Guignol's band

Ah! the hero!. Just look at ’im! the cops are whistling at me!. Whistling!. Whistling! Futile! I step on the gas!

.. Ah! every man for himself!.. I tear along the walls at top speed!.. Racing like mad!. Far off! at the end! it’s Bedford Square! I sniff!.. I get my bearings!.. I dash forward!. I’m there!. I see the trees! the Y.M.C.A.!.. The grounds, the fine sycamores!.. the oaks!.. the Consulate!

I see it!. Go on, go, boy!. Shoot ahead!. fly!.. one more dash! Hip! Hop! it’s pouring! it’s teeming! it’s pissing! I’m soaked!.. dripping! streaming in flight! I dash under the umbrellas. I stumble!. I flop!. Up! on my feet!.. Faster and faster!.. I don’t feel myself any more!

Bedford Square! the Consulate!. mine?. No! the Russian!.. I’m a bit off!.. another run!.. I’ve got too much pep!. Got to lose it!. use it up!. I’m slowing down!.. now trotting!. There’re at least a dozen consulates… of all countries. around the trees!.. all around the square. like a merry-go-round! against one another!. that one there! the Russian! the biggest! At least three or four buildings. The crowd’s milling in front of the door… I bear down… I dig in!. I’m pushed back!. I succumb!. I collapse in the mob of Russians!. They’re fuming!. they spit!. they call me names!. I’m at a standstill!. a stricken meteor!. I collapse on the spot!.. I’m squeezed in, bundled, ground up in the crush of bodies!. It’s an endless mob!. There’s been a triple line around the square for days and days! for weeks!.. They’ve been marking time. they squawk.. they cough… in the sun… in the rain.. the office door’s closed… it just barely opens.. They take only two at a time. They keep them for hours, for days.. It’s for their visas!. It’s a teeming mob full of cooties!. and hard to delouse!. I’m scratching too!.. It’s a mixture.. it’s swarming.. forearms.. feet.. They all flock to the door every time it opens.. it’s a mixed sort of mob.. they shove one another into the railings.. they’re all scraping away at the lice. digging at themselves. tickling… a hodgepodge. and cute specimens. big merchants and moujiks!. lots of all kinds. show-offs in overcoats.. professors with eyeglasses.. peasants with kerchiefs… all of them milling, mashing feet, shoving, advancing a hundredth of an inch. Got to go through them!

I’ll never make it! My French Consulate! there! getting farther away! I find myself deported! dragged to the left! I brace myself! tear away! I knock over some Jews in caps.. a whole band of them!..sidewhiskers with big glasses. two popes with crosses on their bellies.. They’re squeezed tightly together. I buck right into them. right into the mash of meat. I cut through. push them all aside!. a burst!.. Got to get to my cloister. to my Consulate. French soil!

It’s just as compact there too!. They’re blocking the entrance. a whole yowling furious mixture Franco-Belgo-Rus-sian who-where-what!.. they’re all jabbering and shouting.. calling each other the lowest names.. sour chambermaids.. artists… a Greek whom I recognize… a plump little woman spouting away… a girl from Toulouse full of accent…They’re waiting for opening time. it reopens at eight o’clock for visas for the evening train..

I’m in a much greater rush than anyone else!.. I yell it to the populace!.. Got to assert myself at once! I didn’t come to wait around!.. I want to see the Consul in person!.. Himself!. and right away!. I roar it over the crowd’s heads.. Monsieur le Consul General!. That’s the least of things!.. I’ve torn my overcoat. it’s just a rag now. getting pushed around by the crowd!. It’s hanging down in tatters!. my expensive raglan… I salute the flag over the door!.. and the coat of arms!. our three colors!. "Attention!” I order.. "Atten-shun!” in a stentorian voice over the mob. I beat my way through. I’m trying to penetrate. The women around me, the French teachers, call me a ruffian, a cutthroat… I don’t answer. I bang. I go at it with all I’ve got!. I’m ready to smash anything!. I shove through like mad!. with kicks!.. Finally they open after all!.. just a crack!.. I barge in head on!. into the usher!.. the concierge!. I’m inside!

I’ve made it!.. But my heart can’t take it! I buckle under!

I sit down on the floor!. The effort’s been too much!

"Monsieur! Monsieur!. Mister!” I exclaim. "Duty calls me!. .Allons enfants de la Patrie!”. I bawl it out!. I give it all I’ve got!..I insult the flunky!..He answers in English, "Go away! Go away! I’m the Commissioner!”. the kind of uniformed lackey who hires himself out by the hour, by the week, who defends anterooms, offices, official places..

"The French Consul!” I demand…'! want to see the French Consul!. Monsieur le Consul General!”

Finally a clerk comes along. A real one, with lustrine sleeves.. then three!. ten others!.. all in lustrine and spectacles, wearing celluloid collars. Ah! I stop dead! Oh, celluloid!.. they flabbergast me! They’re the first I’ve seen in London!.. I sit there dumfounded! They fascinate me.. They’re all wearing bow ties!.. "ready-made!”. I get it!

I know where I am!. it’s my whole youth!. I just sit there stunned, cockeyed.. from squinting so hard at their ties!

Ah! I can’t take my eyes off them!. It’s my whole childhood!. my apprenticeship!. the Passage du Verododat!.. God it’s not possible? They’re all wearing them, one and the same kind!. Like my poor father!. always "ready-made” ties. with chevron stripes like his! black and white. Ah! tears are welling up!

"Gentlemen!. Gentlemen!” I exclaim. "You’ll forgive me!. it’s weakness!. It’s hunger!. Just a fainting spell!”

"You want some help, young man?. Help?. In the morning around ten o’clock.. Come back tomorrow morning!”

They’re clearing me out.

"Help?… Help?”

Ah! the sneaks!.. Ah! my anger!

"I want to enlist, you bastards!.. I want to go back to the war! To save our country!. You shitheads!. I’ve got my fake papers!” I scream it at them! I’m announcing it.

I can see they think I’m off my nut. They’re making signs to one another.

"Follow us, young man!.. Follow us!.. Come up quietly.. quietly with us.”

They invite me.. they escort me.. they close around me.. They don’t want me to run away. Oh! they’re smart!.. I know their kind!..

We get to the first floor.. two three.. four offices in a row… all of them filled with typists.. homely ones, pale and squint-eyed… a hunchback..

At the very back, the “Military Office”.. written on the outer door.. “Medical Officer”. We all bolt in together.. we surge in. and all the typists follow!. they’re clucking away, the scarecrows. They’re accompanying me. They won’t leave me!.

It’s been some time since I’ve seen medics in uniform.. since the hospital, as a matter of fact!.. it excites me immediately!. Since Hazebrouck in Flanders..

“Atten-shun! ” I yell.. “Atten-shun! ”

Everybody laughs. Haw! haw! haw!

"Let me see your papers, young man!. Let me see your papers! ”

I tear out my inner pocket sewn up in my jacket. well preserved at the bottom of my rags!. I hand my papers to the medic.. My record… my citations!..

“It’s all fake!”. I warn him at the start. “It’s all fake!”

I’m warning him good and loud!..

“Completely fake!”. I emphasize it..

He tells me to sit down. That’s perfect!.. So he can examine them leisurely!.. I settle down into the biggest armchair.. He’s going to see a thing or two.. He’s going to have a treat.. Meanwhile I look at the mists outside… the mists floating by the window.. dancing.. big furbelows. the ballet of the fogs!. while he examines my papers. I hum a little tune!. It all came with the rain. the ballet of the mists. it sweeps off. flies up. toward Saint Albans.. lightly!. the church, all dark!. the spire in the sky, all gold! Ah! a nice effect!. The clouds are dissolving!.. Ah! I dream easily!. I just let myself go right off. Anything can get me dopey. I want him to know it. I let the medic know… I warn him very politely.

"There’s something magic in the air.”

A thought.

Now he knows.

"Come here, young man!” he answers, polite but firm. "Get undressed!.. The rest of you! leave! ”

Everyone leaves.

He looks at my arm.. my scars..

"Atten-shun! ” I roar… "Atten-shun! ”

He feels my leg, my buttocks, my balls… he fiddles all over me. he thumps my chest, he feels me again!. He makes me walk.. forward. backwards..

He nods his head… I can see he’s turning me down..

"I want to go, doc!. I want to go!” I’m begging him.. "Don’t turn me down!. I’ve got to go!. They’re after me! ”

I’m spilling the beans.,

"I’m the murderer, doc!.. I killed ten of ’em!.. I killed a hundred!. I killed a thousand!. I’ll kill all of ’em next time!.. Doc, send me back!.. I belong at the front!.. a-off to war!”

"We’ll see!. We’ll see!” he answers quite calmly. "Get dressed! ”

He hadn’t said three words to me. I thought that pretty insolent… I slip on my pants, my bandages, my shredded linen shirt… He looks me over.. He’s still nodding.. He’s a medico with a goatee, the plump potbellied kind, he’s got round cheeks, he takes his glasses off, puts them back on.. He’s wearing leggings, spurs, a big revolver case… I wonder why?. He’s not running any risks in his office!. He sends for another four-eye. and then for the commissioners. the lackeys again!.. the ones who welcomed me at the door.. and then they all come back… all the offices.. the whole staff… the whole Consulate… all the gals with buns! it’s going to be a big show! I’m surrounded!.. They all start jabbering again!. whispering about my case!. mimicking to one another!..

"You may go now, my boy!. You may leave!”

That’s his decision!

Ah! I’ll be damned! what an outrage!

"Off to war!” I scream. "off to war!. I don’t want to leave any other way!. I want my re-enlistment signed here! right this minute!. and without delay!.. I demand it!.. Take it or leave it!. Life or death!”

They don’t answer.

"Off to war! ” I repeat.. "Off to war! Like Little-Arm Pierrot.. No-Dough Rene.. like Pretty-Kiss Jojo!.. like Lucien-the-Gent! ”

"But you’ve just come back, young man!.. You’ve done your full duty!.. You’ll soon have your pension!”

Ah! a fine how-do-you-do!.. He was trying to ease me out!. Ah! the flimsy windbag!. Me, conscience in person!

He wanted to calm my scruples!. Ah! the crazy loafer!

Repulsive!. So I hand him a line!..

"But my duty hasn’t been done right!.. But haven’t you looked at me?.. But I’ve still got lots of duties waiting!.. And what about yours?. Tell me about them!.. A pension?

But I don’t have any pension!. But I’ll never have a pension! ”

That’s the way I argue!..

He doesn’t get sore, he’s still reasoning with me. He’s handling me very gently..

"But you will!. You’ll have it!. You’re going to get it, my dear fellow!. You’ve been badly disabled!. One of our most valiant soldiers!. You’ve got 80 %.. Ask for an increase!. 80 % is all right!. 2,000 francs a year!”

On the other hand, I’m getting excited!..

"But I’m a murderer, gentlemen!.. A murderer!.. Can’t you hear straight?”

I’m talking to all of them… I bellow it out!.. I roar it!

We don’t understand one another at all!. They all make sorry faces!. There’re at least thirty of them in sleeve-bands standing around in a circle. stupefied. staring at me! And then they start again. jabbering!. twaddling. with lots of little sly laughs..

“I killed two of ’em!”. I start all over. "I killed ten!.. and I’ve killed a lot more!.. I’ll butcher more than that!.. Listen to me, doc! ”

I beg him… I throw myself at his knees!

This time he’s categorical again! I’m driving him wild!

"You’re discharged, my boy!..Your papers! Your documents are in order!.. Absolutely faultless!.. Discharged!.. Do you understand me?. 80 %!. You’ve been released by the Medical boards! Dunkerque! Bethune! La Rapee!..Do you remember?. Wait for your pension! The formalities are being attended to!. Are you in London with relatives?”

He seems to me too curious!. He’s trying to intimidate me again! Ah! I see what he’s up to! dissuading me from doing my full duty!. Ah! the wretch!..

"I killed twelve of ’em!” I raise the figure. "I killed a hundred!. It’s not over!. I want to go back! I want to kill a thousand! I want to redeem my errors!. I want to go back to the line!. in the Sixteenth!. Sixteenth Cuirassiers!”

Whereupon we start talking pleasantly again. He wants me to listen to reason. He’s full of concern… He starts flattering me! "Hero!. Hero!” he calls me!. The word makes all the pen-pushers… all the office girls writhe with laughter..

"You’ve received the Military Medal!”

"I killed twelve of ’em, doc!.. If I go back, I’ll kill ’em all!.. I want to get back to the platoon!.. Lower my rank!

Lower my rank! But I want to be in service!.. and right away!. A private, if necessary!”

Ah! I mean business!

