Mr Hire's Engagement Read Online Free PDF Page A

black satin dress with a serene, benevolent face under silvery hair, frowned for the briefest second, then smiled. 'Gisèle, I expect?'
    He nodded. There was no more need of words. The woman pressed a button. The sound of a bell filled the hall. A very young girl, with wiry legs clad in black stockings, opened the door a little way. 'Take this gentleman to No. 16.'
    And she nodded, smiling, to Mr. Hire. Other bells were ringing by now. Mr. Hire followed the servant along a passage with numbered doors to either side. The mist was denser here. No. 7's door was open and revealed a bath full of hot water, with steam rising and covering the window-panes and walls in little drops.
    A woman in a blue slip suddenly emerged from No. 12, both hands holding her breasts, which bounced as she ran. Someone in No. 14 was knocking on the door, and the little attendant cried:
    'Coming—coming in a minute !'
    The floor was tiled, and one could tell it had been washed with plenty of water, and soap. It was clean and scented. The servant's apron was stiff with starch.
    'I'll go and fetch the things.'
    Mr. Hire went in and sat down on a narrow cane-seated settee opposite the bath, both of whose taps the attendant had turned on before leaving the room. The water gushed out with a deafening noise. In the bath it turned pale green, the colour of some precious stones.
    And in other cubicles water was running, in ten, perhaps twenty at the same time.
    'Gisèle's coming. You might as well begin your bath.'
    The servant-girl shut the door behind her. On the shelf she had put two white towels, a little cake of candy-pink soap, and a tiny bottle of eau de Cologne.
    'Coming!' she cried to someone who called her from the far end of the corridor.
    And a woman's voice said in the next room:
    'It's a long time since you were here.'
    It was hot, a singular kind of heat which filtered through the pores, the flesh, the brain. Almost at once it made your head swim, your ears redden, and imperceptibly constricted your throat.
    Mr. Hire sat motionless, with his leather briefcase on his knee, watching the water mount higher and higher in the bath, and he jumped when there was a knock on the door.
    'Are you ready?'      
    A face appeared, very dark, bare shoulders.
    'All right! I'll be back in five minutes.'
    Only then did he begin to undress, slowly. There were mirrors on two of the walls so he was presented with three or four reflections of his body, which gradually appeared, very white, plump, as smooth, as softly rounded as a woman's. But he lowered his eyes and hurried into the water, where he stretched out with a sigh.
    Outside, people were walking or running, bells were constantly ringing, and women's names being called from one end of the corridor to the other. But the dominant notes were the sound of running water, the smell of soap and of eau de Cologne, the moisture from the baths.
    It was like a sweating-room. The mirrors became entirely blurred within a minute. Sometimes a jet of steam from some unknown source made the atmosphere opaque, and one was groping in a cloud. The place reminded one of a laundry. It had the same cheerful vulgarity about it.
    And yet, beneath all these noises, this tumult, ran a subtle, shamefaced, stifled undercurrent of whispers, sighs, strange, too damp kisses.
    Standing up in the bath, Mr. Hire was soaping himself all over, when the door was thrust open. A woman came in, saying abruptly: 'Oh, it's you? How are you . . .'
    And at once, almost before the door had closed behind her, she took off her wrap, and stood naked, more naked in this bathroom atmosphere than she could have been anywhere else.
    She was plump, pink, washed and scrubbed like everything else, permeated with steam, soap and scent. She was a picture of health and strength. She pushed the handle of the shower, and Mr. Hire saw the soapy water trickling all down his body, covering the surface of the bath with grey froth. 'Come along.'
    She held out an