Page 363 - tender-is-the-night

resorts in the mountains, people who are no longer persona
gratis in France or Italy.
The suite was darkened. A nun with a holy face was nurs-
ing the man whose emaciated fingers stirred a rosary on the
white sheet. He was still handsome and his voice summoned
up a thick burr of individuality as he spoke to Dick, after
Dangeu had left them together.
‘We get a lot of understanding at the end of life. Only now,
Doctor Diver, do I realize what it was all about.’
Dick waited.
‘I’ve been a bad man. You must know how little right I
have to see Nicole again, yet a Bigger Man than either of us
says to forgive and to pity.’ The rosary slipped from his weak
hands and slid off the smooth bed covers. Dick picked it up
for him. ‘If I could see Nicole for ten minutes I would go
happy out of the world.’
‘It’s not a decision I can make for myself,’ said Dick. ‘Ni-
cole is not strong.’ He made his decision but pretended to
hesitate. ‘I can put it up to my professional associate.’
‘What your associate says goes with me—very well, Doc-
tor. Let me tell you my debt to you is so large—‘
Dick stood up quickly.
‘I’ll let you know the result through Doctor Dangeu.’
In his room he called the clinic on the Zugersee. After a
long time Kaethe answered from her own house.
‘I want to get in touch with Franz.’
‘Franz is up on the mountain. I’m going up myself—is it
something I can tell him, Dick?’
‘It’s about Nicole—her father is dying here in Lausanne.

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