Once, I leaned forward to tell the driver to turn around.
But I didn't speak.
4
There is a metal clip on every door in the Astolat; mail and written messages are put in it—so the guests won't have to stoop. I had a letter. A tidy backhand with little circles for periods and dots over the i's. It looked like a billet-doux from Yvonne—and it was:
You meanie!
Everything you said got me so tremendously stimulated I couldn't sleep. I decided, after a struggle, if you were going to stir girls up that way, you were responsible for their condition. So I phoned you—and no answer! Don't you know hell hath no fury like a woman scorned? If you feel like a little chitchat when you do come in, phone me. I don't have to work tomorrow so you needn't be scrupulous about the hour. And even if you don't, thanks ever so much for a very disturbing, unsatisfying, lovely evening.
Yours,
Y
It was four o'clock and my body was tired, though my mind was running round and round like a toy electric train.
I didn't want to see any more of Yvonne at the moment.
I turned out the lights in the sitting room, undressed, took a short, warm shower, and lay down on the double bed, naked. Usually, about two minutes after the lights go out, I fall asleep. But I knew it would take longer that night.
So I piled up the pillows and opened Vogt's Road to Survival at the page where the jacket was enclosed.