IN THE AFTERNOON Bernard took me to meet his sister, who was chair of the Nauk’s board of trustees. “You’ll like Barbara,” Bernard said, but it was becoming clear that Bernard had little idea who or what I would like. Why should he? We barely knew each other. I could see now what a folly the whole escapade was—this new life. We had behaved like lunatics, or like children, or like lovers in a play. Like Romeo and Juliet, we had met at a masked ball and made a doomed choice. Oh well, I thought as we sped along the sun-drenched pavement under the pale blue crystalline bowl of the sky. The speed and the air were cheering me up. Oh well, at least I’d escaped Louise! I wondered what she was telling people: that I was ungrateful, unstable, disloyal, deranged. I had left her in the lurch, I had leaped before I looked. Well, it was true, all of it! The thought gave me courage. I glanced at Bernard, who was driving fast. He looked very handsome, his chin thrust up and his nostrils flaring like a racehorse catching a scent in the wind.
