9.

They were at a very small table in Café Madagascar. Lauren was drinking martinis. Burke had a glass of beer. Lauren was singing along with the band.

“In a quaint caravan there’s a lady they call the gypsy...”

A heavy man in an expensive tuxedo came to the table and said hello to Lauren. She didn’t introduce Burke.

“Tony Bixley,” Lauren said to Burke when the heavy man left. “He owns the joint.”

“Friend of your father’s?” Burke said.

“He’s a friend of both of us,” Lauren said and finished her martini. A cocktail waitress dressed in harem pants brought her another one. Lauren took the olive out and nibbled on it. The band started a new song. Lauren knew the lyrics.

“A rose must remain with the sun and the rain...”

She looked straight at Burke as she sang. Her voice was light but it seemed to be on key. She would probably flirt with a Christmas tree if that was the best available.

“To each his own, I found my own, and my own is you...”

Burke looked around the room. There were palm trees and African masks and murals of African tribesmen hunting lions and tigers. The upholstery of the banquettes along the wall was zebra striped.

“Two lips must insist, on two more to be kissed...”

A languid young man moved among the tables toward them. He was tall and almost willowy, wearing a dark double-breasted suit, a white shirt, and a white tie. His dark hair was long for a man’s, and wavy. Burke watched him come. He stopped beside Lauren and said, “Hello, darling.”

Lauren looked at Burke and then up at the man.

“Go away, Louis,” she said.

“Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?” Louis said.

“Go away.”

“Oh, but I must meet him, darling. He looks so... so authentic.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Louis,” Lauren said. “This is Mr. Burke. This is Louis Boucicault. All right? Now go away.”

“So,” Louis said. “My successor. Have you gotten her into bed yet?”

Burke tilted his head back slightly and stared at Louis.

“This can be easy,” he said. “Or it can be bad. If I have to stand up, I’ll put you in the hospital.”

There was enough force in Burke’s look to make Louis flinch back a little. Louis knew he’d flinched and two red smudges showed on his cheeks.

“Well,” he said. “Well, well.”

Burke didn’t speak.

“Do you know who I am, Mr. Burke?”

“I know who you are,” Burke said. “I know who your father is. Now take a hike.”

Burke kept looking straight at Louis, his hands resting motionless on the tabletop. Louis hesitated, then he smiled down at Lauren.

“I certainly don’t wish to intrude,” he said. “I’m sure I’ll see you again, both of you again.”

Lauren didn’t look at Louis. She didn’t say anything. Louis bowed slightly toward her and looked at Burke and walked away. He moved very gracefully.

Without a word, Lauren emptied her martini glass, and held it up to the waitress. Then she looked at Burke.

“Wow,” she said.

Burke continued to look at Louis.

“No one has ever talked that way to Louis.”

Louis was at the hat check counter.

“I was hired to talk that way to Louis,” Burke said.

The hat check girl handed a gray felt hat to Louis, and a white silk scarf.

“Everyone is afraid of him,” Lauren said. “Because of his father.”

Louis draped the scarf around his neck, put the hat on, adjusted it so that the brim raked down over his eyes. Burke watched him as he left. The waitress arrived with Lauren’s fresh martini. She looked at Burke’s half-empty glass. Burke shook his head. The waitress swished away. Lauren was eating her olive.

“Almost everyone,” Burke said.

“Why aren’t you afraid of him?” she said.

“Hard to say.”

Lauren held her martini in both hands and looked at him over the top of the glass.

“I love martinis,” she said. “Do you?”

“No.”

“What do you love?”

“Hard to say.”

Lauren drank some of her martini.

“Well, aren’t you funny,” she said. Her voice slurred a little bit. “You don’t fear anything. You don’t love anything.”

“Funny,” Burke said.

“I guess I’m a teeny bit funny as well,” Lauren said. “I... There’s something really wrong with Louis. At first you don’t see it. He’s so charming and good-looking and he has money and clothes and knows his way around and everyone was a little afraid of him. But at first I really went for him.”

“People love funny things,” Burke said.

“Love? My God, you are funny. I didn’t say anything about love. I said I went for him. I had hot pants.”

“Maybe you had hot pants for what was wrong with him.”

Lauren sat back a little and put her glass on the table. She looked silently at Burke for a time. Then she picked up her glass and drank and put it down and looked at Burke some more.

“Almost certainly,” she said.

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