'But now will you please tell me what he did to you?'
We went on disputing like this for a while, I insisting on knowing in what way Antonio had shown lack of respect, and she refusing to provide any explanation but merely repeating her accusation. In the end, after a great deal of furious wrangling, I thought I understood what had happened. In order to dress her hair, it had been necessary for Antonio to stand very close to the armchair in which she was sitting. It had appeared to her that more than once he had tried to brush against her shoulder and her arm with his body. I say it appeared to her; for she herself admitted that the barber had continued his work imperturbably, remaining all the time silent and respectful. But these contacts, she swore, were not fortuitous; she had observed that they had an intention, a purpose behind them. She was sure that-Antonio had intended, by means of these contacts, to establish a relationship with her, to make her an improper proposal.
'But are you quite sure?' I asked at last, astonished.
'How could I not be sure? Oh, Silvio, how can you doubt what I say?'
'But it might have been just an impression.'
'Impression? — nonsense. . Besides, it's enough just to look at him. He's sinister, that man. . completely bald, and with that neck and those eyes that always look up at you from under his eyelids and never straight in the face. . That man's baldness is outrageous. . Don't you see what I mean? Are you blind?'
'It might have been an accident…. A barber's work forces him to come very close to his client.'
'No, it wasn't an accident. . Once might perhaps have been an accident, but several times, all the time — no, it wasn't an accident.'
'Let's see,' I said; and I cannot deny that I felt some amusement in carrying out this species of inquest: 'you sit down on this chair… I'll be Antonio. Now, let's see.'
She was boiling over with impatience and anger; but she obeyed, though with a bad grace, and sat down on the chair. I took up a pencil, pretending it was the curling-iron, and leant over as though to curl her hair. And in fact, in that position, just as I had imagined, the lower part of my stomach was exactly at the level of her arm and shoulder and I could not help brushing against her.