Bonjour Tristesse Read Online Free Page B

know."
    "After Elsa and Anne," I replied without believing it myself.
    "Since they're not down yet, and have the cheek to keep us waiting, come and dance with your rheumaticky old father!"
    Once again I felt the thrill that always preceded our evenings out together. He really had nothing of an old father about him! While dancing I inhaled the warmth of his familiar perfume, eau de cologne and tobacco. He danced slowly with half-closed eyes, a happy, irrepressible little smile, like my own, on his lips.
    "You must teach me the bebop," he said, forgetting his talk of rheumatism.
    He stopped dancing to welcome Elsa with polite flattery. She came slowly down the stairs in her green dress, a conventional smile on her face, her casino smile. She had made the most of her lifeless hair and scorched skin, but the result was more meretricious than brilliant. Fortunately she seemed unaware of it.
    "Are we going?"
    "Anne's not here yet," I remarked.
    "Go up and see if she's ready," said my father. "It will be midnight before we get to Cannes."
    I ran up the stairs, getting somewhat entangled with my skirt, and knocked at Anne's door. She called to me to come in, but I stopped on the threshold. She was wearing a grey dress, a peculiar grey, almost white, which, when it caught the light, it resembled the colour of the sea at dawn. She seemed to me the personification of mature charm.
    "Oh Anne, what a magnificent dress!" I said.
    She smiled into the mirror as one smiles at a person one is about to leave.
    "This grey is a success," she said.
    "You are a success!" I answered.
    She pinched my ear, her eyes were dark blue, and I saw them light up with a smile.
    "You're a dear child, even though you can be tiresome at times."
    She went out in front of me without a glance at my dress. In a way I was relieved, but all the same it was mortifying. I followed her down the stairs and I saw my father coming to meet her. He stopped at the bottom, his foot on the first step, his face raised. Elsa was looking on. I remember the scene perfectly. First of all, in front of me, Anne's golden neck and perfect shoulders, a little lower down my father's fascinated face and extended hand, and, already in the distance, Elsa's silhouette.
    "Anne, you are wonderful!" said my father.
    She smiled as she passed him and took her coat.
    "Shall we meet there?" she asked. "Cécile, will you come with me?"
    She let me drive. At night the road appeared so beautiful that I went slowly. Anne was silent; she did not even seem to notice the blaring wireless.
    When my father's car passed us at a bend she remained unmoved. I felt I was out of the race, watching a performance in which I could no longer intervene.
    At the casino my father saw to it that we soon lost sight of each other. I found myself at the bar with Elsa and one of her acquaintances, a half-tipsy South American. He was connected with the stage and had such a passionate love for it that even in his inebriated condition he could remain amusing. I spent an agreeable hour with him, but Elsa was bored. She knew one or two big names, but that was not her world. All of a sudden she asked me where my father was, as if I had some means of knowing. She then left us. The South American seemed put out for a moment, but another whisky set him up again. My mind was a blank. I was quite light-headed, for I had been drinking with him out of politeness. It became grotesque when he wanted to dance. I was forced to hold him up and to extricate my feet from under his, which required a lot of energy. We laughed so much that when Elsa tapped me on the shoulder and I saw her Cassandra-like expression, I almost felt like telling her to go to the devil.
    "I can't find them," she said.
    She looked utterly distraught. Her powder had worn off leaving her skin shiny, her features were drawn; she was a pitiable sight. I suddenly felt very angry with my father; he was being most unkind.
    "Ah, I know where they are," I said, smiling as if I