The flat

Since the evening when he saw her incarnate Bérénice on stage, Oskar Serti was stricken with a mad passion for the actress Véronique de Coulanges. For more than one month, day after day, he incessantly addressed her letter upon letter, without, unfortunately, receiving the slightest sign from her.
Then, one morning, when he had just given up all hope of an encounter, Serti received a hurried phone call from Véronique, inviting him to have tea with her. Less than an hour later, his legs quivering with emotion, Serti was holding on feverishly to the hand-railing along the corridor which led to Véronique’s apartment (1). As he could no longer shelter himself behind the sweet and fragile image of a distant Bérénice, Serti suddenly felt paralysed by the idea of finding himself face to face with someone, a being of flesh and blood, of whom he knew absolutely nothing (2).
Little by little however, as his hand slid slowly along the railing whose contours discretely married the wall’s numerous angles, Oskar Serti regained a semblance of self-assurance; he even felt born in him the desire to take Véronique in his arms and entangle her with caresses (3).
Unfortunately, once in front of the door to her apartment, Serti saw his fleeting courage abandon him, and he didn’t find the strength to ring (4).
As a last resort he took refuge in the great staircase which led to the upper floors, letting his hand slide along the railing whose numerous contours gave him the illusion of being able to calm his impossible desire (5).

In the attempt of preserving her private life, the actress Véronique de Coulanges vowed never to answer the enflamed letters of her admirers.

Thus, when the young writer Oskar Serti wanted to take her heart by storm, she stood her ground for more than a month. Then, one morning, rereading the letters which he had not ceased to write to her, she fell under their spell. Moved by an obscure force, she could not live a moment more without knowing this man. She grabbed her telephone, and invited Oskar to come as soon as possible and have tea with her.

Noticing that she was still in her night gown, Véronique rushed to the bathroom to change into something more suited to the occasion (1). Unfortunately, she tripped on the telephone wire, lost balance, fell head first onto the floor, and passed out (2).
Nearly an hour later, Véronique finally regained her senses. Deeply troubled, with beads of perspiration all over her body, she immediately remembered that during her swoon, she had dreamed of Oskar Serti. This latter had not ceased to hug and caress her as no one had done until then (3).

The moment she stood up, she wanted to disentangle herself from the telephone wire; but when she saw to what extent it had wrapped around her legs, arms and neck, she understood the origin of her indecent dream (4).

It was then, with a surprising blend of anxiety and impatience, that she heard a man’s step stop at the door to her apartment. But after a moment’s hesitation, as if he was looking for someone else, the man continued to make his way along the great staircase which led to the upper floors.
Dejected by the presentiment that Oskar wouldn’t come, Véronique took stock of the weight of her solitude and decided to remain an instant longer, prisoner of her wire.