Alice: An Adultery

Society. What uncouth bypaths of human ex- perience, across what mapless tracks beyond the social pale, must have led hither—hither to death in this Anglo-Saxon-blasted corner of Japan, here, at the very outpost of the East. He spoke my thought. “ Here I lie,” he said, “ east of all things. All my life I have been travelling eastward, and now there is now no further east to go.” “ There is America,” I said. I had to say something. “ Where the disappearance of man has followed that of manners : the exit of God has not wished to lag behind that of grammar. I have no use for American men, and only one use for American women.” “ Of a truth,” I said, “ the continent is accursed— a very limbo.” “ It is the counterfoil of evolution,” said the man wearily. There was silence. “ What can I do for you ? ” I asked. “ Are you indeed ill ?” vi