He’s got that much sense, I must admit. He knows that you have to buy them before you can raise them. So, when he wants something, say a duck now, he just blandly says ‘Give me some money, I want to buy a duck!’ Now that’s what I call impractical. That’s dreaming…. How did I get my money? Did I pick it off a bush? When I tell him to get out and hustle for it he gets sore. He thinks I’m against him. Is that right—or am I slandering you?» and he gave me another nickel-plated grin through the mirror. «It’s O.K.,» I said. «Don’t take it to heart.» «Take it to heart? Do you hear that? Jesus, if you think I lay awake nights worrying about you, you’re sadly mistaken. I’m trying to set you right, that’s all. I’m trying to put a little sense into your thick head. Of course I know you don’t want to raise ducks, but you must admit you do get some crazy notions now and then. Jesus, I hope you don’t forget the time you tried to sell me a Jewish Encyclopaedia. Imagine, he wanted me to sign for a set so that he could get his commission, and then I was to return it after a while—just like that. I was to give them some cock-and-bull story which he had trumped up on the spur of the moment. That’s the sort of genius he has for business. And me a lawyer! Can you see me signing my name to a phoney proposition like that? No, by Jesus, I’d have more respect for him if he had told me he wanted to raise ducks. I can understand a guy wanting to raise ducks. But to try and palm off a Jewish Encyclopaedia on your best friend—that’s raw, to say nothing of it being illegal and untenable. That’s another thing—he thinks the law is all rot. I don’t believe in it,’ he says, as if his believing or not believing made any difference. And as soon as he’s in trouble he comes hot-footing it to me. ‘Do something,’ he says, ‘you know how to handle these things.’ It’s just a game to him. He could live without law, so he thinks, but I’ll be damned if he isn’t in trouble all the time. And of course, as to paying me for my trouble, or just for the time I put in on him, that never enters his bean. I should do those little things for him out of friendship. You see what I mean?»

Nobody said anything.

We drove along in silence for a while. We passed more duck farms. I asked myself how long it would take to go crazy if one bought a duck and settled down on Long Island with it. Walt Whitman was born here somewhere. I no sooner thought of his name than, like buying the duck, I wanted to visit his birthplace.

«What about visiting Walt Whitman’s birthplace?» I said aloud.

«What?» yelled MacGregor.

«Walt Whitman!» I yelled. «He was born somewhere on Long Island. Let’s go there.»

«Do you know where?» shouted MacGregor.

«No, but we could ask some one.»

«Oh, the hell with that! I thought you knew where. These people out here wouldn’t know who Walt Whitman was. I wouldn’t have known myself only you talk about him so goddamn much. He was a bit queer, wasn’t he? Didn’t you tell me he was in love with a bus driver? Or was he a nigger lover? I can’t remember any more.»

«Maybe it was both,» said Ulric, uncorking the bottle.

We were passing through a town. «Jesus, but I seem to know this place!» said MacGregor. «Where in hell are we?» He pulled up to the curb and hailed a pedestrian. «Hey, what’s the name of this burg?» The man told him. «Can you beat that?» he said. «I thought I recognized the dump. Jesus, what a beautiful dose of clap I got here once! I wonder if I could find the house. I’d just like to drive by and see if that cute little bitch is sitting on the verandah. God, the prettiest little trick you ever laid eyes on—a little angel, you’d say. And could she fuck! One of those excitable little bitches, always in heat—you know, always throwing it up to you, rubbing it in your face. I drove out here in a pouring rain to keep a date with her. Everything just fine. Her husband was away on a trip and she was just itching for a piece of tail…. I’m trying to think now where I picked her up. I know this, that I had a hell of a time persuading her to let me visit her. Well, anyway, I had a wonderful time—never got out of bed for two days. Never got up to wash even—that was the trouble. Jesus, I swear if you saw that face alongside of you on the pillow you’d think you were getting the Virgin Mary. She could come about nine times without stopping. And then she’d say—’Do it again, once more… I feel depraved’ That was a funny one, eh? I don’t think she knew what the word meant. Anyway, a few days later it began to itch and then it got red and swollen. I couldn’t believe I was getting the clap. I thought maybe a flea had bitten me. Then the pus began to run. Boy, fleas don’t make pus. Well, I went round to the family doctor. That’s a beauty,’ he said, where did you get it?’ I told him. ‘Better have a blood test,’ he said, ‘it might be syphilis.’»

«That’s enough of that,» groaned Tess. «Can’t you talk about something pleasant for a change?»

«Well,» says MacGregor, in answer to that, «you’ve got to admit I’ve been pretty clean since I know you, right?’»

«You better had,» she answered, «or it wouldn’t be healthy for you.»

«She’s always afraid I’m going to bring her a present,» said MacGregor, grinning through the mirror again. «Listen Toots, everybody gets a dose some time or other. You can be thankful I got it before I met you—isn’t that right, Ulric?»

«Oh yeah?» snapped Tess. Another long wrangle might have ensued had we not come to a hamlet which MacGregor thought would be a good stopping place. He had an idea he would like to go crabbing. Besides, there was a road house nearby which served good food, if he remembered rightly. He bundled us all out. «Want to take a leak? Come on!» We left Tess standing at the roadside like a torn umbrella and went indoors to empty our bladders. He got us both by the arm. «Confidentially,» he said, «we ought to stick around here for the evening. There’s a fast crowd comes here; if you’d like to dance and have a drink or two, why this is the place. I won’t tell her we’re staying just yet— might get the wind up. We’ll go down to the beach first and loll around. When you get hungry just say so and then I’ll suddenly remember the road house —get me?»

We strolled down to the beach. It was almost deserted. MacGregor bought a pocketful of cigars, lit one, took off his shoes and socks and waded around in the water smoking a fat cigar. «It’s great, isn’t it?» he said. «You’ve got to be a kid once in a while.» He made his wife take her shoes and stockings off. She waddled into the water like a hairy duck Ulric sprawled out on the sand and took a nap. I lay there watching MacGregor and his wife at their clumsy antics. I wondered if Mara had arrived and what she would think when she found I was not there. I wanted to get back as quick as possible. I didn’t give a fuck about the road house and the fast ponies who came there to dance. I had a feeling that she was back, that she was sitting on Ulric’s doorstep waiting for me. I wanted to get married again, that’s what I wanted. What had ever induced me to come out here to this God-forsaken place? I hated Long Island, always had. MacGregor and his ducks! The thought of it drove me mad. If I were to own a duck I would call it MacGregor, tie it to a lamp post and shoot it with a 48 calibre revolver. I’d shoot it until it was dead and then pole-axe it. His ducks! Fuck a duck! I said to myself. Fuck everything!

We went to the roadhouse just the same. If I had thought to demur I forgot it. I had reached a state of indifference born of despair. I let myself drift with the current. And, as always happens when you relent and allow yourself to be borne along by the clashing wills of others, something occurred which we didn’t bargain for.

We had finished eating and we were having a third or fourth drink; the place was cosily filled, everybody was in a good mood. Suddenly, at a table nearby, a young man rose to his feet with a glass in hand and addressed the house. He wasn’t drunk, he was just in a pleasant state of euphoria, as Dr. Kronski would put it. He was explaining quietly and easily that he had taken the liberty of calling attention to himself and his wife, to whom he raised his glass, because it was the first anniversary of their wedding, and because they felt so good about it that they wanted everybody to know it