Summary

On his way home from Poitiers, François had to upgrade his train ticket to first class. An Arab business man dressed in traditional clothing sat across the aisle from him wit his two young wives. The two girls ate candy and giggled at comic books while the man had a stressful business conversation. François watched them intently, musing to himself that under an Islamic regime, beautiful women could remain children for nearly their entire lives. He decided that if he had to choose between the position of the man and that of the girls, he would choose the girls’ even though they do not have autonomy.

When François arrived back in Paris, he found a letter from Bastien Lacoue of the the Pléide catalogue asking him to edit Huysmans’ work. François knew that accepting the position would mean...