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Show -40- by the dressingroom door. He did not stop to bag it, but hurried inside (pausing only to pat the dog on her head) to rid himself of his damp clothing and to get into a hot shower. After the shower and into fresh clothes, he went to the little bar off the living room and mixed himself two double martinis? He put a recording of Mozart quartets on the stereo? and settled down comfdetably on a couch by the window? martini pitcher and glass by his side? to listen and relax before going out to dinner? Where he was sitting1? he could not see the bay? but he could see the greenery of the hill? where it rose above his house byond the patio.' Although there were homes below and above him, he could not see a single one, and only occasionally did he hear the sound of a car passing on the road. He might have been miles from any habitation, so quiet was it, and? he thought? peaceful? Had his wife been there? it would have been the same, except for the music? She would be in the kitchen preparing dinner? and she didn't like music playing when she cooked. Cooking? she said? took the same concentration as his writing. He had placed two extension speakers in his study! so he could go down there if he wanted to (and he sometimes did); but on the whole, tfefe satisfying odors of her cooking provided him as mcuh pleasure as the music, so he usually took his before-dinner drinks upstairs? where she wouldjjoin him for a single drink, once she had got the dinner underway. |