"Come, come, my boy!.. You’re nervous, that's all… You’ve done your duty!. Your whole duty!. Do you want to go back to France?. Do you want to see the Consul?.. Are you out of funds?. We’ll repatriate you!. What’s your occupation?”

I’m losing patience with the old idiot!

"That’ll do!” I say… "That’s enough!.. Enough fooling around!. I want to go back to the lines!. All right?. I want to do my duty over again. That’s definite!. All alone, if necessary!.. I want to kill everything!.. Be careful, doc!

.. you won’t get away with that!.. I don’t want to go back to Paris!. I want to go back to the lines!. Like Lucien-the-Gent!.. Benoit-the-Mustache! ”

"But you can’t, my boy! You've got 80 %!”

"Then I’m going to murder you!” I snap back.

"Hand me a saber!”

And I dash to the poker that I see right near me… in the coal bucket. I’m going to run the phony through!. him and his goatee!..

Then four of them jump on me!. They knock me down!

they beat me up!. I kick and struggle!. I bite them!

They get the better of me!. they drag me. they wipe up the floor with me! I’m polishing the corridor!. held by my arms and legs… We pass an open bay window.. the place in the big dark salon!. Who’s that I’m seeing?. there in the back, all pale. All ghostly. "I give up! I give up!” I yell to my murderers… to those cowards pulling at me, knocking me out of joint..

Stop! Attention! I see them!.. I see them all’….Over there! in the back!. My old friends!. standing there in the dark!.. motionless!.. all together!.. one.. two.. three. four. five. six!. standing straight up! "Hello!” I yell to them! "Hello! Hi, men! Hello all..Stand up, my hearties!”. I absolutely saw them! Ah! that’s a fact! Motionless! just standing there! Nestor, not so tall, in the back of the room. with his big head cut off, in his hands!. he was carrying it on his belly!. a pimp from the Leicester!. he’d left the week before!. And Big Fatso next to him!. and Motorbike Fred!.. and Little-Arm Pierrot!.. And Pretty-Kiss Jojo!.. And No-Dough Rene, with his belly wide open!. They were all bleeding somewhere!. That was the queer thing!. And Lucien-the-Gent and Lily-Boy!. Fly-Killer in a Marine Light Infantry uniform!.. and Redheaded Lu as an artilleryman!. all lined up perfectly at the back of the salon! in the darkness. they weren’t saying anything!. all standing there!.. in uniform but bareheaded.. Their faces were all pale!. white. white… as if there were livid glints under their skins… a gleam..

"Hi, men!” I call again! "Hi, men!..hi, chumps! hi, buddies!.. how’s it going in there?”

They don’t answer. They don’t move!..

"Shit, they’re frozen!”

I drag everyone along with me!.. I want to go and talk to them myself! talk to them from close up!.. right to their faces. Ah! no use gripping me!. I’m stronger than anything! They twist me!.. I scream!.. at least fourteen clerks!. and two. three old maids!. who grab me by the balls!.. I’ve got the strength of ten!.. the whole staff!.. the ushers!. I drag them along! The whole human bundle!. toward the back!.. the dark!.. I want to talk to my pals!

.. where they’re standing all bleeding!.. all pale there!. at attention. I want to touch them!. It’s done!. I touch them!. They’ve disappeared!. Hell!. What d’you know! I yell it out loud!. A fake!. Another low-down lousy trick!

.. They’ve fled!.. evaporated!. Their tough luck, damn it!.. They’ll pay!.. They won’t find anyone in the big Hole!

They’re all cannon fodder!. I’d recognized all of them!

All the pals from the Leicester!. They’d seen me, too!

They simply disappeared!. With their guts around their waists. in the back of the Consulate room!..

"Come on! downstairs!.. go on down!.. Get him out of here!”

That’s how I’m treated! how the ushers do their job! Ah! but it’s a fight! I want to stay there on the floor, musing, thinking. I throw myself under a bench. They grab me, yank me, pull me apart. Ah! they’re furious! I’ve driven them to the limit! Even the dear, kind doctor… No one’s got any patience left!.. All of them charge at me together!.. All the Consul’s employees!.. all of them furious, men, women, girls!.. I stagger! I roll! I collapse!.. I go crashing down to the bottom of the stairs!.. “Vive la Franee!” I yell in spite of it all.. Vive Bedford Square!.. Vive VAngleterre!”

"Get out!.. Get out!” they yell back.. That’s how they answer me!. And they all start viciously tearing at me again!

.. pulling me apart!.. ripping my jacket!.. the ushers, the secretaries, the vice-consul, the Consul himself!..

"I’m the Consul! ” he warns me.

Ah! the dog!.. He wears glasses like the rest of them!.. He comes to insult me!..

"Get the hell out of here, you bum! ”

Impossible to be cruder.

"You’re being coarse!” I answer. "Hurray for the French Army! ”

Ah! he won’t stand for that! he rears! he stamps! rage! he jumps up and down!..

"Get him out of here!.. Get him out! ” he says to the four "commissioners” on duty.. Real huskies, Herculeses, who act then and there!.. I’m lifted up!.. The door wide open!.. The street!.. I leave in a trajectory!.. A projectile!.. I have a commanding view!.. Hanging in the air!.. A rocket!.. I soar high above the sidewalk, a new weapon, over the crowd!

.. and plop!.. I fall smack into it!.. right into the Russians.. Ah! a mess!.. They gurgle awful when they get me!.. I’ve knocked five of them clean out!.. They’re lying there!

all five!.. The women start pounding me!.. tearing away what’s left!.. I stagger into their bellies.. emigrants with kerchiefs, peasants bound for America… I’m being sworn at by an entire people!.. I can’t free myself from the tangle of limbs and bodies. I walk on the bodies lying there.. People are walking all over one another.. The bodies are yelling at me horribly, in Russian, in Italian, in Czech. The meanest loudest bellyacher lying there knocked over is a little Chinaman, a little guy in a gray silk robe with a thick roll of papyrus stuck under him, a big papyrus with seals! he picks it all up in a fury, he stands up. and his umbrella and his big artist’s hat.. his chestnut stove.. he adjusts his bow!.. and he starts giving me hell!.. He takes me aside!.. He was a Frenchman, and no mistake!.. not the slighest accent… dressed up like a Chinaman!..

At first I stood there dumfounded.. then I pulled myself together.. and then I let him have it!..

"You stinker!.. Keep quiet!” I snap at him.

"You vandal! You hooligan!” he answers back.

"Who’re you talking to?” I ask.

"To a brute!.. to a murderer! ”

"You’re quite right, Monsieur!”.. I agree with him right off! I go him one better!.. Am I proud of being a murderer!

.. Ah! he hit it on the head! Boy, have I killed!.. Let him say it!.. Ah! and how!.. Ah! I’m rarin’ to go!.. I start reeling it off!.. "I killed ten of ’em!.. I killed a thousand!

.. I fell from the sky!.. You saw it! you saw with your own eyes, you phony Chink! ”… Boy, am I laughing!.. What an act!.. "You stinker!” I was yelling in the middle of Bedford Square!.. We were having a good time now!.. not only me… the whole crowd!..

Then I take a good look at the little hothead.. I begin to get the feeling he’s not so dumb as the others… I gn.b hold of him! Whoop! I drag him along!.. by the sleeve.. This time it’s me taking the initiative!.. I had something to say to him!.. We’re still being shoved and whirled around.. flattened.. rolled.. finally pushed out!.. He starts adjusting his hat.. with its big brim… I had to explain things to him.. confess in detail!.. I suddenly felt the urge!.. it was also a kind of excuse… to let him know how things stand!. everything that’s happened to me.. and that it’s out of the ordinary!.. some of the whys and wherefores of my trouble!.. so that I shouldn’t keep the whole business for myself.. He reties his bow!.. very carefully.. We’d sat down on the curb under the sycamore on the square..

"Hmm!.. Hmm!”. he kept saying as I told my story.. pretty sceptical, I could see! He had doubts about what I was telling him.. "Listen to that big talk!” he was thinking.. "a young man showing off. wanting to dazzle an old fellow like me!” Ah! still and all I wanted to convince him! I’m stubborn about it! So I start all over from the beginning!.. How at the Hazebrouck Hospital they thought my leg was done for, that they were ready to amputate it.. and my arm at the same time!.. That shows what a beating I’d taken.. my head, besides. meningitis… a small splinter in my left ear.. it was so serious and feverish that they wondered from one day to the next.. on the verge of going haywire, just about ready to kick off.. I’d made a real friend in the hospital ward in Hazebrouck.. Saint Eustache Ward!.. exactly!

.. Raoul Farcy, left hand wounded.. Raoul Farcy of the 2nd African Battalion.. Like me!.. same ward.. two beds away! Saint Eustache Ward.. They operated on his hand. He also yelled the same thing after his operation… He took a liking to me. we’d made great plans.. We were exactly the same age. "We’ll both go to London!”.. It was settled!.. He talked about when it would be over!.. He was looking forward to it for the winter!..

"You’ll get an idea at Uncle Cascade’s!.. about the way things work!.. You’ll see something of life!.. You’ll see his place!.. Uncle Cascade’s been in the African Battalion too!” He was always talking about this Cascade.. In short, bright prospects!.. Real attractive plans!.. I needed some.. Life looked shitty to me!.. I was even falling more and more to pieces!.. Saint Eustache Ward!.. Pus was coming out of me everywhere!.. They’d done three eburnations of the humerus and the tibia, all of that had been attacked… I had my fun I’m telling you! and then the drains, tents and plasters. bits of bone pasted together… it hurt so much that I’d howl almost every night.. Finally, little by little like that, from one good plan to another, it was Raoul who really perked me up!.. by morale, got to admit it! I needed it!

"Don’t worry, pal!.. Don’t worry!”.. that’s how he used to talk to me.. "We’ll never come back here again!. Just wait’ll you see London!.. You’ll get a hell of a lift!.. Wait’ll I’m out on convalescence!” It was really swell of him.

I was being nicely encouraged along the sores and sutures.. and I was getting my share of them!.. Please believe me.. Then crash!.. it all collapsed!.. One morning they come asking for Raoul Farcy!.. He’d been in another ward having his wound dressed and was on his way back.. The military police want him and take him away!.. handcuffs!..

"Where are you going?” I blurt it out!.. "Down with the cops!” he yells to me.. "Down with the cops!”.. right in front of the whole hospital.. and he reminds me from way across the room.. with the cops dragging him.. "Cascade! you hear!.. Cascade!.. Don’t crap around! Down with the cops!”.. Those were his words!.. the last I heard.. That same evening we learned the rest.. Court-martialed!.. They let him have it two days later!.. Raoul Farcy.. self-inflicted wound!.. 2nd African!.. Maybe it was true, maybe it wasn’t!

.. They do as they like!.. They don’t worry too much.. A detachment came up, convalescents from the hospital, they marched in front of his body.. They shot him at dawn, in the courtyard, the Barnabe courtyard, the name of the military prison. He didn’t break down. "Down with the cops! ” he yelled at them as they fired. That’s the story.

Ah! that really made me feel bad.. Not much affects me.. Me, a little chump by birth, son of my parents, working people, submissive, decent, good-natured… he’d taught me a thing or two, opened my eyes, I missed him, got to admit it.. Raoul… he wasn’t much when it came to writing… I wrote everything for him.. with my left hand… I was the one who always wrote to London, to his Uncle Cascade.. Cascade Farcy.. two letters a week.. Cascade Farcy, Leicester Street… it was all settled.. He was expecting both of us.. absolutely, fully agreed!.. We were supposed to get leave at the same time, we were married there.. both of us.. to English girls! all phony!.. and with papers, licenses, everything!.. Everything was attended to.. fixed up! nice and faked! and then crash!.. Raoul! some break!.. With me just getting a little better… I didn’t die, after all.. Shit! Tough luck!.. I recovered… I wrote to his uncle! Cascade Farcy, Leicester Street…

"Come! ” he wrote right back.. "Come, I want to talk to you!” And he knew me only from the letters!.. Ah! I was scared about Raoul. I was so panicky I was pissing in my pants!.. He’d disgusted me with the army!.. "Don’t go home! ” he’d also yelled at the last moment.. "They’ll nab you!.. Just take a look!.. They’re sweeping out the crumbs!”… He meant himself..

"Go to London!.. Don’t forget Cascade! ”… Ah! those were his very words!.. They haunted me! his last words!..

That pulled me through!.. I was stubborn… "Come!.. Come!”.. All I thought about was London!.. Then the three months of convalescence.. Ah! no cold feet, I shipped off. I’m invited! I take advantage! the right moment! luck!

