" . . . I hear that she has everything a woman could ever long for. Diamonds, minks, breakfast in bed and all that, but, well, she's dying to come back to you. Do you think that you might "

"I couldn't. I just couldn't, Fabrizio. Had I truly known that breakfast is all she had in bed . . . I can live without, but not with doubt. The greatest anomaly of all is the advantage the sea horse has over us. No doubt there as to who screwed whom. Whereas we are always in doubt. How, how I ask myself over and over again, has God created anomalies where the only things that don't leave traceable tracks are time, ghosts, devils, souls, angels and everything alive on the wing or swimming down below. Yet of all untraceable tracks nothing is more intriguing and excruciating than the adulterous men and women."

"Yes, I know what you mean. Doubt is a . . . nagging thing." Reginald became somber, and with a melancholic look in his eyes said, "When I was a child I remember Christmas mornings I used to steal out of the bedroom to be the first one at the Christmas stocking."

"So did I"

"Did you ever get the feeling that someone was there already? I always did. No, thanks. When there's so much doubt in one stocking, think of the doubt that lies between two . . ."