The Confusion

"Then whatever other differences you and I may have, we are united in seeing it as foolishness."

"Oh, I don't think it is the least bit foolish," said Lothar, raising the pocked ridges where eyebrows had once sprouted, "all I said was that I no longer think of it. I'm ready to die. And whether I die rich or poor is of little account to me. But you are gravely mistaken if you believe that you can take Joha

"As to that, I am not mistaken. I know this, and have known it, ever since I learned, from the Doctor, that he was being raised as your son." Eliza looked up to solicit a confirmation from Leibniz. But it seemed that the Doctor had some minutes ago quietly taken Caroline aside, and led her off to some other corner of the courtyard so that Eliza and Lothar could talk privily.

"Son and sole heir," Lothar corrected her, "though, thanks to your intrigues, I have nothing to will to him save debts."

"That could be changed."

"Then why do you not change it? What is it you want? Why are you here?"

"To see him. To hold him."

"Granted! Truly and happily granted. You may move in with me here, for all I care; you're welcome to do so. But you can't take him."

"You are in no position to dictate terms."

"Foolish girl! They're not my terms, and I am not dictating them! They are the terms of the world. You ca

"I know. I know all of these things—have known them for years."

Lothar's ravaged face was a difficult one to read, but he seemed exasperated now, or bewildered. "After all this," he said, "I did not expect you to be such a confused person."

"You did not? How unreasonable of you. You belabor me for being confused—yet you took the boy, not for love of him, but for hate of me, and out of lust for Alchemical gold—only to change your mind!"

Lothar shrugged. "Perhaps that is the real Alchemy."

"Would that such Alchemy could work its spell on me, and make me as content as you seem."

"I shall grant you this much," said Lothar. "The taking of the gold at Bonanza put me into a vengeful rage that kept me awake at night, and filled all of my days, for a long time, and drove me to hurt you as badly as I supposed you had hurt me. I wanted you to fathom my anger. You then went on to destroy me, cleverly and systematically, over a span of years. You used my own greed as a weapon against me. And if I seem content to you, why, in part it is because I have a son. But in part it is because of you, Eliza, your Barock fury, sustained for so long and expressed so Barockly. You showed, you expressed, what I once felt; and from that, I knew that I had struck home, that a spark had passed between us."

"Very well. Enough of this. Do you have, Lothar, a spare banca at which I could sit down for some minutes, and write a letter?"

Lothar spread his hands out, palms up, as if handing the place over to her. "Take your pick, madame."

SHE WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED FLAIL-ARM if not for this gesture of Lothar's, so stealthily had the big amputee crept into the House. But as it happened, she turned on the balls of her feet to gaze into the court, and saw in the corner of her eye that a new thing had been added to the jumble-sale: a tall man with a beard, who had chosen this moment to step out from behind a crate. As before, he held a long walking-staff; but now something had been added to its end: the leaf-shaped warhead of a harpoon, its twin edges white where the whetstone had scoured them. This he hefted in his one hand, bringing it up above his shoulder, and he swung the shining adder's head about so that it pointed at the heart of Lothar.

Now Eliza—who only a couple of hours ago had been preaching to Caroline about the importance of noticing, and co

This hefting and pointing of the harpoon was only the first move in some procedure that involved ru

But a small person flitted out of the shades of the gallery. He had built up a ru

She, Joha