Quiet Days in Clichy (12 page)

“They're all like that,” said Corinne. “
La pudeur
.”

“I'm hungry,” said Carl. “Let's sit down and have another meal. Maybe she'll change her mind and come back.” He mumbled something to himself, then added, as if doing a sum—“It doesn't make sense.”

—Henry Miller
New York City,
May, 1940.
Rewritten in Big Sur, May, 1956
.