my arm and stopped me, and looked down, almost as if he was at a loss for words. "She may be amused. That