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MARIO GONZALO, host of that evening&039;sof the Black Widowers, had evidently decided to introduce his guest with eclat At least he rattled his glass with a spoon and, when all had broken off their preprandial conversations and looked up from their cocktails, Mario made his introduction He had even waited for Tho so

"Gentleuest, John Anderssen - that&039;s an s - s - e - n at the end You can discover anything you want about hi, however, I must tell you now because I know that this bunch of asexual loudmouths will never discover it on their own John has a ho is, absolutely, the eous specimen of femininity the world has ever seen And I say this as an artist with an artist&039;s eye"

Anderssen reddened and looked unco man, perhaps thirty, with a small mustache and a fair coht and had rather chiseled features that caether to for down froratulate you, Mr Anderssen, although you need not take seriously Mario&039;s characterization of ourselves as asexual I&039; a beautiful woht be considered to be past the first flush of hot - blooded youth, can - "

Truive an e interrupted Fro woman in our raph I iine, Mr Anderssen, you carry a photo of your fair wife in your wallet Would you consent to let us look at it?"

"No," said Anderssen, e furiously, he said, "I don&039;t mean you can&039;t look at it I raph of her with ly, and was clearly not sorry

Gonzalo, unabashed, said, "Well, that&039;s your loss, loriously red, a live red that just about glows in the dark And natural, totally natural - and no freckles"

"Well," said Anderssen in half a mutter, "she stays out of the sun - Her hair is her best feature"

E rather dour, said in a low voice, "And temper to match, I suppose"

Anderssen turned to hie of bitterness, "She has a temper" He did not elaborate

Rubin said, "I don&039;t suppose there&039;s a more durable myth than the one that redheads are hot - tempered The redness of the hair is that of fire, and the principles of syic lead people to suppose that the personality should march the hair"

Jae of being the oldest of the Widowers, sighed reminiscently, and said, "I&039;ve known some very hot - blooded redheads"

"Sure you have," said Rubin "So has everyone It&039;s a self - fulfilling assuiven for being nasty and ill - behaved Parents sigh fatuously and oes with the hair, and the one with red hair in the family explains how Great - Uncle Joe wouldthat was less than a grovelling co knocked out of them by non - redheaded peers and that teaches theirls don&039;t And, if they&039;re beautiful besides, they grow up knowing they can indulge their impoliteness to the hilt An occasional judicious kick in the fanny would do theood"

Rubin carefully did not look at Anderssen in the course of his co at all

Henry, the indispensable waiter at all the Black Widower functions, said quietly, "Gentlemen, you may be seated"

The chef at the Milano had clearly decided to be Russian for the evening, and an excellent hot borscht was followed by an even anoff on a bed of rice Rubin, who usually endured the food with an expression of stoic disapproval, on principle, allowed a smile to play over his sparsely bearded face on this occasion, and helped himself lavishly to the dark puer Halsted, whose affection for a goodwith Henry

The guest, John Anderssen, ate heartily, and participated eagerly in the conversation which, through a logical association, perhaps, dealt largely with the shooting down of the Korean jetliner by the Soviets Anderssen pointed out that the ship had been widely referred to as "Flight 007," which was the nu the first couple of weeks Then someone must have remembered that 007 was the code number of James Bond, so when the Soviets insisted the liner had been a spy plane, it becaht 7" in the news h it had never been

He also one off course al Alaska, should not have been left uninfor, red - faced, that failure to do so, when the Soviet Union was known to be on the hair trigger with respect to Aan&039;s "evil empire" rhetoric, was indefensible

He paid no attention, in fact, to his dessert, a honey - drenched baklava; left his coffee half - finished; and totally ignored Henry&039;s soft request that he make his wishes knoith respect to the brandy

He was actually pounding the table when Gonzalo rattled his spoon against his water glass Avalon was forced to raise his baritone voice to a co, "Mr Anderssen, if you please -"

Anderssen subsided, looking vaguely confused, as though he were, with difficulty, re where he was

Gonzalo said, "It&039;s ti, and Jeff, since you seeets excited, suppose you do the honors"

Avalon cleared his throat, gazed at Anderssen solemnly for a few moments, then said, "Mr Anderssen, how do you justify your existence?"