I arrive!.. Ah! a nice atmosphere!.. Ah! real brothers… pals to the death.. those are the words for it!. Cascade asks me for news right away… I explain to Cascade about Raoul.. Boy, it knocked him over!.. He made me explain it at least ten times in a row!.. He didn’t believe it!.. He never got tired of my explanation!.. had to start all over!.. then again!.. he really loved him like a son!.. Raoul Farcy… it staggered him!.. That was my arrival in London!. providential circumstances.. my luck to have known Raoui, poor Raoul, and his Uncle Cascade..

I tell my story to the Chinaman, sitting on the curb. I wanted him to know all about it… it did me good.

"Now you know what’s happened to me!.. It’s your turn now!.. Tell me your story!.. I’ll tell you the rest later on!

I’ve got lots left!.. I can’t tell you everything all at once!

.. just falling on your head that way!.. in confidence!”

Ah! it sure was funny!.. Time out for a laugh!

"You realize,” I add, "that he’d have liked to hand everything over to Raoul. the whole works… all his business. the entire Leicester. He’d have gone off to the Midi, that was Cascade’s plan… to grow daisies. that was what he had in mind.. The Leicester’s no joke! overworking day and night.. needs quite a guy to keep it going!.. It’s like running an army!”

My Chinaman didn’t answer.

Ah! it was getting annoying.

"Say, guy! You don’t talk much!” I said.. "You’re not going to double-cross me maybe?”

The little stinker suddenly got me worried. Had I talked too much?

"Oh! don’t worry, young man!. I’m far too concerned with my personal enterprises! I’ve got other things on my mind than making trouble for you!.. I’m no longer a child! Perhaps you’ve noticed it!.. A plaything of passion!.. A victim of enthusiasms! Thank God! I’m no longer a spring chicken! Young, effervescent! not an acrobat whisking hither and yon! God no! Rubbish!.. Be careful! Don’t be contemptuous! Clothes make the man! ”

My phony Chinaman was starting to strut.

"You were speaking of quality! well, well! a while ago!.. Regarding those poor people!.. You don’t have the slightest idea. I understood at once!.. You’ll learn to know me!.. Perhaps!”

And the little superior smile..

"I don’t want to intimidate you!.. Oh! no intention!.. To dazzle you with my scientific and noble titles!.. Certainly not!

Weakness!.. An old man’s weakness you’re thinking! ”… He was meditating.. "What will you do with your opportunity, young man?.. You’re a hero, it seems.. so you claim!

Hm! A war hero!. An easy prey!.. A heroic plaything!

.. A child!”

I’d annoyed him.

"At your age everything is permissible!.. Valor! Valor!.. As for me, and don’t forget it, I’ve other fish to fry than to go rushing under tanks!.. I’ve been through all the ordeals!.. All!..The war is merely fireworks! Life is short!..An amusement!.. What remains of it?”.. He whispers into my ear.. "Nothing, eh?”

He’s enjoying the effect… He brushes away my whole confession with a flip of his hand..

"In short, you teach me nothing!”

The windbag.

"Listen to me! You have everything to learn! Are you in-itiable?”

Initiable?

"Just what am I?.. Don’t you know?.. I attract you.. You entrust me with your secrets? Is it my robe?.. Are you captivated by my fluid?.. so soon?”

I look idiotic.

"A Frenchman! indeed I am! Be careful!.. And of good stock! I flatter myself! But without boasting! And that’s how it is! a just pride!.. But initiated! That’s another matter! Ah! that’s the heart of it! I’ve done much for my country!.. An explorer, my young friend!.. An explorer.. Must I die?.. Look at my costume!.. Initiated, young man!.. Initiated!” He comes closer, he whispers it to me.. eagerly! rattling away!..

"Tibet! Ah, Tibet! I dreamed of it.. Yes!.. I dreamed of it!.. I admit… a grave crime… at the first calls of the horn!

.. In the riflery, young man.. Riflery!.. Reserve officer!.. to go back into service!.. in my fifty-seventh year!.. You’ll see it on my record. to run and offer myself to Gallieni..

I knew him!.. At the Polytechnic!.. And then.. then I thought it over.. I’ve got better things to do! with my gifts!

.. my work! my labors!.. to perish just at that moment when the darkness is rent asunder?.. You’ll know later on!.. Trivial duty!.. it would be suicide!.. and what a suicide!.. Perhaps you'll learn about it some day. Be careful!. down to business!.. this is me! ”

He hands me his card.

HERVE SOSTHENE DE RODIENCOURT

Certified Mining-Prospector Explorer of Occult Hearths Initiated Engineer

"Doesn’t that name mean anything to you? Obviously!”

I was nonplused..

"I suspected so.. Young and ignorant!.. That explains it!.. One goes with the other! I, Monsieur, am Tibet!.. Knowledge about Tibet? All knowledge about Tibet? Here! You understand!. it’s all here!”

He taps his forehead.

"Didn’t you follow the Bonvallot Mission?.. No?.. Don’t you know anything?”

He looks me up and down.

"Bonvallot?.. Strange!.. Strange! ”

He thinks it over.

"All in all, so much the better!”., in my ear: "What a charlatan that Bonvallot!.. What a scoundrel!.. That’s all!

.. Just between us!.. A clown!.. He’s never seen Tibet. What a braggart.. He, the Gaourisankar? Some joke!” He squeals with laughter just thinking about it! about Bonvallot! What a faker!.. That damned Bonvallot!.. An agent of England!.. of the Trusts!.. The biggest international bandit in the world! Gaourisankar! 7,022 meters!.. It’s all clear! Bonvallot, corrupt.. What a traitor!

I take the same tone. I approve… I sneer..

"Boy oh boy! What a phony! disgusting, that Bonvallot!”

Ah! he was hipped on the Bonvallot in question, he kept at it! it gave him the evil eye, the murderous eye, just talking about him!.. about that awful Bonvallot!.. and I know something about looks!

"Do I interest you? Or am I boring you?.. Tell me frankly!

You probably need girls! You’re not disembodied? The spell of buttocks gets you?.. Voluptuousness!. Sighs!”

Ah! I make him sick! all of a sudden!.. Bah! he spits!.. he shoves me with Bonvallot! Ah! into the same boat!.. a foul pair! and it was all his idea! there was nothing lecherous about me!

So as a result of walking and talking all around the square we were in front of the Consulate again.. where we’d met.. head-on!.. the Consulate of the Czar.. The huge flag with the black eagle was floating high above the crowds.. teeming, roaring.. they were all waiting for visas. A real army now, scratching themselves, spitting, cursing! an enormous din..

"You’ve never gone exploring?” he deigns to inquire.

"No.. not much.”

I admit.

"Are you really looking for work?”

"Ah! I sure am! ”

"Can you ride a horse?”

What a question!

"Hah! and how! take it from me! I’ll say I can! When it comes to horses I can do anything! I can saddle ’em! water ’em! make ’em trot! gallop! leap! pass! waltz!.. Whatever you like!..And references, eh! Five years!..I’ve slept with horses! eaten with ’em! I’ve eaten their droppings! I’ve still got a mouthful! That shows you! that shows you! I’m still rearing! kicking! I’m almost a horse myself! from me to you! just between us! more than half!.. I had to! Is that enough for you?”

"Fine! Fine!”

I whinny so he’ll understand me, so he won’t go thinking I’m lying.

Ah! a deep impression!

"I think that ought to do.”

He concedes the point. And then he gets all worried again. "Ah! but you’re a commoner!”

Another shift! something else bothering him.

"You’re not born! obviously!” He stressed "born”…"no noble blood?”

Commoner? I didn’t get it.. It was about a job..

"Your mother and father?. common people?”

The nerve!

"What about you, you big ape?”

"Sh! Sh! No insult!.. You’re unaware of the full implication!”

I listen to him.

"Just consider the question of ancestors… for me it’s the cult!.. The Myth!.. The cult of blood!.. The Cult of the Dead!.. Do you understand me?”

I’m ready to try.. I try anything..

"But watch out! Don’t be carried away! Beware! Beware! The Tragedy of China! Admitting everyone! Promiscuities! All the ancestors! Good Lord!.. All at the same time! Anyone!

.. High and low!.. Discriminate! Let’s discriminate!.. Catastrophe! ”

Wild-eyed.

"Don’t you know?”

I don’t know anything..

"They venerate any dead person in China! any ancestor! What a mistake! How disgusting!”

Ah! the Chinese are preposterous! what morons!

"China’s washed up!.. washed up! young man! and I know why!”

He knows everything.

"All the dead! They worship them all. It’s very simple! All! it’s a fact! I’m telling you! Their heaven? A brothel! That’s the result!”

Naturally.

"A casastrophe! It’s inevitable! Just imagine!.. They adore their housemaids, their ancient priestesses, their queens, their goddesses, their whores, all of them, a hodgepodge! their cowards! their heroes, their bloated commoners as well as their generals! all of them jumbled up together! Their forgers with the police, their bankers along with their judges! their scholars with their rickshaw men! Nullity, my friend! nullity! That’s what happens!”

Ah! the awful promiscuity drove him wild! he was making broad gestures, people were looking at us..

He didn’t give a damn! Nothing stopped him! He was off!

"No, my friend! You must choose! Believe me!.. the lowly die and stay dead! Such is the will of justice!.. It must be so!

.. Otherwise foulness triumphs!.. Do you understand me?

Your grandmother, for example! Certainly an insignificant commoner, dead! She remains dead!.. quite dead!. she stops congesting! She no longer befouls the City! the High City of Memory!.. whereas take my grandfather! whom I venerate and most rightly! He relives within me! An entire existence of glory! of royal services!. I give him new life with my blood!.. Splendid! He survives within me.. You understand me?.. I cultify him!.. Pious and practical!.. Good blood will tell!.. Worship!.. All the devotions.. He serves me.. I serve him!.. I extend his being!. He makes mine illustrious!.. I idolize him!.. I carry him with me everywhere!

.. The cult of the dead!.. I’ll show him to you very soon!.. in his mystic person! He’s at home with my wife!.. He’s been around the world with us three times! in his traveling cenotaph! ”

He looks around, right and left.. Ah! he’s suspicious of the passers-by!

"He’s flawlessly mummified! consecrated! You’ll see him with your own eyes! ”

That looks promising.

He’s summing up.

"I take from China what’s necessary!.. Not everything.”

That’s luck!..

"Ah! let’s get back to you, my child!.. Here’s your chance!

.. You fall from the sky!”

It’s working out..

"A real horseman!. A Centaur!.. The two of us! Lowborn, to be sure! But what difference? You will mold yourself into nobility! That’s all! No valid ancestors? We’ll attend to that! You’ll cultify mine! I’ll transmute him toward you! a little! just what’s necessary!.. I’ll lend you a few arms!.. the coat’s big enough!.. Achille Norbert! 26 quarters!.. A fiber of my lineage! I’ll lend you a fiber!.. That’s it! a fiber!

.. 1*11 dub you knight! You’ll wave my standard!.. but not with that face!.. Oh! what a scowl!.. All for the Faith! young man! the Faith!”

He yells it out loud.. "All for the Faith! ”

"Our motto! ’All for the Faith! Rodiencourt! ’ Council of Poitou! 1114!.. That’s not yesterday!”

I’m pleased for his sake!..

"It’s up to the two of us! ” he grabs me by the arm.. "All for the Faith!.. I want to use you! My next mission! My great work!.. But listen!.. I want a whole cavalry!.. Pay close attention! thirty porters! A hundred fifty horses! The cost of it!.. A matter of 200,000 piasters! at the very least!

what’s the difference!.. We won’t haggle!.. the goal is worth any sacrifice!.. To be sure!. When you know!.. What an expedition!”

Ah! there’s an idea for you!

"Oh! You can count on me!. day and night!.. I’ve got cavalry in my blood!.. I can boast about it!.. Saddle horses! draft horses!.. escort horses!”

I’m showing off.

"Light horses!. Bridle horses and remounts!. Mizzen horses! Parade horses!.. Equal to all occasions!.. They won’t be able to teach me anything in China about horses, horsemanship, its ceremonies, its gear, its problems! I’ve got it in my bones, I’ve fallen off horses thousands of times!”

"Young man! I appoint you Master of the Horse! Gonfalon of my caravan! Ah! we haven’t finished!.. There’s a God for barbarians! Your folly has most definitely thrown you into the heart of fortune! Into my arms, young man! into my arms! ” He stood back a bit to contemplate me more leisurely… "Your head is covered!”

I didn’t have a hat.

"Covered! Covered with Destiny! Perfectly! There! the aura! there! I see it!.. What a fine surprise! Stop moving! ”

He saw it on me! He described it to me in the air! a little circle around my head!

"What a destiny!. What a symbol!. Oh! you can’t understand! Obviously! Opaque! Opaque but radiant!”

Ah, I disappoint him again! Ah, it made him lose all patience to see such fine gifts lost, wasted on such a silly head!..

