The End Of The Rainbow – Episode 60
As they ate and drank glasses of chilled wine in the leafy shade, Adam spoke of his eagerness to explore, to sample the artistic ambience of the place.“For that, you will need to go a little further,” his companion said. “This is the Latin Quarter. I will show you the street you must take to reach the centre of Montparnasse.”Adam stared at her.“But I thought but we will be together, Madeleine.”She smiled and glanced at her watch. Adam realised that she had done this several times during lunch.“No. I must go to a special bookshop I know. I need more books.” She fixed him with a winning smile. “More books for my studies, you understand. And we must not waste time.” She glanced again at her watch.“You go to see your artists, Adam. We will meet here trois heures at three o’clock, as you say.” She rose. “Look, there is the street you must take. Till three, then, au revoir.”Before he could collect his thoughts, she had drifted off and crossed the street, turning only to award him a languid wave.Disappointment engulfing him, Adam hurriedly paid the waiter, reflecting that he had just enough left for coffee on the way home. But as the disappointment wore off, he began to wonder about Madeleine’s constant checking of the time and her anxiety to leave. She had asked him to spend the day with her, yet now she seemed to have other plans.Something made him dash across the street and plunge into the crowds. Trying to remember the direction Madeleine had taken, his step quickened. Further ahead the crowd had thinned out and he caught a flash of white and a wide-brimmed hat. Turning the corner, he came upon a leafy square with tall elegant houses on three sides, their frontages decorated with shallow little balconies in wrought iron. A door opened and a man beckoned.Madeleine ran across the square and up a shallow flight of steps, and threw herself into his arms. There, openly, they shared a lingering kiss and then disappeared through the open door.Shock rooted Adam to the spot, his emotions in turmoil, raging at himself for being such a fool. She had brought him here so that she could keep an assignation, so that she would not arouse suspicion at home!An assignation with Andr Andr who had been missing from the scene in Montmartre for weeks.Adam turned away, his fists clenched, fighting a rising anger. How could he have been such a fool? He retraced his steps, trying vainly to compose himself.He saw nothing of Montparnasse and the artists that afternoon, but made his way back to the leafy spot near the caf where he and Madeleine had sat and talked earlier. He lost track of time, his thoughts tumbling earthwards as numbness took the place of the heat of rage.Then, as the gentlest of breezes revived him, he told himself his friend Rhuari had been right after all. He had been in love with an idea, and had tried to make everything fit in with that idea including Madeleine. She had given him no encouragement; the blame rested with him and his foolishness.He resolved to feign ignorance of her deception, to say nothing on the way back to Montmartre. But in his heart of hearts he knew that his French idyll had been nothing more than a foolish dream.
