AT CAFÉ ZURICH they sweep through the revolving door and into the foyer, and the bowing and scraping begin almost at once. Showtime, says the voice of BW. ...

ON FRIDAY, Matthew buys the white mink coat. In the evening, before leaving home, he opens the box, removes the coat, spreads it on the living room rug, fur side up, and considers the effect. Too — I don’t know — cold, somehow, he thinks. It seems to say the wrong thing. “Hooker,” for instance, says the voice of BW. ...

Chapter 5 Café Zurich MATTHEW IS PROUD that he didn’t throw himself at Liz’s feet and beg her to come back. He feels that he can be patient now, wait for her to come to him, and now he believes that, eventually, she will come. I wouldn’t have been so — cool before, he tells himself. I’ve really changed. ...

     The food? Possibly. Most of what we eat here is stew of one sort or another, and that’s fine with us. Stew is the international dish of comfort and consolation.

Superior Indian Cookery

     Let us explore together this question: why are people at a certain stage of life — when they begin to feel like weary rowers who have gone too far, forgotten where they were going and why it was supposed to be worth the trip, when they begin to drift and mope and regret having departed the shore — drawn to ethnic restaurants? ...

MATTHEW TIPTOES into the living room with a pillow for Liz. He slips it under her head. For a moment he stands beside the couch, looking at her. He thinks of caressing her while she sleeps, then feels ashamed of the thought and goes to bed. ...

     It happens this way. Belinda snaps the light off, turns toward Matthew. There’s fatigue in her eyes and a wobble in her walk. She puts her finger to her lips. On her way to Matthew’s side, she seems to lose her balance a couple of times. She squats beside his chair and has to grab it to steady herself. “I’d better go,” she says. ...

HERE IS WHAT Matthew would like to have happen now. Belinda snaps the light off, turns toward Matthew. There’s mischief in her eyes and a wobble in her walk. She puts her finger to her lips. On her way to Matthew’s side, she seems about to lose her balance a couple of times. She giggles soundlessly, holding her finger to her lips. Matthew smiles. He’s intrigued. ...

“THIS ISN’T at all what I would have expected, Matthew!” Liz exclaims, exactly as Matthew had hoped she would. He brought her into the living room in the dark. Under these conditions, the place never fails to impress a visitor. There’s so much glass that one seems to be floating, and the manifold illumination of the city, uneven and intriguing, picks out details at random and stipples the chrome and glass with color. ...

ACROSS FROM the Public Garden, outside the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School, they pass a young man leaning against an iron fence, sobbing like a child. He stands with his arm against the fence, resting his head on his arm, and sobs. ...