"Splendidly endowed! That’s a fact!”

He insisted. He saw it all!.. I kept amazing him!.

I cut it short.. time to get started!

"Well? So it’s definite, Monsieur? Agreed? Decided? What day! What time!”

I was impatient. that was enough monkey-business! down to action! off to life, death! with my halo or not!

"Oh! how nervous you are, young man! Easy does it! It’ll come!.. Keep your head! Sh! Stop where you are! It seems to me someone’s listening to us that we’re being spied upon all around!.. There are paid traitors everywhere! ”

"Paid by who?”

"Child! Child!”

He was taking pity on me.

"Are you aware that things happen of which you haven’t the slightest suspicion?”

"Oh! I believe you all right!.. Oh! I believe you! ”

He signals to me to keep still.

We were caught in the crowd again.. the whole mob from the consulates.. squashed against the railings. the raging throng around us.. the waiting for visas!.. holding their ground, shoved into one another!. They were trying to find some possible idiom, the better to scream at one another in their delirium, their rage at being kneaded, torn apart.. But it was no go!. They came from too far away in the universe! from countries too strange, too distant.. They didn’t have a shit in common… a good shitty insult, nice and drippy, fat, enormous, reeking. They were quibbling, jabbering, shriveled up, gasping and struggling!. They weren’t getting anywhere! All the same the two of us there were approaching the door saying nothing.. borne up by the surge!.. our turn was really going to come.. maybe we’d get knocked around a few more times..

"I wonder what your name is?”

The question occurs to him all of a sudden.

"Ferdinand! you may call me by my first name!”

"Well, Ferdinand, my friend, we’ll come back another time! ”

"But we’re getting inside, Monsieur! We’ll lose our turn!” "Lose it? Lose it? Listen to him! A fine story!.. You young scapegrace, do you have any idea what the visa may cost? our visa?”

"How do I know!”

The lunatic!

"Madrapore via Kiev? Taranrog? Kaboul? Mongolia?”

"Not at all!”

"Twenty-seven pounds! At least! Do you have that sum?” "No, Monsieur!”

"Neither do I!”

Ah! it all collapses! About face!

We work our way out of the crowd! With a lot of trouble! What a disappointment!

Oh! but it doesn’t bother him at all!.. not the least bit put out!

“Young man, we’ve made contact! Ah! making contact! that’s the main thing! ”

He goes into ecstasies.

"In touch with the Waves, Ferdinand! the approach! the approach! It’s the approach that counts!. Don’t you feel right here the exhalations summoning from Tibet? A kind of caress? starting at the consulate railing?.. from behind all these people?… They’re emanating, I assure you! They’re emanating! Turn away from that side!”

He makes me pivot about… he pivots, too.. I didn’t feel a thing!..

"You’re opaque!.. still opaque!.. You’ll get over it!”

He sighs.. Still and all I do disappoint him a little.

"Can’t be helped! Can’t be helped!.. let’s leave! we’ll come back in a better frame of mind! I’ll initiate you a little, later on! Come over here!.. off to the side!.. so that you know where we are!.. so that I can explain to you!.. You don’t know anything!.. You must!”

We got away from the crowd, we were going toward Tottenham… He was mincing along in his fake Chinese costume. He opens his umbrella, he closes it a couple of minutes later.

"The sidereal shower!” he points out.. "It was time! Exactly thirty-seven minutes after sunset! ”

At Selfridge’s there was the row of shopwindows.. he turned around rather often.. not very well-behaved in the street.. little glances at young women..

"Nice child!.. Nice child!.. Smile of the earth! And of the sky!.. If only I were your age!”

Kidding around all of a sudden.

He admitted being fifty-seven… He was older than that.. his hair ink-black, and he wore it long like an artist.. but keen-eyed and confident.. His beautiful robe cramped him! he hopped along! it was a nuisance in the gutter… he had to tuqk it up! We went down Oxford and Shaftesbury. all along the shopwindows… He chattering about one thing and another… I didn’t understand it all… I felt like getting rid of him, he was annoying me with his rigmarole… People were turning around to stare at us.. But I held on all the same.. Maybe there was a small chance that his leaving for Chira wasn’t all hokum!.. that he might take me along!.. that it might happen!

My heart was in my mouth at the big crossings.. Because of the newsboys.. They were still hawking the same "special,” the morning’s.. the "Tragedy” in Greenwich!.. They were behind the times!.. I’d done better since that! hell!.. They were four days behind!.. they were so excited about the "Greenwich Tragedy” that they’d stopped talking about the war.. Boy, that was some mess! It was all rolling around in my head.. Finally it started rolling too fast! All I could understand was the headache.. More than I needed, and well! I just stopped bothering about my anxiety..

Old Foxy kept on talking!.. He was attracting attention in the crowd!.. Nobody asked to see his papers.. That was the amazing thing!.. The kids, the tarts, the soldier-boys ran after him, pulled at him, played tricks on him!.. They came touching his dragon, pinching his robe, his behind. He defended himself with his umbrella, jokingly, he wasn’t annoyed.. We’d taken quite a stroll… all of Regent, all Totten.. almost the whole theatre district.. Finally, it was inevitable, we got caught among the hustlers!.. First Nini in front of the Twist whose beat was between Wardour and Marble Arch.. She sees me.. she winks at me. Peg-leg Berthe, who worked the theatres, spots me in front of the Daisy..

"Ah! ” she starts razzing. "Are you in the circus?.. Hurray for Punch and Judy! Ferdine!.. Hey! Ferdine!”

I don’t answer.

She tags after us.. and clop! clop! her peg-leg!.. I didn’t want to answer!.. she yells at me…

"Hey! stinker!.. stinker! ”

A lunatic.

It was starting to create a scene.

"Where are you taking him?” she shouts..

She’s hysterical.

I hurry along, I quicken my pace, we turn into a bystreet.. we give her the slip… He wasn’t bothered by such trifles.. He was probably used to being pestered like that, like some freak. He kept right on smiling. Besides his getup, he misbehaved in public.. ogling young girls, as I’ve said. He was insolent, almost provocative, he talked too loudly.

“How badly people dress, Ferdinand!”.. That’s what struck him.. “Undertakers’ assistants!.. a lot of undertakers’ assistants!.. look at the way they walk! how sinister-looking!

.. Do you mean to tell me that these people are going to win the war?.. ah! tell me another! You’re joking! No! Crying! But they won’t win anything at all! They’re already burying themselves!.. They’re through!.. They’re already dressed in black! They’re done for! Funerals! but they’ll have to be burned!.. have to be incinerated! I’m telling you!.. Bombs! They stink! All of them! Fit for the charnel house!”

A look of disgust!

"Worthless people!.. Clouds of cockroaches! ”

And I who don’t like anyone talking to me about bombs, fire, burning! Ah! take it easy! I cut him short..

“You talk too much, Monsieur Sosthene!.. It seems to me you don’t listen to anything! Come over here, dear Master!”

I drag him into a doorway, he’s got to listen to me, by God! the damned windbag!.. He’s not the only one who’s interesting!

"They’re looking for me!.. You hear me?.. They’re looking for me!.. Monsieur Sosthene!”

I let him have it straight!

"I’m wanted, you understand?.. they’re after me, dear Master!.. Monsieur China! You understand me now? I’m a murderer!.. A murderer! I’ve got to get away!.. They’re searching for me!”

“You?.. Oh! Searching for you?”

Ah! He bursts out laughing! Ah! It’s just too funny! Ah! that’s a good one!.. a real good one! He’s choking with laughter.

“But you’re drunk, young man! That’s the word' Raving drunk!.. A poet! a poet! You’re drunk!.. That’s your lookout! your lookout!”

That’s all he has to say.

"But I haven’t drunk anything!.. haven’t eaten everything!”

I protest! He’s the one who’s raving!

"All the more reason!.. All the more reason!.. Listen to me!”

Now he starts dragging me. He doesn’t want to stay in the doorway. As soon as we get outside he speeds up.. He’s tearing along in his cassock. big rush!.. the whole Strand.. Charing… We race along Villiers Street down below the station. the street that goes down to the Thames. Charing Cross, the station right above it.. the string of pubs… the whole slope. full of low dives.. Ginger. Three Swans.. Star.. Wellington. side by side, each bar an arcade… He heads for the Singapore, the saloon just in front of the tunnel… I still see the place, curlicue mosaics. festoons all over the ceiling. luminous artificial flowers. and the big player piano, a cyclone earthquake, that never stopped day or night, booming all through the street from Regent, Strand, to the bank of the river, it jounced the drinkers, shaking them up at all the bars, making them puke like crashing cymbals, with big hiccups, spin around dancing, falling over, oop! they’re gone, tearing off, wobble, crazy head to foot, from one sidewalk to the other! It’s sticky all along, gooey, sooty, the whole pavement slippery black.. you can’t see a thing, the drunk disappears in the fog. The mists from the river choke and swallow things… You can’t even see in the saloon, need brilliant lights… the bar’s lit by electric. lights shining under the bottles. Have to light up everything!.. Even the waitresses have bulbs, they’ve got little lamps in their hair.. You can see Sosthene’s a regular customer.. He waves hello to everyone..

They sit him down at a table right under the biggest Chandelier. Ah! he starts scowling. Something’s wrong..

"Be careful! the waitress!”

More suspicions.

"Two sodas, Beauty!” he orders.

"Tuppence! ” she answers.

"Lend me the two pennies!”.. Luckily I’ve got ’em!

He changes the conversation.

"I talk English like a pig!.. I grant you, you may say it! I agree!.. I can’t manage to pronounce their the or thou!'

He reminds me of Cascade when it comes to English, he was mulish about the too!

"And yet, young man, it’s not from lack of habit! It’s almost thirty-five years that I’ve been associating with the English!. And with all kinds, let me tell you!.. The good! the awful! the best! the rich! the well-to-do! the gay! the sad! the nabobs! the bums! the whole shebang!. beneath all skies! latitudes! They all say the\ I can guarantee you! In India! In China! in Malaya! Right here!.. The hell with it! I give up! I give up!.. No thou!.. No the… I think in French, I pronounce in French! French is all I talk!.. Got to take me as I am! That’s what I’m like! Nothing to be done about it!.. I’ll never learn their language!.. It’s angry with me!.. That’s it!.. It’s angry with me!.. It’s not the same with Hindustani! Ah! that’s different! I worship it! it’s my mother tongue! That’s another matter! It’s an ancestor… I wish you could hear me!.. I’m Sanskrit in my heart! in my fiber!.. There I’m initiated!.. That’s another matter! The way I talk Hindustani! Intimately!”

And then he leans over to my ear confidentially though he brays like a donkey because of the piano.. You could probably have heard him from the street!.. The piano was playing the Merry Widow Waltz.. cymbals and storm! the whole thunder! It really was the popular tune!.. It was hard to understand what he was confiding, he was trying to outyell the piano… it was a struggle..

"Water alone is propitious, young man!.. You stare at me… I amaze you!.. Propitious, I’ll have you understand!.. Propitious to the great call of the waves!.. Drink lots of water!.. Do as I do!.. We were both born of Amphitrite! Therefore, fish! To be sure, fish! Ah! ah that’s it! Fish and horsemen alike!.. Assuredly! Dolphin! Monsieur Ferdinand! Certainly dolphins!”

He was drunk.

"Dolphins of the mountains!.. Dolphins of the purple clouds!.. dolphins of Tibet!.. I see you!.. look! I see you!”

I was making him dreamy.. visioning..

"Would you go? imagine! Would you go riding the dolphins of the beery sea? The elf of the sticky⁷ stout?”

He stops.

"Stout!” he orders. "Waitress, two beers! Just between us, isn’t it horrible?”

He continues…

"What a heresy! an aberrant monster!”

He’s taking it to heart.

"Don’t let anything astonish you!.. Everything bogs down, rots in this country because of the heavy stout! That’s the downright truth!.. Hogwash and muck!.. But on the other hand, you see all the water-drinkers galloping everywhere, all around the universe! Take my word for it! I assure you! Just look at me, Sosth£ne! A Knight of the Waves! five and six times around the world! A water-drinker! your humble servant!”

"Waitress! another one! ”

The waitress didn’t bring anything at all, she knew him.. she let him rant.

"No more joking!.. Be careful! No blundering! Washing is another matter! I rarely wash! ”

I suspected so.

"Let me explain… Achille Norbert, for example, washed himself only twice in the course of his entire existence and he lived 102 years! You’ll read about it in his letters! I’ve had them bound with his arms! Master of the King’s Artillery! Let me explain!.. Without any shame! Water? Hmph! Inside? Fine! Wonderful! Outside? No go! That’s a different matter!”

