A Fine and Private Place Read Free

slave though I am, Virginia’s my little girl still, and to think of playing on her feelings for me to force her into the arms of a man three times her age—”
    â€œShall I cry, amico ?” Importuna said. “You’re beginning to bore me. You’d sell her to an Arab if you could and there were enough money in it. Yes, I was born on September 9th, 1899, so I’ll be 63 next month, and Virginia is 21, making me exactly three times her age, as you say. It would be a perfect day for a marriage; the numbers are very good, perfetto .”
    â€œBut three times …”
    â€œI said no more!” Importuna shouted.
    The tall man was startled. “All right, Nino,” he said, “all right.”
    Importuna subsided, muttering in Italian. Finally he looked up. “Don’t stand in the way of this. I want her. You understand? You can point out to her what she gets by marrying me. I give my promise, on my mother’s memory, that she will have anything and everything she asks for. I offer her villas, chateaux, palaces—you know my properties. A private yacht, one of the biggest; bigger than Onassis’s, than Niarchos’s. A jet of her own. Jewels—by the pound, if she likes. Clothes designed just for her by any or all of the great designers. Anything. Everything.”
    â€œEverything but a young husband in her bed,” the tall man said. He did not quite know why he said it. He regretted the taunt immediately. A kind of boiling began to take place in the depths of the coffee-colored eyes. But then the hands, which had tightened about the dagger, relaxed and went Dürer again.
    â€œIs that so much to give up,” Importuna asked icily, “when she gets so much? Spare me the fatherly sentiment, amico . I know you for what you are.”
    Maybe you do and maybe you don’t, the tall man said silently. Aloud he said, “Then that’s the deal?” When Importuna shook his head the tall man said, “There’s more to it, of course.”
    â€œ Sì davvero, caro mio . There will be a before-marriage paper—an agreement which Virginia will sign.”
    â€œWhat kind of agreement?”
    â€œIt will say that she consents to have no property claim against me or my estate, not even the ordinary dower right, for five whole years after the wedding. This is so that she will not become my wife and then leave me. But if she sticks to our bargain—if she’s still my wife and living with me on September 9th, 1967–then she becomes my heir. My only heir, suocero . How does that grab you, as they say? Could anything be fairer than that?”
    â€œThere’s the little matter of good faith between man and wife,” the prospective father-in-law began; then he stopped and laughed. “No, you certainly have the right to protect yourself under the, uh, circumstances.” He reached over, retrieved the Havana, and relit it. “But, Nino …”
    â€œ Ora che cos’è ?”
    â€œOn September 9, 1967 you’ll be—let’s see—68? Since we’re speaking frankly,” he said through a dribble of Cuban smoke, “I have to raise the disagreeable possibility that you may no longer be with us on that date. What happens to my daughter if you should die before the expiration of the agreement? She’d be left holding a very empty bag.”
    â€œYes,” Importuna said, “and so would you.”
    â€œBut, Nino, that could mean she’ll have wasted up to as much as five years of her young life. That doesn’t seem right—”
    â€œI agree, amico . But it’s a chance she’ll have to take. Is it such a bad gamble? Considering the stakes? Besides, try to see it from my point of view.”
    â€œOh, I do, Nino. Still, Virginia’s all I have. Her mother is dead, as you know. Not a single relative we know of left on either side—”
    â€œMy poor future