The Gobi Desert

The Gobi Desert Read Free Book Online

Book: The Gobi Desert Read Free Book Online
pretentious pattern, it was one of the most pitiful things one could imagine, worthy of those supposedly European hotels in Manchuria, Korea, or China. It symbolised, in the most wonderful way and in the most dreadful way, the existence to which, since she had again agreed to share my destiny, I had led Alzire. Rickety tables, disconnected telephones, divans with covers spattered with suspicious stains, serviettes folded and ironed without having been washed; this was all I could offer her. This was what she had walked into, like the ghost of a sad and shy little angel. That she became tired of it in the end was not at all surprising. What was strange, worrying almost, was that she was able to put up with it for so long.
    She continued to sit with her back to me, and I forced myself, which was not easy, not to lose sight of any of her movements. What could it be that she was so busy doing? With a fountain pen in her hand she was jotting down some figures on various sheets of paper, which she then folded into envelopes. One of these envelopes appeared to be full of banknotes. It was as if she was carrying out a liquidation, calm, quiet, unhurried. But in spite of the seriousness of the occasion, I lost interest in what she was up to. As soon as you were in the company of Alzire, it was no longer possible to pay attention to anything else except her beauty.
    Ah! I shall remember it for ever! That morning she was wearing a dress which I had given to her. If you can imagine a sort of pale pink negligee made of Chinese silk, embroidered and adorned with chinchilla on the belt, on the collar, and on the sleeves, loose-fitting sleeves which broadened out like circles of petals around the thin white ivory of her arms. As far as furs were concerned, in fairness to myself Alzire didn’t have too much to complain about. Rather than paying off the total amount of the debt which he owed, the trader in Vladivostok against whom I had a credit note as we know, was only too happy to settle with me partly in goods, on terms of price and quality which I would have searched in vain to find anywhere else. Sable, mink, blue fox, not forgetting Astrakhan stockings, muff, and cap, all this I had had enormous pleasure in displaying to Alzire’s dazzled gaze, one evening in a miserable caravanserai where we had stopped to spend the night as soon as we had crossed the frontier out of Siberia. Come hell or high water, whatever awaits us in the next life, only those who have experienced such happiness will have the right to say that they have lived here on earth!
    Those people who anticipate difficulties in paying their hotel bills always take an elementary precaution, which is to be kitted out with expensive luggage. Luxury travel bags and trunks, elegant holdalls, spotless hatboxes, sumptuous toiletries: it’s a question of inspiring confidence, isn’t it, confidence above all and in spite of everything! Our own luggage complied with this rule, of course, but it was beginning to get a bit worn, unfortunately. We realised it was essential to renew it, or at least some of it, on the day when we were due to set off again. Now what did I just get a glimpse of, on the rug? A suitcase, a splendid new suitcase in a creamy yellow colour, full to bursting, with side pockets and nice, shiny locks, everything, in a word, the best of its type. I could never have worked out how it was possible to get hold of such a perfect item in Fouzan. But it was nothing to do with such details, however important, which mattered to me at that moment. The papers which I had just seen in Alzire’s hands suddenly made sense, a sense which I could no longer mistake, even when against all the evidence I stubbornly wanted to ignore it . . . Bills paid, tickets bought for the train journey, and for the sea crossing! She was leaving. It had just been settled. We were separating. We were leaving each other.
    It was just at that moment when she chose to turn around. My

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