Master of Comus

Clyte returned.

'Your room is ready,' she said gently. T have put a tray in the room. If you are hungry you can eat a meal before you sleep, just a simple little meal of bread and cold lamb and fruit.

'It is sleep she needs, not food,' Argon grunted. 'You women think too much of the stomach, not enough of the soul. Sleep heals many things.

Clyte retorted, 'Lie down and sleep then, old man, and let foolish women manage things without you.

Leonie laughed, and Clyte gave her an approving smile. 'That is better! You begin to look human. Come.. .'

She ate some of the food Clyte had prepared, not wishing to offend her after her kindness, then undressed and slid into bed. The room lay in cool shadow. The blinds were down, and a sea breeze rustled through the room. She watched the blue- black shadows moving on the bedroom wall and slowly felt herself slide into sleep.

In the morning she was able to face Argon without any of the dread she had felt on the previous day. She was relieved, all the same, when he asked no questions. She sat with him for an hour, reading the English newspapers to him, then when he fell asleep she went down and helped Clyte with preparing the lunch. Clyte talked to her in English, but began to teach her a little more Greek at her request.

One day I would like to be able to speak it fluently. After all, it is my language as much as English is.,.'

Clyte nodded vigorously. 'Good, that is good! Greek is a very beautiful language. So, you did not like Paris?'

The question took Leonie off guard, and she started and flushed. 'Paris? Why, yes, I did like it, very much. It's a lovely city.'

'Yet you left it very quickly,' Clyte pointed out.

'I felt useless in that empty flat,' Leonie said defensively. 'Paul has a cleaning woman who comes in every day, and there was nothing for me to do. I'm not used to doing nothing all day. I was bored.' 'Bored? On your honeymoon?'

Oh, Clyte,' Leonie broke out. 'You know perfectly well that my marriage was arranged, it wasn't a love match. Don't pretend to believe that I was a happy bride.'

Clyte looked at her anxiously. 'What went wrong, Leonie? Was Paul unkind to you? I could have sworn that.. .' Her voice tailed off into silence.

'Paul was not unkind,' Leonie said flatly.

Clyte sighed. 'Well, we are finished now. Why don't you go down to the beach for a while?'

'If you're sure you don't need me?'

'I am sure,' Clyte insisted. 'Enjoy yourself.'

The beach was deserted, the golden sands virgin and untrodden, the waves curling on to them in white-flecked breakers. A few gulls wheeled and dived over the water. The blue sky stretched endlessly without a cloud.

Leonie lay down on a spread towel, staring at the sky for a few moments, then on an impulse got up and ran down into the waves. She swam strongly out to sea. It was exciting to breast the rolling waves and feel them carry her forward. She felt as if she could swim on forever and never return to the world she had left behind. But after a while, with a sigh, she turned back and swam inshore again. Reluctant, however, to leave the beckoning depths, she dived down into the clear, sun-freckled water and tried to touch the bottom. White-sanded shelves threaded with dark green seaweed which brushed clingingly against her thighs as she moved, sending little swarms of tiny silvery fish darting nervously out of her way as her slender, half-naked body cleft their watery home. She could taste the salt on her lips, hear the thunder of the waves in her ears. In this remote watery world she was almost able to forget her problems.

Later she sunbathed until the salt dried on her body, relaxing with limp limbs under the spell of the sun and the sea.

Heavily content, she returned to the house. She had lunch with Argon. They ate fish salad and hot pitta, drank sweet strong Greek coffee cup after cup, talking idly about Comus and the people. Then Leonie left Argon to have another of his necessary, frequent naps. He was looking even older than when she had first met him. His illness was taking its toll, and she was glad she had come back to be with him. Even his close relationship with Clyte was not enough. He needed his own family around him.

In the afternoon she also took a brief nap on her bed behind closed shutters. The slumbrous heat of the day cast a spell over the whole island. Animals and birds sheltered from the heat. There were few sounds to be heard. No breath of wind stirred the olive trees. Even the sea seemed to be hushed.

As the shadows lengthened, everyone began to wake up. A dog began to bark somewhere. Birds called in the cypresses. Somewhere on the hills the sheep bells began to tinkle again and she heard the distant bleating of a goat. Leonie got up, washed and changed, then went down to help Clyte with dinner.

She ate the evening meal with Argon again, this time moussaka and salad, then they played chess together for an hour. Argon won. Very pleased with himself, he said goodnight to her, and she went up to her room to bed. She could not sleep so early, so she read for a while until she fell asleep.

This first day became the pattern for them all. Day succeeded day. Leonie swam and sunbathed, read and played chess and sat with Argon talking. She ate her meals and took her afternoon sleep. The hours ticked past in a summer haze of content.

She began to forget about Paul. At first she had thought of nothing else. He had haunted her, waking and sleeping, stalking in her dreams like the ghost of Hamlet's father. But gradually she made herself turn off. She drove his image away through sheer power of will.

They had heard nothing from him, and Argon and Clyte carefully never mentioned him.

Leonie had thought for a while that he would write or telephone, but gradually she realised that he meant to do neither. No doubt he was already setting their divorce on foot Or would he wait until after Argon's death to do that? She no longer cared. Her sense of self-preservation made it necessary for her to switch off and forget him, and she did just that.

About a month after her arrival a thought occurred to her that froze the blood in her veins. She had begun to notice certain things which "gradually assumed a terrifying significance.