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empty words. But I hadn’t had the chance to clarify the point any further. Just at that moment, as we know, Alzire had come in.
    â€˜What did you think of him?’ I asked Alzire after I had introduced them to each other. ‘He seems a good fellow, don’t you think?’
    â€˜A good fellow, perhaps!’ she replied, with a little amused laugh. ‘But as far as refinement goes you must admit one could think of some who are better!’
    Lowering her voice she added: ‘In any case, if I have any advice to give you, it is not to sign anything without careful consideration.’
    Sanders had been sitting alone, waiting for his guests, at a table which had been set for three. Out of shyness he hadn’t wanted to ask us to join them. So much the better then! We would have felt obliged to accept, and that would have meant goodbye to the cosy evening which Alzire and I had been so much looking forward to.
    His guests were not late in arriving. They were two of my new acquaintances from that morning: Otto Streep, his assistant, and Captain Lucas.
    Lucas didn’t notice me at first, but he noticed Alzire all right, and greeted her with a smile.
    â€˜Do you know that gentleman?’ I asked her.
    â€˜There’s nothing strange about me knowing the second-in-command of the ship which I shall be boarding on Thursday,’ she replied. ‘In addition to which, I should point out to you that he has gone to great lengths to see that I am comfortably settled in that old boat. If we get the chance in a moment to have few words, don’t forget to express your gratitude to him.’
    With that we happily decided what we were going to eat, and dined with a cheerfulness which was abruptly interrupted only when we thought of our impending separation. We stopped joking and laughing. We held hands tightly under the tablecloth. In three days we were going to have to let go of each other, but for how long?
    *
    â€˜Who is that man with your friend and the captain?’ asked Alzire, after the caviar and the vodka.
    â€˜His name is Otto Streep, and he is Jack Sanders’ authorised representative,
’
I replied. ‘I think you will be travelling with him. He is responsible for transporting on the
Bendigo
the merchandise belonging to his boss.’
    And without thinking it necessary to say any more for the moment about the nature of the merchandise in question, I told her about the way in which we had met each other that morning, about Sanders’ challenge, the gunshot, and the little green feather from Streep’s felt hat fluttering down across the bar to finally end up on a shelf.
    Alzire was amused and laughed. ‘All the same,’ she couldn’t restrain herself from saying, ‘so that’s how you were spending your time, while I imagined you were busy looking for a way in which we could get out of this mess!’
    â€˜In fact I didn’t do too badly . . . . .’ I began.
    She shook her head with a sad smile. ‘Some way or other so we wouldn’t have to separate,’ she said in a gentle tone of reproach. ‘That’s what I meant, and I hoped you would have understood.’
    From every corner of the room, people were looking at us; by
us,
I mean Alzire of course, her ambivalent and cruel beauty, her dark eyes, her jet-black hair. I had already seen, and I shall see many other women, for my troubles, and if God wishes, as a means of redemption. What I shall never see again, alas! is the carnal and indolent halo which made both men and women spin with desire around her, the vague frisson, the feverish authority which she imposed on all those in her circle. But there was one person, as we shall see, who wasn’t completely of the same type as the others and, as we shall also see, who was an exception to this rule, a triumph however which for a long time did not turn out to be to his advantage.
    To get back to Otto Streep, one couldn’t say