The Wanderess Read Online Free

out and
began to walk towards the inn. His suit that had looked elegant
the day before was now wrinkled as though he had not changed
out of it during the night. I gathered that he hadn’t slept at all.
His face was puffy and white, like the skin of a cadaver. The only
color shone in various splotches of red on his cheeks. Now that
he gazed at the inn where he mistakenly believed his beloved lay
sleeping, waiting for him, his face grew hopeful, his eyes widened,
a uniform complexion filled-out his cheeks and he beamed with
health and joy. While Saul walked through the yard to the Villa
B***, the porter chased after him with his luggage. I watched Saul
disappear behind the front door of the inn where the reception
desk was. The door closed. I heard a moment of silence. My eyes
made a cursory inspection around the entryway to the inn and I
saw various workers, porters, attendants, maids and valets and the
like, all busy at simple tasks as they began the day of work. As
soon as everyone heard the sound of a human body fall and
thump loudly against a hollow wooden floor, these valets and
attendants and porters dropped their tasks, their buckets and
ladders, and scurried in to see what had happened.
    I too joined the bustle at the reception. We were quite a
crowd. We saw the gentleman had lost consciousness, had fallen
on the floor and hit his head. He looked quite dead. The porters
scurried to find a nurse. I asked the concierge what had
happened. He told me that he had informed the gentleman that
the young girl who had been staying with him at the inn had left
the day before and that she had given no word as to where she
was going. She had checked out, taking all her luggage with her,
and left in the car belonging to some, quote: ‘other man.’ He
apparently didn’t recognize me as that other man. The concierge
said the gentleman suffered some kind of seizure, then fainted.
This whole scene gave me a feeling of disgust. I looked at the
calm expression of the concierge to whom these events meant
nothing as the girl’s gold clinked in his pockets, and with the
greatest sorrow and pity at seeing the unconscious gentleman
lying on the ground, I thought of how sorrowful he would still be
when he would wake up and learn from me that the news is true,
that his mistress is no longer in the country, that she is sailing
away from Europe, coasting along over the hot, blue sea.

Chapter Three
    Before the gentleman regained consciousness, he was carried by
four porters into an empty bedroom that was down the hall from
the concierge. I went into the café to drink another coffee and
asked that I be informed when the man’s health allowed that I pay
him a visit. When I was told that he was awake and receiving
visitors, I walked down the hall and stationed myself outside the
door of the bedroom where I overheard the owner of the inn
repeating to Saul that the girl had definitely left the inn, that she
had left with some other man, and no one at the inn had any idea
where she had gone to, although it was certain that she wasn’t
coming back. I heard a groan so horrible in pitch; I stepped back
and watched the owner of the inn appear in the doorway before
me, clutching his hat, looking pensive and unhappy. He glanced
at me, bowed deep with respect, and passed. I followed him with
my eyes and then introduced myself into the room that was
empty except for a single bed upon which Saul was sprawled-out,
fully-clothed, a nightstand beside him. He looked as though he
would die at any moment. His face and neck were flushed bonewhite except for the lump of pink on his neck where his Adam’s
apple rose and dropped as he took feeble swallows of air. The rest
was white and lifeless, except for the rims of his eyelids, which
were purple with sleeplessness and an excess of tears.
    I approached the bedside, “Forgive me for entering
unannounced. (I recall we spoke in French, as he didn’t speak
Italian.) I heard about your situation