or whatever that is, doing whatever it is she should not do. Let’s do it again, please, now I am in the lee.”
“Where is the island now and in what river?”
“You are making the discovery. I am only the unknown country.”
“Not too unknown,” the Colonel said.
“Please don’t be rude,” the girl said. “And please attack gently and with the same attack as before.”
“It’s no attack,” the Colonel said. “It’s something else.”
“Whatever it is, whatever it is, while I’m still in the lee.”
“Yes,” the Colonel said. “Yes, now if you want, or will accept from kindness.”
“Please, yes.”
She talks like a gentle cat, though the poor cats cannot speak, the Colonel thought. But then he stopped thinking and he did not think for a long time.
The gondola now was in one of the secondary canals. When it had turned from the Grand Canal, the wind had swung it so the gondoliere had to shift all his weight as ballast, and the Colonel and the girl had shifted too, under the blanket, with the wind getting under the edge of the blanket; wildly.
They had not spoken for a long time and the Colonel had noted that the gondola had only inches free in passing under the last bridge.
“How are you, Daughter?”
“I’m quite lovely.”
“Do you love me?”