Anderssen said, "What?"

"You exist, sir Why?"

"Oh," said Anderssen, still collecting himself &039;Then, in a low harsh voice, he said, "To expiate my sins in an earlier existence, I should think"

Drake, as at thea refresher from Henry, muttered, "So are we all Don&039;t you think so, Henry?"

And Henry&039;s sixtyish unlined face remained expressionless as he said, very softly, "A Black Widowers banquet is surely a reward for virtue rather than an expiation for sins"

Drake lifted his glass, "A palpable hit, Henry"

Trurowled, "Let&039;s cut out the private conversations"

Avalon raised his hand "Gentlemen! As you all know, I do not entirely approve of our custo out probleht interest us Nevertheless, I wish to call your attention to a peculiar pheno, certainly, by the standards of old mustaches such as ourselves - well - proportioned, of excellent appearance, seeh we have not yet ascertained what the nature of his work is -"

"He&039;s in good health and is doing well at his work," put in Gonzalo

"I aravely "In addition, he isand beautiful woman, so that one can&039;t help but wonder why he should feel life to be such a burden as to lead him to believe that he exists only in order to expiate past sins Consider, too, that during the meal just concluded, Mr Anderssen was animated and vivacious, not in the least abashed by our older and wiser heads I believe he shouted down even Manny, who is not one to be shouted doith iood point," said Rubin, indignantly

"I think he was, too," said Avalon, "but what I wish to stress is that he is voluble, articulate, and not backward at expressing his views Yet during the cocktail period, when the conversation dealt with his wife, he seemed to speak most reluctantly From this, I infer that the source of Mr Anderssen&039;s unhappiness may be Mrs Anderssen - Is that so, Mr Anderssen?"

Anderssen seemed stricken and remained silent

Gonzalo said, "John, I explained the terms You must answer"

Anderssen said, "I&039;m not sure how to answer"

Avalon said, "Let me be indirect After all, sir, there is no intention to hu said in this room is ever repeated by any of us elsewhere That includes our esteemed waiter, Henry Please feel that you can speak freely Mr Anderssen, how long have you been married?"

"Two years Actually, closer to two and a half"

"Any children, sir?"

"Not yet We hope to have soedivorce"

"Certainly not"

"I take it then that you love your wife?"

"Yes And before you ask, I am quite satisfied she loves me"

"There is, of course, a certain proble married to a beautiful woued by jealousy, sir?"

"No," said Anderssen "I&039;ve no cause for it Helen - that&039;s reat interest in ht had dawned

"Except for nantly "She&039;s not in the least bit asexual Besides," he went on, "Mario exaggerates She does have this luxuriant head of remarkable red hair, but aside from that she is not really spectacular Her looks, I would say, are average - though I must rely now on your assurance that all said here is confidential I would not want that assessood, and I find her beautiful, but there are no ued by jealousy"

"What about her temper?" put in Drake, suddenly "That&039;s been mentioned and you&039;ve ad and dish throwing?"

"Sohts, sure," said Anderssen, "but noAs Mr Avalon has pointed out, I&039;ood at shouting, but after ork off our stea"

"Then am I to take it, sir, that your wife is not the source of your troubles?" said Avalon

Anderssen fell silent again

"I must ask you to answer, Mr Anderssen," said Avalon

Anderssen said, "She is the problem Just now, anyway But it&039;s too silly to talk about"

Rubin sat up at that and said, "On the contrary Till now, I felt that Jeff was just wasting our time over the kind of domestic irritations that we attend these dinners, in part, to escape But if there&039;s so silly involved, then ant to hear it"

"If you must know," said Anderssen "Helen says she&039;s a witch"

"Oh?" said Rubin "Has she always claimed this, or just recently?"

"Always We joke about it She would say she put et et me a promotion or a raise Sometimes, when she is furious, she&039;ll say, "Well, don&039;t blaoing to be that stupid and "

Rubin said, "It sounds harmless to me She probably did put you under enchantment You fell in love with her and any wochar You can call that enchantet the promotions and raises"

"Surely that could be because you deserve theet the pied to trip and sprain an ankle and, of course, she said she had changed the spell because she didn&039;t want to spoil hed and said, "You don&039;t really act disturbed at this, Mr Anderssen After all, this sort of playacting by a young and vivacious wo Why don&039;t you?"