Then another worry starts eating him, another bee in his bonnet! After the way it’s been raining! the awful weather outside.. it’s fogging and raining at the same time! you can’t see three yards away! He’s fed up! he’s going to cry out to the sky! to curse it! he opens the door wide! He addresses the sky!

"Sulphurous and mournful city! City of the wet devil! Demonic city of the weak! but I am strong! Achille! Thank you! ”

The customers are yelling! He closes the door, he comes back to the table.

"All great dreams are born in London, young man! Don't forget it! you don’t know London! From the mirror of its gray waters!.. way down there at the mercy of its river.. Ah! that’s a fact! Didn’t you know that?.. Isn’t there anything you know? The admirable Vega declares it quite expressly! Canto 14! Verse 9-. The Charm!”

He leans forward to my ear.

"Are you ignorant of everything?”

"Yes.”

"India?”

I admit..

"So you know nothing at all! I suspected!.. Hm! Hm! You’ll have trouble!”

It sounded nuts.

"Oh! of course!”

"The devil? You understand me?”

"Sure, I believe you.”

"Do you follow me?”

"Of course!”

The drunks were raising hell at the bar, it was a real din plus the player piano!.. So he yells in my ear.. the really utterly confidential words..

"The Armadalis of Tibet? the flower of Tara-Tohe?.. You know nothing about that flower?.. Absolutely nothing?”

He stares at me to see if I’m hesitant. he's suspicious.. "Oh! not at all, Monsieur! I swear!”

"The Flower of the Magi?”

"No, really I don’t!”

"Well, / know it! I know where it is! the way to the Sanctuary!”

Ah! I sit there flabbergasted!

"But that’s nothing yet! Now listen closely! I, you hear me? I’ve approached the Armadalis of Tibet three consecutive times! Yes! the Tara-Tohe!.. It’s not where people think it is!.. Ah! not at all! ah! no indeed! No!.. No!”

Some joke!

"To mislead idiots! you, for example, where would you think it is? in the Convent of Arthampajar? Now I’ll tell one! nonsense! phew! phew! don’t hand me that!”

I was making him laugh.

"I know where they’re hiding the Armadalis of Tibet!.. Prospecting mercury quartz for the scoundrels in Calcutta… the Gem Proceeding Company.. Ah! those bloodsuckers! What bloodsuckers! Still they’ve been of use to me, after all!.. I’ve discovered everything! Chance! exactly!.. The secret of Things!”

Ah! it’s superb! I admire him more. Everything’s fine! My fingers go right into my nose now that I’ve got confidence. We’d have it easy since he’d discovered everything! I was rolling snotballs.

"I’ll have you read the passages! Verses 25 and 42 of the secret Vega!.. for the time being, sh!.. mum’s the word!

When we come to Mahe… the little monsoon port.. then I'll reveal everything to you!..Mahe! Karikal! of course!” "Miss! Miss! please two glasses of Bass! two glasses of Bass!” He was ordering two more glasses of beer.. His head must have been going round… his eyes shining.. cheekbones red.. imaginarily… He was tipsy with seltzer water, the waitress didn’t bring any stout or Bass! all we’d had was soda.

"So we’ll put into port at Mahe, as I was saying, then Delhi! You see it, don’t you?… the borders!.. the little Lama Raw-pidor!..Ah! watch out! What a rascal! A shrewd little article! I interest him 50 %!.. Greedy!.. Greedy!.. I’ll hook him later on!.. I’ll hook him!”

Things were shaping up.

"The whole Mission! Everything! You, the convoy! The porters! Off we go! Tara-Tohe’s ours! My boy! At the nose of the Universe! Exactly the word for it!.. At least twenty Missions at the present time!.. You understand?.. Dead sure!

.. Very secret! Flawless! Get it straight! the most austere initiates! at this very moment exploring! stirring up! rummaging through Tibet in all directions, north and south! They’re turning all the lamaseries inside out! Foiled! Not a word more! It would compromise everything! No! I won’t tell you anything more!.. Sh!.. The Gem Proceeding Company owes me, just imagine, $25,000 at the very least!.. For my quartz alone! and I’m not talking about the emeralds! or the ebonites! A fortune! my mercurous isocenes!.. The mere waste products of my prospectings! What if I presented my entire bill!. In short!.. A fantastic swindle!.. But we’ll talk about it another time!.. Here are the accounts!”

He rummages around in his cassock… He takes out a big roll… He spreads it on the table.. columns and columns of figures!.. What additions!.. staggering!..

"Credit!.. My credit! Read there! in red!.. 25,000.. right? 25,000.. more! and 75,000 for something else!..

dollars! dollars! more! credit! Hindu piasters!.. That tells you everything!.. ana pounds sterling!.. And my options!.. and that’s nothing!.. not a tenth! Trifles!.. Does that give you an inkling?.. What if Gem Proceeding should learn of my return?.. then it all goes wrong! Of course!.. the poor victim resurrected?.. The gentlemen learn of it!.. the scoundrels immediately take action!”

In my ear.

’'They all think I’m dead!.. buried!.. Some joke, young fellow!”

He beats his chest… it resounds..

"Then and there! They send their craftiest murderers out after us!.. They poison our wells! all our wells!.. all along our route!.. I know them! capable of anything! even before approaching the places!.. The Falls of Madrapore!.. We’ll perish murdered!.. In ambush! Pfft!.. It’s over!.. That tells everything!.. Those people stop at nothing!.. I know that crowd!.. The Viceroy? Pfft! one of the gang! Shuts his eyes, obviously! Thick as thieves! Wait! Wait!”

He starts searching again… he hesitates… He wants to give me real proof.. the utter importance of the great secret!.. entirely convincing!..

"Listen, Ferdinand, at this very moment the Brahmanic Consistories would offer me all the gold in the world!.. You hear me? All the gold in the world! that’s something! If I turned over to them all my plans and diagrams. the sketch of the route of the summits!.. Nothing doing! I’d tell them to go to hell!.. No go!.. mum’s the word!.. Ah! you see what we’re in for?”

Obviously it was serious.. Then he gets anxious again.. he frowns… all those people around us… the coming and going at the door.. Ah what a bother! the voices of the men drinking and arguing next to us.. He feels in another pocket, another lining… He decides to.. another roll… He unrolls it.. all over the table!.. a big parchment. He pushes the glasses aside.. It’s a huge map.. heights, surveys, ridges. full of mountains.. a wide river.. deep hollows.. dark abysses..

"There!” he points with his finger.. "that red cross!. there!.. that blue cross!.. Here! this one!.. all our stopping places!”

Ah! fine.. It’s the beginning!

"You understand me?”

Ah! of course, I understand!.. Maps, I know all about them! But watch out! I’m getting excited, I’m talking too much… If I go shooting my mouth off, it won’t look good… he won’t want to any more! He fumbles around in his linings. he takes out another piece of cardbord… a colored square.. "Here’s the Convent!.. You hear me?.. The Convent!” "Oh yes, oh yes! ”

I’m with him in everything.

"The place of Magic! ”

I bend forward to get a better look.

"Oh! perfectly!”

I stare.

"There we are!”

No doubt about it.

He murmurs to me.

"The Tara-Tohe!”

He’s in his stride.

"Ah! Ah!”

"The Flower of the Secret! ”

I’m pleased too.

"Moscow!. Lhasa!”. He’s going over it in his mind. He’s muttering our whole route!. possessed by it, imbued. "Listen to me, Moscow! Lhasa!.. another stage. two weeks here… the coast! We mobilize!.. our transport!.. our guides!. our letters of welcome!. Requisitioning of ponies!

.. You attend to the foraging!. I leave these matters to you!

.. I set out alone!.. I go away!.. I spend a few days in Swoboly, in the Province of Penwane!. The Pagoda with jade lazuli! Just a purification! I sign an agreement with Gow-pur, the Lama of the Brahmans.. Oh! a real bloodsucker!.. I bring him my prayer rolls. perfection itself… the praying wheel I invented.. 37 prayers all at once!.. automatic!.. I grant him exclusive rights!. Oh! he’s so eager!. All the customers of the Plateaus!.. He wants them all!.. everything for himself!..for him alone!.. What a demand!.. The whole Roof of the world!. Every Brahman becomes his customer!.. He lets us pass!.. He attends to our provisions!.. fifty-fifty!.. I his prayer wheels!.. He our corn meal!.. We barter! we can’t do anything without him!.. When you hear his name! Gowpur Rawpidor. Three bows! North! South! Southeast! ”

He shows me how… I execute them… I bend forward as he does.. twice.. three times..

He continues.

"You command our column!. Naturally!.. You pick me up on the way!. I’m purified!. Rawpidor accompanies us awhile.. Three stages!.. maybe two… He introduces us to his brigands… to the Chu bandits, to their chief executioner, so that they’ll let us pass.. Contributions, bows, gifts.. there we are! twelve more days of climbing!.. we’re on the site!.. We leave the level of moss.. and then the heaths! ”…

"We’re coming to the mystic slope… to the steeps of the great Masvanpur!. Our trails are starting!. At the Lazuli Rocks!. Be careful!.. The eyries of the Great Route.. We hear the Winds of the World!.. Our Convent’s not very far off! We’re on the very roof of the world!.. Very careful now!

.. You leave me for three weeks!.. maybe two. You go off discreetly.. very discreetly! absolutely alone!. absolutely without provisions!.. The spirits sustain you!.. feed you!.. The Spirits of the Snows!.. The heart of our trials.. where blow the winds of the world! The gusts sweep you up! cast you forth! plague you! tear you from the crests of the rocks! hurl you away! You cling! to the edge of the abyss!.. You creep along on all fours!. You hang on to the slopes. It’s Strength!.. Let the hurricanes crush you! don’t complain! all for the Faith! all for Strength.. More strength! in the heart of the Hurricanes of the World! You palpitate with the world! You have to get to the Grand Convent of the Great Shroud! The Supreme Lamasery.. Do you understand me? Dead or alive!”

Ah! that was all right with me.. "All for the Faith! ” I repeated. I was talking like him.. Dead or alive!

He’s promising me more and still more!

"The Tara-Tohe! verse 42! you see it! At last! It’s in front of you!.. What more can I say? There it is beneath your eyes!.. beneath your fingers!.. You contemplate it!.. You’ve undergone all the trials!.. Terrifying, to be sure! inexorable! no doubt about it!.. perhaps mortal!.. But what joy!. You enter the sanctuary!.. there!.. no farther!. No further doubt!.. You contemplate the Great Nest!.. the goal itself.. ‘Nest of Truth beneath the Roof of the World! beneath the Roof of the Snows!’. I’m translating literally.. Woupagu Sanskut! 'On the Beams of the Roof of the World’! Nest of the Snow-swallows!.. ‘Wiwopolgi’!.. and in this nest?”

Ah! he’s changing his mind! pulling back! Ah! what else was he going to tell me? imprudent!

"Don’t think I can’t hold my tongue!”

He looks me up and down, mistrustful, distrustful.

I wasn’t asking anything!

But immediately he’s off again! A haze! even more eagerly! sure about everything!

“The Tara-Tohe, flower of Dreams!.. Seven colors!.. The rainbow!.. Seven petals!.. Seven colors!.. exactly seven! The figure in Vega 72.. Remember that!.. the magical Tara-Tohe! The flower opens out in your hand! All the petals! with your heat! your faith! what a proof! Is that enough, do you think?”

It was more than I’d asked for.

“The secret?.. Seven petals!.. Seven colors!.. Be careful! The seven sins! What’s the color of your soul?”

He had me there!.. I had no idea…

Immediately he gets sore.

"Ah! You don’t know?.. Well, what then?.. Which petal are you going to choose?.. The green? the yellow? Blue? Indigo?”

Ah! what a jam! He’s hustling me, jostling me, plaguing me, like the winds of the world!

"That’s not all! Tara-Tohe! Charm of Being!.. The weight escapes from your body!.. You’ve seized the Flower!.. The Waves seize you, sweep you up in turn! They carry you off!.. they transpose you!.. wherever you wish!”

Well! well!

"You evolve!. you travel about in the atmosphere as you please for months.. months.. Weight no longer exists for you! You have entered…”

Ah! he doesn’t dare finish. he’s seized with terror.. it’s too serious! I reassure him… so he whispers it to me, murmurs it.. just for me alone.. but I can’t hear him!.. I can’t hear anything. on account of the player piano! He’s forced to yell it to me..

"… into the fourth dimension! ”

Ah! that was swell!

"Nobody can touch you any more!.. Reach you!. Put you into prison!.. You’re free! the Free Man of the Waves!

.. the darling of the strains of the world! You are, in a word, all music!. Harmony!”

Ah! that’s superb!.. Ah! I’m getting along fine!

"Ah! I can’t ask for anything better!. But say, we’re not in Tibet! ” I point out.. Maybe he’s being carried away?

