Mask

She had infrequently been in the garden, but his recollection was vivid, and he could not shake certain impressions: her tall, spindly wayward frame; her auburn hair and wheat-colored complexion; her thin, pale arms; her bemused attitude, and the quixotic manner in which she selected certain flower stalks, that seemed to have a secret ability -like the time she warned her best friend, Francesca d., of that impending catastrophe in her life. The other day, her father, a dimming light of the theater, had come around looking for his only daughter. Though they were never particularly close, he wanted to tell her; in that low, sulfurous voice; that he would play paterfamilias - that's what he called the role - ever since he played it some 15 years ago, in that Pirandello play she rather liked.