<link href="ddd-ebooks-master-styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <meta content="urn:uuid:cc390fec-3837-440e-9096-f46f67b42ca7" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body> <h1><em>LXXI</em></h1> <div style="margin: 1.5em;"/> <p>DOCTOR Hallo LN, I haven’t seen you for ages.</p> <p>LN You can call me Mademoiselle LN now, Doctor, because I’m a bloomer-maker.</p> <p>DOCTOR There’s no such thing as a foolish trade.</p> <p>LN I didn’t come to see you to talk about bloomers, nor to consult you on my behalf. It’s about Icarus.</p> <p>DOCTOR Aha!</p> <p>LN He wanted to go back to M. Lubert. He told me that if M. Lubert took him back, he’d take me too. But I don’t want to. It was a generous gesture on Icarus’s part, but I don’t want to become a character in a novel. My origin is quite different.</p> <p>DOCTOR And what is it?</p> <p>LN Cruciverbal.</p> <p>DOCTOR Cruciverbal?</p> <p>LN It’s true, you couldn’t understand. But I love Icarus, and this is the first time that anything has come between us.</p> <p>DOCTOR If you are of different origins, perhaps your union would be ill-matched?</p> <p>LN We understand each other perfectly. Except for this generous gesture. Couldn’t you persuade M. Lubert to refuse? – that’s what I’ve come to ask you.</p> <p>DOCTOR Lubert is writing another novel. He <em>will</em> refuse.</p> <p>LN It seems that he was so attached to Icarus.</p> <p>DOCTOR All this is none of my business.</p> <p>LN Won’t you make a generous gesture, too?</p> <p>DOCTOR I can’t interfere, but I can make enquiries, and to that end I shall use that marvellous invention, the telephone.</p> <p>LN The telephone!</p> <p>DOCTOR (picking up the receiver). Hallo, hallo: Mademoiselle, will you please connect me with M. Lubert, who lives at 14 rue de La Rochefoucauld … I’ll wait as long as is necessary, Mademoiselle … hallo hallo … hallo hallo … hallo hallo … ah, my dear Lubert … you haven’t by any chance had a visit from …</p> <p>NASAL VOICE From Icarus? How did you know?</p> <p>DOCTOR … Er … just a rumour …</p> <p>NASAL VOICE Well, Icarus has gone. I don’t want any more to do with him. Aren’t I right?</p> <p>DOCTOR It’s not for me to give you advice, but a little bicarbonate of soda wouldn’t do you any harm.</p> <p>Lubert hangs up. He can’t be very pleased.</p> <p>DOCTOR It looks as if your visit was unnecessary. You’ll get your Icarus back.</p> <p>LN Oh, thank you, Doctor. What do I owe you?</p> <p>DOCTOR I’ll make you a present of the telephone call. It’ll be a wedding present.</p> </body> </html>