Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Maison close (brothel) in Paris, about 1930 (Keystone photo).

Source:
Cliosoft: l'Histoire en ligne: Prostitu�es et prostitution � travers les ages (History online: Prostitutes and prostitution through the ages):
Click here to view source.

Gaito Gazdanov's Paris / 38

Alice

Raldi shot me a penetrating look:

�You never wanted to sleep with me, that�s understandable. But I hope you won�t refuse my friend? You know there�d be nothing to pay.�

I shook my head.

�The more I know you, the more I�m convinced that you�re not normal,� she sighed. �Tell me how you are. It�s been a long time since I�ve seen you.�

But I couldn�t take my eyes off Alice � that was her name. A quarter of an hour later I saw her completely naked in Raldi�s room: she changed her clothes in my presence. I could never imagine a body more perfect.

[�.]

�She�s so beautiful,� I admitted to Raldi a few days later, �that the sight of her alone is worth a fortune.�

Raldi smiled in her usual way, half tender, half mocking, and declared that without her, Raldi, Alice would never be anything more than a streetwalker, but that she was going to make her a courtesan.

But for this, she added, Alice lacked many essentials, above all intelligence and vivacity.

�Do you think so? It seems to me that her looks alone��

�Haven�t you ever considered that pretty women are plentiful, but that only one in a thousand succeeds in life? Beauty alone is not enough. Don�t you agree?�

�Yes. But I feel sorry for her. Do you think it's worth expending your knowledge and experience to turn this beautiful girl into a demimondaine? In your opinion, doesn�t she deserve better?�

�Certainly not. I�m very doubtful that she deserves even this. But if I succeed she won�t forget me.

�I�ll have a warm room and a livelihood without having to work for the rest of my days. Because everything she�ll have, she�ll owe to me.�

But in this Raldi was mistaken. [105-107]