Free The Beach by Cesare Pavese

with his face in the sand.
    "And that man was Guido," I said.
    Clelia stared at me. What did I have against Guido, she asked. I stuck to my guns. "I know him," I said.
    "Guido doesn't do those things," Clelia said. "Guido respects women."
     
     
    10
     
    Somewhat hesitatingly Guido invited me to go up there one evening in the car. "Nina will be there. Sure you won't mind?" He glanced at Berti, who had been dawdling a few steps behind to let me talk, then looked questioningly at me. I asked him to bring Berti along, a young lad of spirit who could dance, which was more than I could say for myself. Guido frowned and said: "Of course." Then I introduced them.
    It was an evening of silences. Berti had expected to find Clelia and instead had to dance with Nina, who looked him up and down and lost her tongue in the process. The rest of us sat silently at the table watching the couples. It was not that Guido wanted to get rid of Nina; the remarks he dropped seemed to me only his way of letting off steam. "I've reached the age, professor, when I can't change my way of life, but if Nina wants to have some fun, see new places, new company to distract her, I would look favorably on the idea."
    "You've only to tell her."
    "No," Guido said. "She feels lonely. You understand; a man has friends, relationships to keep up. He can't always give her all his time."
    "Wouldn't a frank explanation do the trick?" I suggested.
    "With other women, but not with her. She's a friend, an old friend, you see... a demanding woman, do I make myself clear?"
    Then Nina had a few dances with him; Berti smoked cigarettes at the table, glancing around. He asked me if the woman was Guido's wife.
    "Not she," I told him. "She belongs to the world you dream about. Who are you looking for?"
    "No one."
    "My friends aren't coming. When this woman is here, they stay away."
    That night under the stairway by the olive tree I asked him if Nina had appealed to him, and seeing his smirk I said that he would have done Guido a great favor if he had amused her for a while. "But if he is tired of her, why doesn't he chuck her?" Berti said.
    "Try and ask him," I said.
    Berti did not ask him, but instead, the evening after, having discovered that we would be going up to dance with Clelia and Guido, he went up on foot—I don't know if he had eaten or not. We saw him threading down among the tables to a seat in the back. He had a soft drink in front of him and threw a cigarette away. But he didn't move.
    Ginetta didn't happen to be in the party. Now that I seemed to be able to read his mind, I realized that he had expected Ginetta to be there to lead off the dance with. Guido, very much rejuvenated by his evening of freedom, was looking around, pleased with himself. He waved vaguely in Berti's direction. Berti got up and came over. Being a coward, I stared at the floor. "How is the signora?" Berti asked.
    Clelia broke the embarrassment with an irrepressible burst of laughter. Then Guido answered: "We are all very well," in a tone of voice and with a large wave of the hand that made us all smile, except Berti, who blushed. He stood there looking at us until I, squinting at Clelia, couldn't resist saying: "This is the famous Berti." Doro made him a bored sign to sit down, grumbling: "Stick with us."
    Naturally it fell to me to entertain him. Berti, sitting on the edge of his chair, gazed at us patiently. I asked him what he was doing alone up here,- he answered like someone trying hard to listen to the orchestra.
    "My friend tells me you have stopped studying," Doro put in. "What are you doing, working?"
    "I am unemployed," Berti retorted, somewhat fiercely.
    "My friend tells me that you're enjoying yourself," Doro went on. "Have you made friends?"
    Berti merely said no. We were all silent. Clelia, half turned toward the orchestra, said: "Berti, do you dance?"
    I was grateful to her for those words. Berti forced himself to meet her eyes and nodded. "It's a shame that Ginetta and