PARTISAN REVIEW
had, out of jealousy, forced her to take them. Then when the
p~
fessor had kindly offered his shoes, she wanted to refuse them but
was afraid of angering
him
and losing her job. This was God's truth,
so help her St. Peter. She would, she promised, find Annando, whom
she had not seen in a week, and return his shoes
if
the professor
would take her back.
If
he didn't, she would throw herself into the
Tiber. He, though he did not care for talk of this kind, felt a certain
sympathy for her. He was disappointed in himself at the way he
had handled her. It would have been better to have said a few
appropriate words on the subject of honesty and then philosophically
dropped the matter. In firing her he had only made things difficult
for them both, because, in the mean time he had tried two other
maids and found them impossible. One stole, the other was lazy.
As
a result the house was a mess, impossible for him to work in, al–
though the portinaia came up for an hour each morning to clean.
It was his good fortune that Rosa had appeared at the door just
then. When she removed her coat, he noticed with satisfaction that
the tear in her dress had finally been sewn.
She went quickly to work, dusting, polishing, cleaning everything
in sight. She unmade beds, then made them, swept under them,
mopped, polished head and foot boards, adorned the beds with newly
pressed spreads. Though she had got her job back and worked
with her usual efficiency, she worked, he observed, in sadness, fre–
quently sighing, attempting a smile only when his eye was on her.
This
is their nature, he thought; they have hard lives. Out of kind–
ness, to spare her further blows by her son, he had given her per–
mission to live in. He offered her extra money to buy meat for her
supper, but she refused it, saying pasta would do. Pasta and green
salad was all she ate at night. Occasionally she boiled an artichoke
left over from lunch. He invited her to drink the white wine in the
cupboard and take fruit. Once in a while she did, always telling
him
what and how much she had taken, though he repeatedly asked
her not to. The apartment was beautifully in order. Though the
phone rang, as usual, daily at three, only seldom did she leave the
house after she had talked with Annando.
Then one dismal morning Rosa came to the professor and
in
her
distraught way confessed she was pregnant. Her face shone
in
de&–
pair; her underwear gleamed through her black dress.
