Through the side window of a boxroom on the second floor, Sophia could also see what was going on inside the house next door. The newly repaired windows had no curtains and she did not think they would ever acquire any. Each resident seemed to have chosen a floor. The problem was that the tall, fair-haired one worked in his apartment half-naked, virtually naked, and sometimes completely naked, according to his fancy. As far as she could see, this bothered him not at all. It was embarrassing. He was good to look at, that wasn’t the problem. But as a result, Sophia did not really feel at her ease perching in the boxroom. Apart from work on the house, which sometimes seemed to overwhelm them, but which they were pursuing with determination-they did a lot of reading and writing as well. Bookshelves had been filled with books. Sophia who had been born on the rocky shores of Delphi, and who had made her way in the world entirely by her voice, admired anyone who could spend time reading a book at a table with a reading lamp.
Then last week, there had been a new arrival. Another man, but much older. At first Sophia thought he was a visitor. But no, the elderly man had come to stay. For some time? Well, anyway there he was, in one of the attic rooms. It was pretty odd, all the same. He had a good face, she thought. He was far and away the most handsome of her neighbours. But the oldest too: sixty, seventy, maybe. To look at him you would suppose he would have a commanding voice, but on the contrary, he spoke so softly and mildly that to date Sophia had been unable to hear a single word of what he said. He held himself very erect and tall, very much the ex-commander of the fleet. Nor did he lend a hand with the repair work. He watched, and chatted. It was impossible to catch his name. For the moment, Sophia called him ‘Alexander the Great’ or ‘the old bugger’, depending on her mood.
The one you heard most often was the one with a tie, Lucien. His voice carried a long way and he seemed to take pleasure in giving a loud running commentary on what he was doing, giving all kinds of advice, only rarely followed by his companions. She had tried talking to Pierre about the neighbours, but he was no more interested in them than in the tree. As long as they didn’t make too much noise in the disgrace next door, he was not going to concern himself with them. Yes, of course, Pierre was preoccupied with his social work. Yes, of course, every day he had to deal with files on terrible cases, single mothers sleeping rough, young people chucked out by their families, homeless twelve-year-olds, old people wheezing away in slums, and he compiled reports on all that for the minister. And Pierre was the kind of person who was conscientious about his work. Even if Sophia hated the way he sometimes talked about ‘his’ cases, which he divided into categories and sub-categories, the way he did her fans. Which category would Pierre have put her in, when at twelve years old she was trying to sell embroidered handkerchiefs to tourists in Delphi? A ‘social problem’ for sure. So yes, one could understand how, with all that to think about, he couldn’t give a damn about a tree or the four next-door neighbours. But still. Why would he never talk about them? Even for a minute?
VI
MARC DID NOT EVEN LOOK UP WHEN HE HEARD LUCIEN FROM HIS third-floor eyrie shout an order of high alert, or some such warning. Marc was more or less learning to put up with the Great War historian, who had, for one thing, put in a huge amount of work on the house, and was, for another, given to impressively long periods of silent study. Indeed they were so intense that he was dead to the world for as long as he was grappling with the mudbath of the Great War. Lucien had made himself responsible for all the rewiring and replumbing, of which mysteries Marc knew absolutely nothing, and for which he would be eternally grateful to him. He had transformed the attic into a large double room, neither cold nor dilapidated, where the godfather was now happily settled. He paid a third of the rent and contributed a generous flow of donations, bringing some new refinement to the house every week. But he was also generous with speeches and occasionally with outbursts. He could deliver sarcastic military tirades, excesses of all kinds, and snap judgements. He was capable of ranting away for a whole hour at full stretch, over some tiny detail. Marc was learning to let Lucien’s tirades go in and out of his consciousness like inoffensive monsters. Lucien wasn’t even a militarist. He was trying, with determination and rigour, to penetrate the heart of the Great War, but not succeeding in locating it. Perhaps that was why he shouted so much. No, there must be some other reason. At any rate, this time Lucien came downstairs and burst into Marc’s room without knocking.
‘General alert!’ he cried. ‘Take cover! The neighbour’s on her way.’
‘Which neighbour?’
‘The one on the Western Front. The one on the right, if you prefer. The rich woman who wears scarves. Not a word. When she rings the bell, nobody moves. Empty house. I’ll tell Mathias.’
Before Marc could say anything, Lucien had run down to the first floor.
‘Mathias,’ he called, opening his door. ‘General alert! Empty-’
Marc heard Lucien stop abruptly. He smiled and came downstairs after him.
‘Oh for God’s sake,’ Lucien was saying. ‘Do you have to be in the nude to put up some bookshelves! I mean, what is the point? Don’t you ever get cold?’
‘I’m not in the nude, I’ve got sandals on,’ Mathias said calmly.
‘Sandals, as if that made a difference! And if you must play at being prehistoric man, surely, whatever I may think of him, he wasn’t daft enough to go around with no clothes on.’
Mathias shrugged.
‘I know more about that than you do,’ he said. ‘And it’s got nothing to do with prehistoric man.’
‘What is it to do with, then?’
‘It’s just me. I don’t like clothes, they make me feel imprisoned. I’m fine like this. What do you want me to say? It’s not a problem for you, if I stay on this floor. You just need to knock before you come in. Anyway what’s going on? Is there some emergency?’
The concept of an emergency did not figure in Mathias’ mental makeup. Marc entered, smiling.
‘“The serpent”’, he remarked, ‘“on seeing a naked man, is frightened and escapes as fast as he can. But when it sees a man with clothes on, it attacks without fear.” Thirteenth-century saying.’
‘This isn’t getting us anywhere,’ said Lucien.
‘What’s going on?’ Mathias asked again,
‘Nothing. Lucien saw the neighbour from the Western Front advancing this way. Lucien has decided not to answer when she rings.’
‘The bell still doesn’t work,’ observed Mathias.
‘Pity it’s not the neighbour from the Eastern Front,’ said Lucien. ‘She’s pretty. I get the feeling one could negotiate a peace treaty with the Eastern Front.’
‘How do you know?’
‘I’ve conducted a few tactical reconnaissance missions. The east is more interesting and more accessible.’
‘Well, this is the western one,’ said Marc firmly. ‘And I don’t see why we shouldn’t open the door to her. I like her fine, we chatted a bit one morning. In any case, it would do us no harm to be nice to the neighbours. Simply a matter of strategy.’
‘Oh, well, of course,’ said Lucien, ‘if we are talking diplomacy.’
‘Conviviality. Human relations, if you prefer.’
‘She’s knocking at the door now,’ said Mathias. ‘I’ll go down and open it.’
‘Mathias!’ said Marc, taking hold of his arm.
‘What’s the matter. I thought you were in favour.’
Marc looked at him, gesturing silently.
‘Oh shit,’ said Mathias. ‘I suppose I’d better put some clothes on.’
‘I suppose you should.’
While the others went downstairs, he pulled on a sweater and a pair of trousers.
‘I did tell him that sandals were not enough,’ said Lucien.