The Seven Madmen Read Online Free PDF Page A

just lick the marble?" asked Erdosain in disgust.
    Barsut shot him a funny look, virtually a provocation. Then he put his head to the countertop and used his tongue to wipe the marble clean.
    "Is that what you wanted?"
    Erdosain turned pale.
    "Have you gone crazy?"
    And suddenly Barsut all laughing and friendly, seized with that vague frenzy that had been hanging darkly over him all afternoon, leaped up and vainly attempted to make things all right.
    Erdosain would never forget it: the close-cropped head, bronze-colored, right down against the marble top with its tongue protruding into the slime on the yellowish stone.
    And he often imagined that Barsut thought of him from then on with the hatred you feel for anyone you have let have too close a look at you. But he could not stop exposing himself, and the moment he got to Erdosain's house he would start baring his unhappy soul endlessly, even though he knew Erdosain gloried in his wretchedness.
    In truth, Erdosain egged him on; in a seizure of crazed pity, he would play father confessor to Barsut, who would forget he was Erdosain's enemy when he gave him such sober advice. But his hatred would come out with a vengeance when the nasty gleam in Erdosain's eyes showed that his pity was about at an end and a vile joy was appearing at the spectacle of this life coming apart at the seams, since even though Barsut had money enough to live on from his assets, he still was haunted by the fear of going mad like his father and brothers.
    All at once, Erdosain looked up. The black with the wing collar finished picking his lice, and now the three pimps were divvying up bundles of money under the greedy gaze of the cabbies who, at the other table, watched from the corners of their eyes. The black, gripped by the sight of money, seemed to be verging on a sneeze as he turned mournful eyes to the toughs.
    Erdosain got up and paid. Then he went out saying:
    "If Gregorio won't cough up, I'll try the Astrologer."
    Inventor's Dreams
    If someone had told Erdosain that a few hours later he would be plotting Barsut's murder and would look on with near calm as his wife deserted him, he would not have believed it.
    He spent the whole afternoon just wandering. He felt a need to be alone, to forget human voices and stand apart from his surroundings like a man in a strange city where he missed his train connection.
    He walked past the lonely crossing of Arenales and Talcahuano Streets, past the crossing of Charcas and Rodr í guez Peña, past the corner of Montevideo and Avenida Quintana, savoring the sight of magnificently constructed neighborhoods, forever off limits to the poor. His feet, on the white sidewalks, squished the fallen leaves from banana trees, and he looked up at those great oval-paned windows, like leaded mirrors with white curtains inside. It was a world apart, set inside the grimy city he knew, a world apart to which his heart now beat in slow, heavy longings.
    Stopping, he eyed the ritzy garages that almost glistened and the green-tufted cypresses inside the gardens defended by rampart walls, or by ironwork solid enough to halt a charging lion. The red-paved walkway slithered among the ovals of greenery. A gray-hatted governess was strolling down the street.
    And he owed six hundred pesos and seven cents!
    He gazed a long time at those balustrades that glowed against the black balconies with their rounded golden railings, those windows painted dove gray or the palest shade of café-au-lait, those windowpanes so thick they must have made passersby look bent and wavy. The filmy curtains, so light that their names must have a lilt like the names of exotic countries. How different it must be to love in the shadow of that tulle that turns light to half-shadow and modulates sounds.
    But still he owed six hundred pesos and seven cents. And the voice of the pharmacist rang in his ears:
    "You're right—the world is full of wretches, burnt-out cases ... so what do we do about it? ... How can