"Not yet, young man!.. not yet.. ”

He looks at me angrily! what’s wrong with me that I should doubt?… I’m with him! I get enthusiastic again!

"Ah! I’m ready to leave!”

I reassure him again! Nothing holds me back! All for the Faith!.. I was thinking meanwhile of Matthew who was bound to be in a hurry. who wouldn’t hesitate a second about throwing us into the jug! Ah! I wanted anything so long as we went far away and right away!.. very far!.. as far as possible!. without a day’s delay!. So that we wouldn’t run into Matthew!.. for me that was the main thing!. with the magic Flower or not. to China!. to the devil!. wherever he liked!. But by God let’s get the hell away!

"Well, are we going?” I ask again.. I’m pretty patient, but all the same he’s beginning to irritate me.

"Sh! Sh!”

He pats me on the back of my neck. he calms me like a dog.

"Easy does it!.. Easy does it!.. you impetuous youngster!

.. Don’t get delirious! you’re getting worked up!”

He wasn’t ready yet! More delay! more hitches! he found me impulsive… he was busy with his tie. he was tangling up his bow… he had to think about it some more… ah, listen, an idea for me!

"Here’s something for you! Learn it for tomorrow!. I’m going to give you a lesson.. Don’t waste a minute. Prepare for your trials.. We’ll be seeing each other.. Now learn it by heart. repeat five or six times inhaling as little as possible!.. Tara-Tohe!. Madrapore!.. Armantala!.. Horpo-li!.. Horpoli!.. the most common one!.. And then evoke with all your might!.. ah! with all your might! Evoke in green! in jade green! As hard as you can!.. That’s a good beginning. Do it again especially at night!. These are the rudiments!. If you see any form appearing in your dreams, don’t hasten! no brusqueness… Concentrate!.. That’s all! Sniff at your first petal! as you close your eyes!.. Armantala

Horpoli!.. murmur this way.. Horpoli! Horpoli! that’s all.. murmur the name first! later on you’ll shout it! Concentrate!”

Ah! he slaps his forehead! Ah! he’d forgotten!

"Ah! I’ve got to leave you! Ah! my visits! Ah! what a scatterbrain! don’t follow me! I’m disappearing! remain here for a few minutes! let me go! I’m disappearing! Please be discreet!”

He smiles at me affectionately.

"Sh!”

Two fingers to his mouth!.. Big mystery!..

I was about to ask him whether it was really worth while, whether the whole thing was serious.

He cuts in!.. He hands me his card, his address.. everything. no discussion!

He leaves on tiptoe.. Near the door, ah! he changes his mind! about face! he comes back and whispers..

"Above all, don’t talk about Achille!.. to anyone!.. Achille Norbert! You hear me? Ah! to no one! the cult of the Dead!.. Oh! utterly secret!.. Absolutely between us… What jealousy!”

I reassure him.

"But tell me! where’ll I see you again?”.. Ah! I’m asking questions, "What day? What time?”

In short, he’s backing out.

"You’ll be led by the spirits!”

I call that nerve! He doesn’t wait…He turns about… Waves good-by all round! A casual gesture!.. He trots through the bar.. With the dragon on his rear.. He goes out the door.. The men at the bar are laughing.. They’re razzing him.. I don’t say a word. I don’t look.. I just sit.. I’m waiting for him to be far away.

All in all, I dragged around like that for two or three days… I didn’t want to go pestering him. Still, I had his address.. Rotherhithe… the section just after Poplar.. But I wasn’t too keen about it… I wanted to think it over some more.. whether there mightn’t be another way.. But I didn’t want to drag around all day long. one sidewalk to another.. to get nabbed by the cops.. I find a little boardinghouse in Beckton Lane, I lie down.. fall asleep… I wake up.. Ah! feeling better!.. My mind’s made up!. I say to myself, “All right, here’s my chance!.. I’ll pull him out of bed!” I hop into the bus.. the 17… I find his place right away.. right near the bus stop… 34 Rotherhithe Mansion… no different from the other houses. I look for his name on the box. I find it! Rodiencourt 4th floor. I ring. I climb up… Here I am!..

Someone half-opens… a head..

“What is it?”

“It’s me! Ferdinand! ” I call out.. "Ferdinand for Monsieur Sosthene!”

“Go away!.. Go away!.. Monsieur Sosthene is in bed!” Ah! it’s not easy!

And the door slams! violently!.. Sorry. none of that!.. I knock.. the head reappears… the person talks French but with an accent.. American..

“What do you want?”

"I want to see Sosthene.. Monsieur Sosthene!”

"But I’ve told you…”

"I’m Monsieur Sosthene’s horseman!” I insist.. "He’s my boss!.. I’m his standard-bearer! ”

Might have known about it!..

We look each other in the face.. She’s not so young any more.. Still and all, a pretty little mug!.. She must have been quite a number once upon a time.. You can see the remains. but among the wreckage!.. What powder! cheekbones blazing with rouge.. fiery hair, a big shock full of white and yellow streaks, all unkempt, falling over her nose..

She leaves the door partly open.

"Where are you coming from?” she asks me.

She keeps her broom in her hand.. She’s been cleaning.. I explain matters to her a little.. We get into conversation.. She’s loosening up.. all the same she’s defending her door.. She’s wiggling her behind a little… in the doorway, while talking to me.. she’s getting kittenish..

Finally what with one word and another she admits he’s not in.. that he left very early.. though that wasn’t like him..

She sort of murmurs, she’s boring me.. she talks somewhat like Sosth&ne… in confidential whispers… he taught her..

"Are you American?” I ask.

"Oh yes!.. from Minnesota! ”

And she laughs.

I want details.. I try to get her to talk about traveling.. since they’ve traveled so much..

She puts down her broom.

"Does he really know China? and India? the way he says? I think he’s bluffing me.”

"Oh yes! He knows all about them!”

And then a deep sigh!.. ah! enough to pierce your soul!

And bango! she leaps to my neck!.. it’s sudden!.. I’ve set it off! Damn it, I didn’t come for that!

I push her away.. she wiggles.. she grabs me..

"I’ll tell you about it!.. I’ll tell you about it, Good-looking! I’ll tell you everything!”

She wants me to kiss her.. she insists.. She’ll tell me everything…

She’s treacherous.

“Never believe him!”

Ah! that’s interesting..

I listen.

We sit down on the folding bed.. It’s a big paneled apartment just under the roof.. trunks.. chests all over the place.. made of wicker.. wood.. iron fittings.. huge ones, little ones, of all kinds and dimensions.. Still more trunks.. open.. closed… on top of one another.. fabrics everywhere.. Chinese robes.. pottery.. books all around.. scrolls.. parchments.. lying around… a terrific disorder.. almost like Claben’s place… I get off the bed… I prefer the armchair.. embroidered with lotus flowers and what not.. more chests filled with scrolls.. they’re overflowing.. falling all over the place..

She goes back to her housework.. She rummages in a closet.

I call out to her.. “So you travel a lot?”

That interests me.

“You mean he never stops!”

She sighs again, her hair falls over her face.. She starts sweeping.. She whips up a really big cloud.. She sneezes! that’s enough!.. she’s tired… she sits down..

“Are you from Paris?”

A question.

It makes her chuckle, she thinks it’s funny that I’m from Paris.. I must be lecherous…

“I think you’re good-looking! ” she remarks.

Ah! A hot bunny! I see what’s coming, I talk about something else…

"Have you known him a long time?”

"Since we’ve been married!.. What a joke! It’ll be thirty-two years Christmas! That’s not yesterday! ”

"You’ve seen a lot of countries!”

That’s the only thing that gets me excited.

"Come over here, Good-looking!”

She invites me next to her.

"I’ll tell you the whole story! ”

Fine, very good!..

"You’re just a big bad boy, too!”

She starts pawing around!.. I don’t respond much.. all I want is details about India, etc…

"So he’ll be leaving soon?”

"Ohyes! oh yes! Darling!”

She sets the whole bed clinking.. with her fidgeting.. rubbing on the edge of it!.. She takes off her apron.. she tosses it up in the air! ah! she’s pretty nervous! she dashes off to put on some powder.. She comes right back.. She’s getting me tired…

She’s certainly not pleased that I’m not responding to her cuddling. She snorts down my neck, pecks at my eyes. I manage her as best I can… she overpowers me.. I’m being hugged.. covered up..

"Ah! what a little lecher!” she exclaims.. "Oh! he’s as lecherous as Sosthene! He’s come to seduce a poor little woman and then he’ll drop her, won’t he?.. Oh! the little scoundrel!.. the rascal! ”

Making a scene already!.. A quarter of an hour that I’ve known her! I calm her down a bit.. I kiss her right in her makeup! on her rouged cheekbone!

"Are you bored with me? Tell me, you little trifler!”

What could I answer?

I went back to kissing! I didn’t want a scene!

"So you’re going to torture me?”., she whispers passionately.

I don’t feel like torturing her!..

"You’ve suffered too, haven’t you?… I can see it in your eyes! ”

She pulls me toward her, she lifts up my eyelids… to look at the blueness of my eyes.. she’s hurting me! she’s a passionate number.. that puts her into a trance! she quivers, slips out, escapes!..

"I’m going to make some tea for you, sweetheart!.. Samovar tea!”

She disappears.. she’s busy in the back.. fussing around.. in the nook behind the partition.. she’s rattling the pots.. I take another look at the decor.. Chinese stuff everywhere.. from India.. ibises.. more papers, trunkfuls… chests.. and buddhas… a whole lotus tapestry.. and warriors.. javelins..

"Is he coming back?” I call out.

"Are you bored?” she answers.

Here she comes, balancing the samovar.. She goes back to the kitchen again… a regular coming and going! She calls out over the partition.. "You think I’m still pretty, don’t you?

.. Has he shown you my programs?.. I played the Wonderful Flower!.. for twenty years!.. Did he tell you?”

Back again.. now on my knees!.. She’s simpering.

"I was raped, my love!.. raped!.. you understand?”

"Ah? by Sosth&ne?” I ask.

"Yes.”

Sighs.

I was going to hear it all.

I pet her.. pet her..

"He and his troupe were on the Australian clipper… the giant liner Concordia.. He was returning in triumph from the Chicago Fair!.. the women passengers were all crazy about him!.. If only you’d seen him!.. with his big troupe of Brahmans!.. You can’t imagine how handsome he was!”

Suddenly she starts covering me with kisses!.. she goes for my cheeks, my eyes.. she laps both my eyelids!.. You can’t imagine how greedy she is!.. she bites my nostrils!..

"Like you!.. Like you!.. Yes, like you!”

Good-looking as Sosthene, that’s not very!.. according to what I saw!..

At any rate it excites her!..

"Sweetie!.. Sweetie!"… she’s lapping me again..

"What were you doing on the ship?”

"I was a manicurist, my angel! Let me see your hands! Oh! what hands!.. How lovely they are! ”

Ecstatic right away! She gets pleasure out of everything!.. she fondles them.. turns them over..

"Oh! what luck!.. what awful luck!”

She saw it right away!

"No heart! my! my!.. No heart! ”

And she snuggles up again all palpitating!.. she hugs and pets me!

"Take the Flower of San Francisco!”

I can’t get away from the flowers!

It’s an offer.

She lies in my lap, she writhes, she convulses! What can I do?

She gets up again… she dashes to the other cupboard.. She brings back a bunch of photos!.. There she is in tights, it’s she in 1901!.. the program.. the year! enthroned in a chariot of roses.. "The Beautiful Fairy”! the attraction!

"The Chicago World’s Fair!” she exclaims.

Ah! that’s something! "The Beautiful Fairy”!

She starts necking again.

"Don’t you know how to love?”

I distress her.

She pecks me, she shakes me, rolls me around.

"Not at all?”

Really I’m not interested.. I’m more the curious type.. I ask her why all the trunks?.. All that equipment? All that dragon business?.. the buddhas?

"Don’t you know the magic trunk?”

I astound her!

’'He’s the one who discovered it all! Of course! Didn’t you know?.. The secret of the magic trunk?.. Oh! it’s prodigious, you know! You’ll see!. Nothing inside!. You open it this way!. Nothing at all!. Then he invokes the Spirits!

.. You see! armfuls! armfuls of roses! they come up from the bottom!.. That’s it!.. and the fragrance!.. You think you’re dreaming.. Marvelous!.. marvelous!. and then The Beautiful Fairy! That’s me!”

The memory of it sent her into ecstasies..

