We hesitated and finally decided on a table in the almost empty main part of the hall.Yet we hesitated again, and instead of sitting down we went in search of service.After a while a girl appeared through a door in the paneling of the inner wall and led us to a table in the niche.We sat down.The slight feeling of irritation occasioned by our arrival soonI abated.We lit our first cigarettes and ordered some wine.At the next table two women were holding an animated conversation.One of them was speaking American,the other Swiss German. Neither of them spoke a word in the other’s language.The voices of the people in the group at the next table but one sounded pleasantly far away. l looked around and gradually absorbed the mood. l felt at ease sitting in the light of one of the windows, which now seemed taller than ever, and looking into the darkened expanse of the hall.The other guests, busy with their conversations and their meals, also seemed happy to be sitting there; they behaved naturally, undisturbed by other peoples
presence,with an unconstrained considerateness for their fellow guests, which lent them an air of dignity. Occupied as l was with my own activities, my gaze nevertheless alighted occasionally on other faces, and l realized that l liked the feeling of their proximity-in this room in which we all looked our best.
4 Driving along a road on the coast of California, we finally arrived at the school that was listed in the architectural guide: a sprawling
complex of pavilions spread out over a large expanse of fiat land high over the Pacific. Barely any trees, karstic rock thrusting through the turf, a few houses in the immediate vicinity. The rows of tall, single story buildings with flat, projecting roofs were connected by aspdalt