XVI
‘I want to go away,’ he told Franz. ‘For a month or so, for as long as I can.’
‘Why not, d**k? That was our original arrangement, it was you who insisted on staying. If you and Nicole.’
‘I don’t want to go away with Nicole. I want to go away alone. This last thing knocked me sideways, if I get two hours’ sleep in twenty-four, it’s one of Zwingli’s miracles.’
‘You wish a real leave of abstinence.’
‘The word is ‘absence.’ Look here: if I go to Berlin to the Psychiatric Congress could you manage to keep the peace? For three months she’s been all right and she likes her nurse. My God, you’re the only human being in this world I can ask this of.’
Franz grunted, considering whether or not he could be trusted to think always of his partner’s interest.
In Zurich the next week d**k drove