"It was one of his ideas! I loved him so! from the very first day! immediately! then and there! our idea!. right from the start!.. I couldn’t leave him… He carried me off for his troupe… He made me change ships… We were married in Brisbane!.. He loved me.. I loved him!.. We took another ship.. We had to! The Corrigan Tweed!.. A four-master!.. Oh! I regretted nothing! Because he loved me he made me flower of the trunk!.. Sosthene!.. what love!.. What years!.. For twenty years I was Queen of Magic! I appeared in the heart of the roses!.. look! I popped out of the trunk! Just like that! pop!.. when he uttered the word! Pop! The Rose of San Francisco! Look! just like that! it’s printed there all over!”

She showed me her clippings again.. always in tights.. a whole album! no one else! always her! never anyone but her!. in a chariot!.. without a chariot!.. languid.. triumphal!.. in a palanquin! in a rickshaw!.. Always her! with a smile!..

"How the spectators adored me! You’ve no idea!.. They called me the loveliest of the roses!.. Afterwards in Cairo!.. then in Nice!. and then after that Borneo!. Sumatra! the Sunda Isles.. and then India!.. and then Hamburg!.. two years!.. Here, look, in London.. the Empire!.. Look, 1906!

the Crystal! and then Paris!.. the Olympia!. and then we went back to India!. again! Then Sosthene went wild!.. We were welcomed everywhere with our Brahmans!.. And, darling, such gifts!.. it turned his head!.. he saw red! If you had seen!.. The lovers I refused! and the diamonds!.. They all wanted me to divorce him! the Rajah of Solawkodi… He wanted to build me, just for me, a little opal temple!

.. Do you know opal, darling?.. Oh! my beloved! take me! Why are you so tired?’'

What could I answer?

"A little opal temple!.. Can you see it?”

She was smiling blissfully!.. beaming with the memory.. A kiss for the beauty! she’s got to continue!..

"So Sosthene went mad! as I’ve told you!”

"Why?”

I wasn’t listening closely..

"Jealous! my angel!.. Jealous!.. Imagine, he was still in love with me! What jealousy, my darling!. A madman!.. He couldn’t sleep because of the Rajah!.. He couldn’t even eat a sandwich!.. or sleep!.. He made love all the time!.. He began to make me suffer!. On purpose!. The flowers weren’t enough for him… He put me to magic death!.. Do you know what magic death is?”

No, I didn’t!

"He’d plunge me into a deep sleep.. catalepsy!.. And then all the indecencies!.. All the miseries!.. so I'd suffer!

.. suffer more! always more! and it was never enough!.. He was never satisfied.. He’d lend me to his Brahmans!.. A whole night long for their black magic!.. then to the Davides of Bengal!. for their great orgy!. with burns and everything!.. I’d come back in the morning dead… I could see he was possessed!.. And I loved him more and more!.. Like you! Yes, like you, sweetie!.. Oh! my love, be a bit tender!.. Don’t you know how to caress?”

"Tell me more! ”

"He dug needles into me!.. During the act!.. Blood flowed from the wounds! He sucked it all! Look, like that! Pff! Pff! He walked over my feet! And me so sensitive!..

And then when it was time for the trunk he really locked me in!.. I really stifled!.. He even thought up something better!

.. That was his prize act!.. He sawed off my head every evening.. and two matinees besides.. Then I really used to die of fright!.. He’d carry me off to his dressing-room. He’d take me in that state! in Rangoon I was really dead! Ah! the sound of the saw!.. listen! rrr!.. rrr!.. rrr!.. the blood flowed down to the orchestra!.. The spectators would faint!

.. His eyes looked like this! ”

She imitated Sosthene’s eyes. how frightful they were. extraordinary! you couldn’t look at them! you’d die of fright!

"He’d have me brought back to the stage!.. They’d carry me on a stretcher with his Brahmans! What a triumph! Imagine!.. And then when we got back to the hotel he’d make love to me! you don’t know what it was like! He’d strangle me again very gently!.. I’d get scared again.. The temple was driving him crazy! Here, you do it to me too!”

Her neck was soft and full of folds.. I squeezed a little.

"Squeeze, my pet!.. Squeeze!.. Your tongue!.. Your tongue! ”

I had to stick my tongue out at the same time!.. It was complicated!..

I did my best.

"Then what happened?”

I wanted to know the details!..

"Around the world again twice!.. Two months in Berlin!

.. Six months in New York!.. I didn’t recognize him any more, he had changed so!.. He was mean and insulting with almost everyone… He who had always been so pleasant, who spoke with such refinement. He slapped a lady in Copenhagen. our orchestra leader in Hamburg. and then the manager. Those scandals did us a lot of damage!. the impresarios canceled us. they black-listed us. Nobody wanted us any more!.. and our magic trunk… we were stuck in Singapore… I’d got so thin that I was impossible in tights!.. it even made a horrible noise every time he beat me!.. the skeleton!.. it was awful for the neighbors!.. We were put out of hotels!.. We went back to India.. Then came the final catastrophe!.. he who had never gambled.. I mean baccarat! He started gambling! he plunged recklessly… he played everything.. The fiend!.. He played the races! heads or tails! whist! roulette! anything!.. He’d win!.. He’d lose!

.. He’d spend nights at it!.. He stopped making love to me! He forgot about me!.. And then he went at it again!.. even more furiously! ferociously! the tiger!.. He tore off one of my nipples! Here! Look!”

She shows me her breast.. It’s a fact, the tip was off!

"He bit me, look, like that!.. He didn’t want me on the stage any more!.. He clawed all our orchestra leaders! He couldn’t stand them!.. The result was we were living in poverty.”

Ah! she stops.. Ah! it’s too sad. she didn’t want to tell any more.. she wanted me to undress.. a sudden whim!.. She was dead set on it!.. She wanted to see my nipple!

I take off my jacket only… I want her to continue.

"He put all the money we had left into a company! listen, a mining company!.. Since they weren’t moving fast enough! at least according to him!..then he was afraid they’d rob us!.. twenty years of savings from the theatre!.. he decided that we’d go prospecting ourselves.. that we’d make an enormous fortune in emeralds… in lapis lazuli.. God knows what!

.. it was called the Gem Proceeding Company.”

Ah! he’d spoken to me about that! I couldn’t deny it!..

"Ah! my darling! how I’ve suffered!.. I was so cold in those mountains.. We were looking for veins!.. All our savings went into it!.. He made scenes, even up there! on the plateaus of Tibet!.. Still jealous!.. always the Rajah!.. 'You’ll have your opal temple!’ He’d beat me in front of the porters! He treated me worse than a dog in his jealous fits!..

I didn’t want to leave him!.. Would you like me to make a little fire?”

"No!” I thanked her.

"Me, accustomed to luxury, sleeping among those savage Mongolians! caked with lice!. When I complained a bit!.. immediately insults!.. blows!.. atrocities!.. He’d throw his fit. the Temple! the Temple! his bugbear!. The Rajah! he couldn’t shake it off! He’d go erazy again!.. To go back to Delhi we borrowed money, twelve piasters, from, now hold tight, the Catholic Mission!.. That shows you how we stood!

.. Fine!.. He thinks up something else!.. A new idea!.. ‘Pep£! Pepe! I see what’s lacking!’. It lights him up!.. ’We’ll never succeed!’.. ‘What’s lacking?’ I ask…'An ancestor!’. I didn’t see why an ancestor?.. why that idea?.. he’d got it into his head going from convent to convent talking with the monks.. talking Baluchi with them, the language they speak there. 'This is going to be something!’ I said to myself.. ah! it was something! we had an ancestor!.. we went back to France to get him!.. we trotted him around. we brought him back.. again! then here! back there! everywhere!. he’s here now! They removed him from his vault.. it was very expensive! very very expensive!”

She pointed to the end of the garret.. next to the wardrobe… just under the roof… the ancestor’s wicker chest… a long flat one..

Sosthene was the one who interested me.

"Will he be leaving again soon?”

I was fishing.

"Where’s the money coming from, darling? Luckily we don’t have any left! ”

Ah! that was a relief! a comfort! for her! they’d be forced to stay in London! She couldn’t see herself back in Tibet!

"Kiss me!.. Kiss me!.. Ah! You’re not ready to leave either! Go on! You’re not ready!.. Look, here it is!.. Here it is, do you feel it?”

I had to give her another taste of it!. on the neck, the torture spot where there was still a scar… a circle all around..

I was waiting but he hadn’t come back.

I wondered what the hell he was doing outside, that Chinese guy.. What if he stayed out a week? a month?.. would I have to sleep there? She kept trying to get a rise out of me..

"You see, darling, I’m putting some powder on for you!.. There! it’s on!. But I can do without it, you know!. Touch my skin… Feel how soft it is… He used to want me to powder myself!.. white!.. white!.. always paler!.. He preferred me that way!.. ‘Pepe, my little dead darling! ’ he called me.. since the day I almost stayed there because of the saw!.. If you had seen that act!.. I’m still pretty, you see! But in Melbourne!. if you had seen!. I’d never been so lovely!.. All the Brahmans in the act, even though they were used to me, couldn’t believe their eyes!.. It was they who unnailed the cover.. I was supposedly dead!.. I appeared in a flood of roses!.. What applause!.. it lasted twenty minutes… Once three-quarters of an hour in Sydney!.. all the people were standing and shouting, I looked so magnificent!.. Tell me! Do I kiss well?.. Wouldn’t you like to take me in the flowers?.. You see that trunk?.. under the transom.. it’s still full of roses!.. artificial ones.. but they’re perfect! You’ve never seen anything like them!. so lovely!.. you’ll take me in them!.. Wait’ll you see!.. They come from Bongsor Malaya.. You can’t imagine what they can do with petals.. bits of velvet! real flowers dried in the monsoons!.. I’ll show you!”

She leaves me. she hops over.. she plunges into the trunk!

.. she sends all the roses flying!.. a cloud of petals! they scatter all over! all around!. another armful and another!.. a rain of petals… in a big cloud of dust!.. Both of us sneeze.. what laughing! Ah! we’re having a great time!..

Ding! Ding!. someone’s knocking! banging at the door..

She readjusts her petticoat… she runs in her slippers.. It’s a chubby little boy with a bottle of milk..

"Thank you!.. Thank you!”

And a big kiss for the little boy!.. Another one! another big kiss! dear little chappy!.. and she makes a grab for the little devil! he’s wheedled, pawed, licked, smothered in the twinkling of an eye! caresses! right on the doormat! just standing there!.. the baby errand-boy!.. Ah! the little rascal!.. He squirms and clucks just like her!.. It’s probably not the first time!.. He’s probably delighted to bring up the lady’s milk!.. No one’s worrying about me!.. I’m left in the lurch, sitting there on the bed.. All the same I think it’s a bit thick!.. Suppose someone comes up?… I don’t think she’s in her right mind!.. The old hag’s on fire!.. That’ll cause another row!.. what a mess if someone comes up!.. I’d better shut the door.. As if, damn it, I’m not in enough trouble!

.. Now another jam!.. with cops all around! this time a sex-maniac! Ah! nothing doing! I get up! no! down again! hell! I can’t move! my legs are like lead!.. let ’em play! fedup! good-by! I’m too dazed by the sidewalks.. I’ve done too much walking since last night.. I’m pooped!.. she’s getting livelier! It’s her nerves! A case of nerves! She’s all steamed up, fiddling around with the kid!. Kitchy-kitchy! Maybe that’s my fault, too! Everything’s my fault these days!. I’m going to kick ’em out! both of ’em! They’re making me boil! down the stairs!.. I’ll let ’em have it! head first!.. I’ll make ’em cluck! Just wait!

I stand up! I start going! just then a yelling. from downstairs.

"You bitch! you bitch!” from the street.. "Get inside, hide yourself, you filthy slut! ”… from all the way downstairs.. from the corridor.

I don’t know what the hell to do with myself!

"Will you let that child alone!”

The kid makes a dash!.. Boom! his hobnailed boots! He’s running!. She spins around! throws herself on me! into my arms!.. sobbing in wild fright!.. Sosthene’s standing in the doorway.. on the mat.. He’s looking at us..

"Listen!.. Listen!..” I begin..

He breaks in on me.

"I understand!”

He moves forward… he’s offended! He refuses to shake hands. Then he breaks down, trembles, plops on the edge of the bed.. he’s all in.. he’s grunting.. choking.. spitting.

"Oh! Id Id!" he mumbles. ."Oh! Id Id!"

He’s still wearing a Chinese robe but not the same flowered one.. this one’s yellow and red.. with ibises all over… He doesn’t take off his big hat.. he just sits there dreamily.. "Oh! Id la!" he mumbles… "Oh! Id la!" And then he gets sore again… he stands up in a fury… he goes for the bitch! Boy, oh boy! he shakes his umbrella over the slut’s head! she throws herself at his feet.. she writhes.. she crawls…

"Pepe! Get up!.. I’m ashamed of you!”

"I know, my beloved!.. I know!”