Anderssen said, "Because she pulled it onthat I can&039;t understand" He threw himself back in his chair and stared somberly at the table in front of hih to look into Anderssen&039;s eyes and said, "You mean you think she really is a witch?"

"I don&039;t knohat to think I just can&039;t explain what she did"

Avalon said, forcibly, "Mr Anderssen, I must ask you to explain just what it was that Mrs Anderssen did Would you do that, sir?"

"Well," said Anderssen, "et it But I don&039;t think so"

He brooded a bit and the Widoaited patiently

Finally, he said, "It was just about aout for dinner, just the two of us We do that once in a while, and we like to try new places We were trying a new place this tih the lobby of a small midtown hotel It was an unpretentious restaurant, but we had had good reports of it The trouble started in the lobby

"I don&039;t remember exactly what set it off In fact, I don&039;t even remember what it was all about, really What happened afterward pushed it our of reement In less than atheto one side of the lobby, under a plastic potted plant of so istration desk was across the way, between the door to the restaurant and the door to the street The scene is still painted in , "If that&039;s your attitude, we don&039;t have to have dinner together&039;

"I swear to all of you, I don&039;t rehly vocal, and ere both of us furious, I ad It was one of those tiirlfriend, I suppose - are shouting at each other in whispers The words are being squeezed out between clenched teeth, and every once in a while one of you says, &039;For Heaven&039;s sake, people are staring,&039; and the other says, "Then shut up and listen to reason,&039; and the first one says, &039;You&039;re the one who isn&039;t listening,&039; and it just keeps on and on"

Anderssen shook his head at the ument we had ever had up to that time, or since, and yet I can&039;t remember what it was about Unbelievable!

"Then she suddenly said, &039;Well, then, I&039; home Good - bye&039; I said, &039;Don&039;t you dare hu me in public&039; And she said, &039;You can&039;t stop me&039; And I said, &039;Don&039;t tempt me, or I will stop you&039; And she said, &039;Just try,&039; and dashed into the restaurant

"That caught et past me to the door to the street - and I was ready to seize her wrist and hang on It would have been better to let her go than to make a scene, I suppose, but I was past reason In any case, she fooled me, and made a dash for the restaurant

"I was stunned for a moment - two moments - and then I hurried in after her I may have been twenty seconds behind her - Let e one, and it had the deliberate decor of a living roo Room - Are any of you acquainted with it?"

There was a blank murmur about the table, but Henry, who had cleared the dishes with his usual unobtrusive efficiency and was standing by the sideboard, said, "Yes, sir It is, as you say, a small but well - run restaurant"

"It had about a dozen tables," Anderssen proceeded, "the largest of which would hold six There s with drapes, but not real s They had city views painted on them There was a fireplace in the wall opposite the entrance door with artificial logs in it, and a couch facing it The couch was real and, I suppose, could be used by people aiting for the rest of their parry to arrive At least, there was oneon the left end of the couch He had his back to h and close to his head as though he were nearsighted I judged froraphy that it was Time - "

Avalon put in suddenly, "You see into minutiae Is this important that you&039;ve just told us?"

"No," said Anderssen, "I suppose not, but I a to impress on you that I was not hysterical and that I was entirelythere was to see quite clearly When I came in, about half the tables were taken, with two to four people at each There may have been fifteen to twenty people present There were no waitresses on the scene at the moment and the cashier was stationed just outside the restaurant, to one side of the door in a rather unobtrusive recess, so it really did look like a living rooarette "It sounds like an idyllic place What was present there that disturbed you?"

"Nothing was present that disturbed me That&039;s the point It as absent there Helen wasn&039;t there Look, she had gone in I saw her go in I am not mistaken There was no other door on that side of the lobby There was no croithin which she ht have been lost to view for a moment My vision was entirely unobstructed and she went in and did not come out I followed in her tracks and entered, at the most, twenty seconds after her - maybe less, but not lance"

Trulance will fool you"