OU_214051 UNIVERSA - Osmania University

THE LODGER 53
" What do you think of my daughter—my eldest, I mean?
You mustn't judge her by her looks; she's quite a good girl
at heart. Only she's always been crazy on dancing. Still, I
own I wouldn't care to see her here too often,.. . Have you any
sisters? "
Elie had to think. He'd almost forgotten if he had any sisters!
The question jerked him back into another life, that now seemed
infinitely remote. After some moments he said:
" Yes, I have a sister."
" Is she nice-looking? Does she live in Turkey? "
Yes, she lived at Pera. Presumably she was pretty, as all his male
friends had shown an interest in her. All the same, though she
was twenty-seven, she had never even been engaged. For the first
time Elie caught himself wondering if she'd ever had a serious loveaffair.
With an effort he conjured up a picture of the modernistic flat
in a big block of houses where Esther and her mother lived. But
he found it impossible to visualize the details, and it suddenly struck
him that he had never troubled to observe them, and, what surprised
him still more, that his sister was a stranger to him.
" Have you any photos in your luggage? "
" No, I don't think I have."
" I'm sorry about that. All my lodgers have pictures of their
families hanging in their rooms. So I get to know what their
mothers and brothers and sisters look like. Sometimes one of them
has his mother come to see him, and she writes to me regular after
she's gone back home, and I like that. Last year Monsieur Domb's
mother paid him a visit—such a nice lady she is. You'd never think
he was her son. He's going bald—you must have noticed that. His
mother's such a pretty woman, and quite young. When they're
out together you'd take 'em for a pair of lovebirds. It was this room
she slept in."
Though she never ceased talking, Madame Baron was always
busy doing something, flicking off dust, putting each object in its
place. Twice she stepped back to make sure the brass flower-pot
container, standing on a small lace mat, was plumb in the middle of
the window-ledge.
" I've been meaning to tell you. Don't let my husband know
I didn't make you fill in the form reporting your arrival to the
police. You see, he's in government service himself, and he don't
see things like we do."