The Beach by Cesare Pavese Read Free Book Online Page A

and leaned forward.
    "Why are you men so vulgar?"
    "It seems to me that Guido has all sorts of tastes," I said. "As for vulgarity, he's got plenty of that."
    "But no," Clelia said, "it's that woman who's vulgar. The poor fellow is very fond of me."
    I started explaining to her that nothing is vulgar in itself but that talking and thinking make it so, but Clelia had already lost interest and was laughing at a child's little red beret.
    We strolled to the end of the beach and stopped for a smoke on the rocks. Then, dazed by the sun, we went back. Looking blankly around, I noticed Berti walking away from our umbrella—burned back and shorts—talking nervously to a strange little woman in a flowered dress, high sandals, and bright, powdered cheeks. Just then Clelia shouted something to Doro, waving, and the two turned around, Berti hurriedly escaping as soon as he saw us, the little woman sauntering along behind, calling his name none too respectfully.
    "That geisha who was following you," I said when he came to meet me at the trattoria. "Was she by any chance the woman you took to your room that day?"
    Berti smiled vaguely around his cigarette.
    "I see you have good company," I continued. "Why are you looking for more? Lucky thing I didn't introduce you to those girls."
    Berti looked at me hard, the way one does when one is pretending to think about something. "It's not my fault," he burst out, "if I met her. Excuse me to your friends."
    Then I changed the subject and asked him if his parents knew about these undertakings. With his usual vague smile he said slowly that that woman was worth more than many well-brought- up girls, as, for that matter, was true of all her sort, who at least had one advantage in their hard lives over the proper ones.
    "And that might be?"
    "Yes. Men all agree that by going to prostitutes and letting off steam they are protecting the others. So prostitutes should be respected."
    "Very well," I told him. "But you, then, why do you run away and act ashamed of her?"
    "I?" Berti stammered. That was another story, he explained. He was repelled by women; it made him furious that all men lived just for that. Women were stupid and affected; the infatuation of men made them necessary. One should agree to leave them alone, to take them all down a few pegs.
    "Berti, Berti," I said, "you're a hypocrite, too."
    He looked surprised. "Making use of a person and then cutting her the next minute; no, that is out." I noticed that he was smiling and ostentatiously crushing his cigarette. He said in his mildest tone that he had not made use of that woman, but—he smiled —she had been making use of him. She was alone, she was bored by the sea; they found themselves together on the beach—she herself had begun by joking and swapping stories. "You see," he told me, "I couldn't say no because I felt sorry for her. She has a little pocketbook with the mirror all broken. I understand her. She's only looking for company and doesn't want a penny. She says that by the sea one doesn't work. But she's malicious. She's like all women and wants to embarrass men by making them look foolish."
    We went home through the deserted streets at two in the afternoon. I had made up my mind to give no more advice to that boy: he was the kind one must give a long rein, to see where they end up. I asked if that woman, that lady , he had not by chance brought from Turin himself. "You're crazy," he replied snappishly. But the snap left him when I asked who had taught him to apologize for things that nobody cared about one way or the other. "When?" he stammered. "Didn't you ask me a short while ago to excuse you to my friends?" I said.
    He told me that, considering I was with the others, he was sorry we had seen him with that woman. "There are people," he said, "in front of whom one is ashamed to be ridiculous."
    "Who, for instance?"
    He was silent a moment. "Your friends," he said carelessly.
    He left me at the foot of the stairs and walked off