She kisses his robe, his shoes.. she’s overwhelmed.. convulsing with remorse!

"My darling!.. my darling!. my life!”

That’s what she calls him.

"Stand up!. Stand up!. you wretch!”

"Yes, I am a wretch! Oh! Yes! I’m damned!” she answers. "That’s what I am!” Shaky! sobbing..

It’s agonizing. it’s horrible..

"Go on, turn around!.. beg my pardon!”

She obeys.

She bends down on the other side..

He tucks up her rags.

"Look at that behind! that abomination, young man!”

He calls me to witness.. The kid’s come back, too.

She seesaws.. she undulates her fanny.. she wiggles her can..

"Oh! what an ugly ass!.. Isn’t it ugly, Monsieur?”

He’s saying it to me.

And whack! and whack!.. with his umbrella!.. and bang! a big kick in the rear end!. She goes bouncing into the roses!

… She’s still bawling, but not so loud, just little sobs now..

He rushes off, runs, rummages around on the other side.. behind the partition.. the faucet… he turns it on..

"Coming!.. Coming!” he yells.. And he’s back again!.. full of pep! He tucks her up again!.. oop! and the whole bucket of water! Splash! right in the can!.. He runs out again… he comes back, he’s starting all over. she’s lying there all stretched out on the floor.. her ass all bare..

"Deary! Deary!” she’s imploring him.

"Ass on fire!.. Ass on fire!.. There!.. Another one!”

He heaves! he splashes everything!.. the floor’s a pool!.. slushy!.. She’s floundering around.. wriggling in it… he slips.. he stumbles.. Boom!. he goes flying!. the bucket.. everything!.. his hat!.. he tumbles on her!.. He throws a fit!.. She busts out laughing!.. Ah! the slut!.. He tries to get up!.. ah! a fit! he flops again!.. he gets tangled in his robe!..She screams with laughter! All right then!..he’s wild with rage!.. He rips off everything!.. his robe!.. his jacket.. his coat.. he jumps around all naked!.. right on the spot! in a frenzy!

"She’ll drive me crazy!.. She’ll drive me crazy!”

He’s screaming it out.

"Get out of here!.. Get out of here! ”… he’s chasing her out.. "Get out of here!.. Never come back!”

She stands up again laughing away… she grabs the kid..

she goes to the door, all perked up, wiggling!. The tramp! she leaves with the cherub!

"Good day!” she yells. "Good day!”

He sits down, he’s whimpering, he’s puffing..

"Ah! young man, did you see that?.. You call that a life? Did you see that lunatic?”

He goes to slip on a pair of pants… He comes back… He’s still sighing.. I want some information.. Scenes aren’t everything!.. It would be a good thing to know what’s what..

"So China’s over?”

I repeat the question.

"China! China! what a notion! more than ever! ”

Ah! full confidence! all sure of himself!

He looks me over.

"Do you think I’ve been wasting my time? Don’t be silly?”

Really I’m stupid.

"Let’s get down to figures!. There are my calculations!”… He points to one of the trunks beneath the transom.. "Now let’s see!.. 25,000 pounds at least!.. We’ll know definitely in Calcutta!.. Well, let’s say 30,000 or so! not counting surprises!”

He interrupts himself.

"Pepe! Pepe!”. he’s calling her again.

He whispers to me very low, "She listens at doors!.. Beware!.. Beware of women and especially foreign ones! ”… He’s giving me advice.. "Sh! Sh!.. Never marry an American!”

He rummages around again in his rags.. in all his linings.. his beautiful robe, all torn up.. he pulls out a pack of newspapers… I see the Mirror among them… the Sketch.. I was already sure… I glance at the photos… the headlines. I take a look.. nothing in this one.. or that one! or the other one either!.. just war photos.. the Battle of the Somme… the prisoners, the barbed wire, Wilhelm II, burning planes, etc. Not a word about us! That’s amazing!.. they’ve dropped it. all of a sudden!.. They’ve stopped bothering about us!

.. completely! by magic! Sosthene’s not looking at the photos but at the classified ads.. he’s looking with a pencil.. he’s hunting for a heading.. not this one. not that one.. never the right one! he’s getting fidgety.. I can see he’s irritated.. he’s floundering around… he can’t read the ads..

“It’s not Chinese!” I kid him. ’I’ll help you!”

We’ve got to read the Times' the Times! he digs down again and pulls out the Times from another robe lying on the sofa.. Ah! here we are!.. Always at least ten pages of ads in the Times' squeezed together! and very small! Ah! something to work on! but what’s he looking for? He doesn’t tell me.. Columns and columns. Marriages.. Vacations. Help Wanted.. Situations.. What variety!

’’Are you looking for a job? What do you want?”

Investments.. It’s investments he’s looking for.. Capital.. Ah! he’s checking… he checks every line.. he’s getting excited.. crosses everywhere.. he’s writing down the sums, he’s getting worked up! He tries to read line by line. He’s botching it all up!.. I was better at it.. I figure it out as I go along.. He’s looking for a certain ad under Partnerships… He knows! someone told him.. he’s informing me.. Oh! in great demand!.. a certain ad. ’’You’ve got to scan the columns.”… and very closely… minutely! Partnerships! for babies’ bottles… for de luxe automobiles, elastic mattresses.. light garden furniture. children’s toys.. exporting of layettes. fountain pens. movie houses, at least a hundred!. sport goods! twelve breweries.. Ah! that’s it! here it is! a whole series! Gas masks!.. That’s what he’s looking for! Gas Mask Engineers. Wanted promptly young engineers.. That’s it! that’s for us!.. He’s quivering.. something for us!

. .For trial perfect gas masks. Very large profits expected.

Immediate premium 1,500 pounds. Partnership granted. War Department Order.. That’s for us all right!.. Colonel J.F.C. O’Collogham, 22 Willesden Mansions, W.l.

"Ah! the stars are with us!”

I think so! I think so! His confidence is getting me! I’m excited! Ah! right then and there! I'm getting worked up! Something at last!

I’ve never yet seen him so gay! all of a sudden with such go! blazing! the ads do him good! me, too! Ah! we’re sure happy!

"We’re approaching Gemini!”

That’s what he comes up with!

Jaunty whistling!

"But be careful!.. Let’s act!. <.Certain solstices last only two seconds! We must act!”

I want nothing better!

"Sh! Sh!”

Another mystery!

"Watch out for women! They mess up everything! They muddle up our slightest emanations. They perturb our destiny! I’m going to lock mine up! As soon as she gets back!.. What a slut!”

I was being warned!.. That was one thing!.. But what about Colonel O’Collogham and the gas masks?.. What the hell were we going to do at that guy's place?.. take his dough away? Partners? Where else were we going to kick around!

Sosthene was thinking. He’d settled into the armchair.. He was looking at me as if I were miles away..

"Monsieur,” I venture, "so Tibet is finished?”

"On the contrary, it’s the very beginning.”

He jumps up.

"You little fool! Ah! don’t say anything in front of my wife! You talk too much!”.. He gives me another order… "Go bring me my tea!.. serve it to me here!”

Now I was the maid!

"It’s cold, Master!.. It’s cold!”

I go to the stove… I putter about… I prepare… I was beginning to feel at home in the garret!.. Only it had a stale stink since he’d come in.. His shoes had an awful smell.. I'd already noticed that.. It’s the humidity of the streets.. Shoes are awful in London!.. I probably smelled, too… it’s much worse even than the army.. They get spongy in no time. There was some ham in the buffet, a low little buffet.. I make myself a sandwich.. I serve myself.. first! Knock! Knock! Knock!. Someone at the door..

I go to open it.

It’s Pepe back! Cuckoo!

"Ah! my ducky! My love!.. My angel!”.. two bounces and she’s on top of Sosthene! the caresses start all over! Ah! it’s love again!.. More kisses!.. and still more!.. They go play together on the sofa.. She’s brought some food back, more ham! some brains! fresh sardines! just when I’m ready!.. In the nick of time! I see the snack! I’m going to brown it all in butter!.. I look around while it’s cooking.. the decor, the room, the trunks.. those trunks again. gilt chests.. black chests.. So the ancestor’s in that corner?.. The cult of the dead!.. I don’t waste time!.. the two of them are having fun there! ah! it’s all made up! It’s full of junk all around.. Chinese curios all over the place.. masks.. grimaces, blue ones, red ones.. banners with signs.. still more trunks.. split. crammed.. scrolls hanging out. books. all over the floor… It was smaller than Claben’s place but just as jammed with bric-a-brac, and that’s saying a lot!..

All right! things are coming along!. tea, a little snack! I carry it in! it gives a man a lift! I’m going to serve Monsieur and Madame!

Ah! I’m perfect in my line! I know how to manage things in families! All smooth sailing now! They’re just as sweet as pie! The way they go for my sardines! Ah! I’m quite a hand when it comes to broiling them! It’s a real lover’s snack! Ah! I join right in! I enjoy the whole thing! Every time he squeezes her she winks at me, wiggles and gives me the eye! at every kiss! she’s got the devil in her belly, the old buzzard!

"Come on! ”… I’m needling him.. "Let’s get going! ”

It’s true, it’s time!

"You’re right!.. Get started, young man! I’ll be right with you! ”

Ah! he’s got to make up his mind! They’re not going to neck around forever!

"Pepe! my green robe!” he orders.

And make it snappy! She goes to get the beautiful robe.. it’s in still another trunk… a shot silk with little mimosa seedlings.. she rummages about, digs it out, she dresses him, powders him, primps him.. now his hat!.. the umbrella!.. We’re all set!

"Say, take down the address!”

Already forgotten! I look for the Times clipping. I copy.. he repeats slowly…"O’Collogham! Colonel!.. 41 Willesden Green.. Willesden Mansions.”

That does it! He tries hard to remember it!

"All right! All right!”

And then he looks me over.

"Your shoes are disgusting!”

That’s true… He sighs..

"Your grooming! after all!”

I distress him.

He throws me some cloth… to brighten me up… a piece of kimono..

"Your appearance, young man!”

That does it.

"Ah!”.. he’s thinking things over.. "You’ll let me speak, won’t you?.. You won’t interrupt me?”

Oh no! 'by no means.. that I promise!

Pepe wants to kiss him again… a last embrace!

"Come on! Let’s get going! ”

He pushes her off… No more time… He dashes down the stairs.. I’m at his heels.. I’m following!

We hurry along! But Pepe won’t have it! Ah! she hangs on! bawls! miaows! she doesn’t want to stay there all alone! she wants us to take her along!

"Ah! I should have locked her in! ”

It’s too late.

Outside, people immediately form a crowd.. that makes another scene.. we never can escape it! we argue with Pepe! she’s doing it on purpose so that people’ll look at us! she just won’t understand anything! we reason with her, Sosthene kisses her!.. She just won’t understand.. that it’s about the mask business!.. finally it penetrates a little.. she gives in but we’ve got to pamper her!.. that’s the condition.. she wants to be coddled!.. Sosthene knows her.. she walks part of the way with us.. just to the corner.. Aldersgate.. the end of the tramline.. Ah! that’s where.. to the tobacco and candy shop!.. we have to buy her whatever she wants!.. goodies, all her whims… in the showcase, then at the counter.. first a big box of candy, then two Havana cigars. then three bags of marshmallows, then a bottle of eau de Cologne.. Ah! that just about does it.. No! she still wants some toffee.. she’s a bloodsucker!.. In order to pay we have to take out all we’ve got! all our coins! Sosthene and I! There’s just enough! just! She’s taking my last pennies! Ah! finally she’s ready to go home.. but it doesn’t satisfy her.. she leaves in a sulk.. she doesn’t even say good-by..

Bus 29! ours! that’s us! Shake a leg! He tucks up his robe!

.. we jump on!

THE END

Translated by Bernard Frechtman and Jack T. Nile

In GuignoVs Band, first published in France in 1943, Celine explores the horror of a disordered world. The hero, the semi-autobiographical Ferdinand, moves through the nightmare of London’s underworld during the years of World War I. In this distressing setting, he meets pimps and prostitutes, pawnbrokers and magicians, policemen and arsonists. He sees social and physiological decomposition as these processes unfold along parallel lines of development. The illusions of existence are nakedly exposed.

The narrative erupts in Celine’s characteristic elliptical style. His splintered sentences and scatology reflect his fury at the fragmentation of experience and at his own impotence in the face of it. Out of his rage, he forces the meaninglessness back on itself, and the exuberance of his struggle triumphs in the comic exaggeration of satire. Ultimately, his subject is not death but life, and he responds to it by a strengthened commitment to the sensual and concrete. His hallucinatory world is so vividly realized that it does, indeed, challenge the reality of the reader’s more conventional world.

Caver design by Gertrude Huston