For one whole week I tried to persuade them. They resisted all my arguments, claiming that she’d drop dead on the spot or that he would kill her, arguing that it was too late, the harm had been done so long ago that it was pointless to try to make amends, it could even be disastrous for both of them. In fact they were telling me mainly and in other words to mind my own business. And in a sense they were right.

But I loved Greta-la-Vieille, with whom I’d worked at the Boudoir for over a year, she was like a kind auntie you’d spent some time with and now you miss her. As for Gilbert, his place in my life was becoming more and more important, the place of the lover whom you more than love, whom you respect and to whom you want to give unassailable proof of your affection. And what had happened between them went straight to my heart. I wanted to save them, maybe even despite themselves, I felt that I could do it and I was rather proud of my idea.

I was sure I was right: as a very young child, Gilbert had been deprived of the crazy mother he hadn’t chosen and of the one he had chosen, so restoring one of them could do no harm! And I was sure, because I knew her so well, that Greta-la-Vieille wanted nothing so much as to hold him in her arms after their long separation. They were themselves sentimental clichés – everything people say about prostitutes with a heart of gold is true – in the end it was the cliché that got the better of my friends. First, of the Duchess, who I suppose was already picturing a kind of Épinal image, a tableau vivant, a fresco for the ages, entitled quite simply The Return of the Prodigal Child Surrounded by His Muses and His Favourite Midget. She must be seeing herself in the foreground, at the exact centre of the picture, a venerable and dignified duenna, barely hidden by a black lace mantilla and very obviously the person behind this charming encounter. A major work to be hung in the pantheon of the Main. And so she took on the task of persuading the other three, succeeding after several rather stormy sessions during which words about me that were worse than nasty were exchanged. But I thought to myself that the guaranteed success of my plan would show that I was right, redeem me in their eyes. I was waiting very impatiently for the moment when I would finally reunite – for good – Greta-la-Vieille and Gilbert Forget.

We agreed to have Greta and Gilbert come to the apartment on Place Jacques-Cartier for a friendly supper one night when I wasn’t working at the Sélect. But there was a major problem: what to do with Greta-la-Jeune, heir apparent, devoted apostle and inseparable companion of the other, whom we didn’t want to involve in our plan because she was liable to screw it up out of sheer jealousy or fear of losing her predominant place in the heart of Greta-la-Vieille? After some lengthy discussions we decided that Greta-la-Jeune was unavoidable; we couldn’t send her away without making Greta-la-Vieille suspicious, we had to accept her being there. The Duchess had even offered to get her drunk as soon as she arrived so she wouldn’t realize what was going on. Greta-la-Jeune liked martinis a little too much and the Duchess could whip up doubles and triples that would do the trick – as I’d found out more than once to my cost.

It was even more complicated to persuade Gilbert to come to the house for supper with my friends. He claimed he’d already told me what he thinks about drag queens, I told him he was wrong, that he was full of prejudices, of misplaced resentment, and that if he loved me – I felt like a liar, a manipulative hypocrite, but I told myself it was for his own good – he owed it to himself to give them a chance; they were dear friends of mine, individuals close to my heart, he couldn’t pretend for as long as our relationship lasted that they didn’t exist. He finally gave in, but he gave me a funny look. Did he sense something, did he suspect some hidden meaning behind my words that he didn’t understand and mistrusted? Whatever the answer, I felt a pang of remorse and anguish when I invited him to the house on the fateful day.