He walked away. Before him floated the hair of the beggar moving as if stirred by a slow wind, and he itched.
“But who was the old man?” he thought.
A young woman, plump and smiling, jostled him. He felt her soft hip pressing against him for a moment.
A child running barefoot through the street brushed against his legs. He felt its sticky fingers seize him for an instant and then the child was gone. On he walked.
Three young men confronted him for a second time. He passed between two of them, squeezed by their shoulders.
A shapeless old woman bumped him with her back as she shuffled past.
Two children dodged in and out screaming and seized his arm to turn on.
The young dramatist stopped and remained standing still, looking about him.
Then he laughed.
“Life,” he murmured again; and