CHAPTER SIXTEEN

One morning, as Edna was walking to the beach, Ms Reisz surprised her by approaching her with a direct question: "Do you miss that young friend of yours?" As the time for her to return to New Orleans quickly approached, Edna found herself spending more and more of her time swimming in the sea. It had become the only thing she really enjoyed doing. Ms Reisz's question went straight to Edna's heart, for it was the only thing that she usually thought about. She had even begun to regularly visit Madame Lebrun's sewing room so that she could talk about Robert and look through the family pictures. Unfortunately, most of the pictures of Robert were old. None of them looked quite like the man that she was so familiar with.

Everyone knew that she missed him. Even her husband asked how her life had changed without having Robert around any longer. It did not make her feel strange to talk with him about Robert. She did not make any connection between her feelings for the two men.

One day, Edna got into a bit of an argument with Adèle. It was because she expressed the idea that she could give up nearly everything she had, even her life, for her children, but she could never live a false or unhappy life for them. Of course, Adèle could not understand this kind of thinking at all. In her mind, the greatest thing a woman could ever do for her children was give up her life to die for them.

Madame Reisz's question did not come as a surprise to Edna.

"Oh, yes. I do," she answered, "But his mother must have felt terrible to see him go!"

"Are you kidding?" asked Madame Reisz in surprise, "She didn't mind at all. Her favorite child is still living with her. She absolutely loves that idiot son of hers, Victor. I have no idea why. Robert's a good boy. But I can't imagine how he keeps himself from beating his brother to death."

"I can't see him ever doing anything to hurt Victor," said Edna.

"Oh, well you didn't see him a few years ago, when the two of them got into a terrible fight over that Spanish girl named Mariequita. A bad girl, she is."

Edna did not want to hear any more about this. It made her upset. She removed her robe and walked out into the water. She swam with more energy than ever. When she finished and walked back up onto the beach again, she found Ms Reisz still there, looking out at the water.

"When are you going back to the city?" she asked the pianist.

"I'm leaving on Monday," she answered, "What about you?"

"Not for another week yet. Did you enjoy your holiday?"

"I suppose so. However the insects and those two Farival twins just about made me crazy."

(end of section)