He was far from calm when he turned the key in the lock. The door yielded a few inches, and then bumped and held with a rattle. He thrust his hand into the opening and felt the chain. Were there thieves in the house? He was on the point of running down to fetch Nunez or to phone the police when he heard Allbee say, “Is that you?”
“What’s the chain up for?” he demanded.
“I’ll explain to you later.”
“No, you won’t, you’ll explain it right now.”
But the chain remained in place. Leventhal urged himself not to lose his head and an instant later he punched at the door so that it shook and waited, staring at its ancient black trickles and tears of enamel. Then he began to pound again, enraged, shouting, “You! Open!” When he stopped he heard a low sound and, peering into the crack, he saw Allbee’s face or rather a segment of his face, his nose, his full lip, and, with the lingering effect of a trance, his eye and the familiar stain beneath it.
“Come on!” he said to him.
“I can’t,” Allbee whispered. “Come back a little later, will you? Give me about fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll give you nothing.”
“Ten minutes. Be decent.”
Leventhal threw himself at the door, whirling around and striking it with the side of his body and his lowered shoulder, his feet gritting on the tiles. He gripped the door posts and pushed. He now heard two voices inside. Again, more desperately, he lunged. The chain broke and he was thrown against the wall of the vestibule. He recovered and rushed into the front room. There Allbee, naked and ungainly, stood beside a woman who was dressing in great haste. He was helping her, handing her stockings and underwear from the heap on the chair beside the bed. She had on her skirt but from the waist up she was bare. Brushing aside his hand with the proffered stockings, she bent to squeeze her foot into a shoe, digging her finger in beside the heel. Her hair covered her face; nevertheless Leventhal thought he recognized her. Mrs Nunez! Was it Mrs Nunez? The horror of it bristled on him, and the outcry he had been about to make was choked down.
She stooped toward the light — only the bed lamp was lit and it cast a limited circle over the twisted sheets and the rug — and turned her blouse right side out. Her scared eyes glimmered at him and her breasts hung down heavily as she thrust her arm through the sleeve. Meanwhile, Allbee had hurried to the door and closed it. He came back and put on his shirt, the new shirt he had bought on Second Avenue. The stiff loop of the collar stood off from his neck. Next he drew on his pants, nearly losing his balance as he shifted from foot to foot. Breathing heavily, he looked down and, while he buttoned himself, he said quietly to Leventhal, “At least, go into another room for a while, till she leaves.”
“You get out, too.”
He dropped his head, and Leventhal could not tell from his expression whether he was entreating or ordering him. He looked at him with anger and contempt, and began to walk toward the kitchen. The woman turned and he saw her plainly. She was straightening her hair, her elbows working quickly above her head. She was a stranger, not Mrs Nunez; simply a woman. He felt enormously lightened, but at the same time it gave him a pang to think of his suspicion. She was a big woman, large hipped; her shoulders were high and the straight lines of her blouse made them appear square. She was tall and her hair was black, and that was all there was to the resemblance. There was an irregularity in the shape of her eyes; one was smaller than the other. It was with the larger, more brilliant eye that she returned his stare. Her smile was unsteady and resentful. He hovered near her a moment, inhaling the strong odor of powder or perfume that emanated from her in the heat of the room. She pushed a white comb into her hair and moved away from him.
He banged the kitchen door and, in the dark, beside the throbbing refrigerator, he waited and heard the low sounds of a conversation. He did not try to follow it. There were footsteps; the tread was the woman”s, she was going toward the door. It was for her sake primarily that he had withdrawn, in order to spare her. It wasn’t her fault. Probably Allbee had not told her the flat was someone else’s. The nerve of him, the nerve! Leventhal nearly cried aloud in revulsion. He distorted his face wildly, stretching his mouth. The nastiness of it! The refrigerator faltered and quivered but always recovered and ran, chaotically and interminably, ran and ran. Its white crown was on a level with his eyes; he could see blue sparks within. The only other thing visible in the room was the pilot light, also blue, a much deeper blue, in the black hollows and spidery bars of the gas range.
The woman’s look remained with him. So did her scent; it seemed to cling to the rooms. The voices continued in the vestibule. Leventhal went into the dining-room. On the day-bed’s crumpled sheets, the pillow gray, almost black, there were newspapers, underclothes, and socks. Between the curtains, on the sill, he discovered a cup of coffee in which drops of mold floated, and crumbs and scraps of food.
The outer door shut and he strode into the front room.
“Look here,” said Allbee, as soon as he came through the kitchen door. “I thought you were out of town for the week end. You didn’t come home last night. I thought…”
“You thought you’d bring a tramp in from the street.”
“No… now wait.” He gave a hasty, somewhat breathless laugh. “I know I have a fallen nature. I never pretended to be anything I wasn’t. Why all the excitement? You might have given me a few minutes.” He spoke placatingly, with humorous chagrin. He looked sallow and his lips were dry. His smile persisted at the corners covertly, it was boastful.
Leventhal flushed thickly. “In my bed!”
“Well, the day bed is so narrow. No place to take a lady.. I wanted a little more space…” He was by no means sure of himself and his voice wavered as he made the joke. “I fail to see what there is to fuss about.”
“Oh, you don’t see! It gave you a bang to put your whore where I sleep.”
The vehemence of his loathing gave a different turn to Allbee’s smile; it became jeering, and a yellowish hot tinge came over his bloodshot eyes. Leventhal heard him murmur something about “fastidiousness.”
“You hypocrite! I thought you couldn’t get over your wife.”
“Don’t you mention my wife!” Allbee cried.
“Why not, you’re always crying about her, aren’t you?”
“I say don’t! Leave things alone that you can’t understand.”
“What can’t I understand?”
“Not that, for sure!” Allbee said harshly. His face was inflamed; his cheekbones looked as if they had been branded. But he checked himself and slowly the color retreated. Only a few refractory spots remained. He seemed to force himself to make a gesture of retraction. “I mean,” he said, “she’s dead. What does she have to do with it? I have needs, naturally, the same as anybody else.”
“What did she have to do with the other things? You mealy-mouth, you were using her to work on my feelings. All right, what do I care? Go to hell. But you weren’t satisfied that you made this place so filthy I can’t stand to come in; you had to bring this woman into my bed.”
“But what’s there to be so upset about? Where else, if not in bed…?” He looked amused again and blinked his bloodshot eyes. “What do you do? Maybe you have some other way, more refined, different? Don’t you people claim that you’re the same as everybody else? That’s your way of saying that you’re above everybody else. I know.”
“Go get your stuff in the dining-room and clear out. I don’t want any more of you.”
“You don’t care about the woman. You’re just using her to make an issue and break your promise to me. Well, and I thought I had seen everything in the way of cynicism. By God, you could give lessons! I never met anyone who could touch you. I guess there’s an example in the world of everything a man can imagine, no matter how great or how gruesome. You certainly are not the same as everybody else.” He looked at him, keenly, brilliantly, triumphantly insolent. “What do you care about my wife! But your instinct told you where to jab, in the way that insects know where they’ll find the most sap.”