Vago shrugged. "Some do." He opened a folder on his desk. There, in full color, were reproductions of Andras's covers for Past and Future: Past and Future: linoleum prints of a scribe linoleum prints of a scribe inking a scroll, a father and his boys at synagogue, a woman lighting two slender candles.

Andras saw the work now as if for the first time. The subjects seemed sentimental, the compositions obvious and childish. He couldn't believe this was what had earned his admission to the school. He hadn't had a chance to submit the portfolio he'd used for his applications to Hungarian architectural colleges--detailed drawings of the Parliament and the Palace, measured renderings of the interiors of churches and libraries, work he'd slaved over for hours at his desk at Past and Future Past and Future. But he suspected that even those pieces would have seemed clumsy and amateurish in comparison to Vago's work, the crisp plans and gorgeous elevations pinned to the walls.

"I'm here to learn, sir," Andras said. "I made those prints a long time ago."

"This is excellent work," Vago said. "There's a precision, an accuracy of perspective, rare in an untrained artist. You've got great natural skill, that's apparent. The compositions are asymmetrical but well balanced. The themes are ancient but the lines are modern. Good qualities to bring to your work in architecture."

Andras reached for one of the covers, the one that showed a man and boys at prayer. He'd carved the linoleum original by candlelight in the apartment on Harsfa utca.

Though he hadn't considered it at the time--and why not, when it was so clear now?--this man in the tallis was his father, the boys his brothers.

"It's fine work," Vago said. "I wasn't the only one who thought so."

"It's not architecture," Andras said, and handed the cover back to Vago.

"You'll learn architecture. And in the meantime you'll study French. There's no other way to survive here. I can help you, but I can't translate for you in every class. So you will come here every morning, an hour before studio, and practice your French with me."

"Here with you, sir?"

"Yes. From now on we will speak only French. I'll teach you all I know. And for God's sake, you will cease to call me 'sir,' as if I were an army officer." His eyes assumed a serious expression, but he twisted his mouth to the left in a French-looking moue.

"L'architecture n'est pas un jeu d'enfants," he said in a deep, resonant voice that matched he said in a deep, resonant voice that matched exactly, both in pitch and tone, the voice of Professor Perret. "L'architecture, c'est l'art le "L'architecture, c'est l'art le plus seriuex de tous."

"L'art le plus serieux de tous," Andras repeated in the same deep tone. Andras repeated in the same deep tone.

"Non, non!" Vago cried. "Only I am permitted the voice of Monsieur le Directeur. Vago cried. "Only I am permitted the voice of Monsieur le Directeur.

You will please speak in the manner of Andras the lowly student. My name is Andras the My name is Andras the Lowly Student," Vago said in French. "If you please: repeat." Vago said in French. "If you please: repeat."

"My name is Andras the Lowly Student."

"I shall learn to speak perfect French from Monsieur Vago."

"I shall learn to speak perfect French from Monsieur Vago."

"I will repeat everything he says."

"I will repeat everything he says."

"Though not in the voice of Monsieur le Directeur."

"Though not in the voice of Monsieur le Directeur."

"Let me ask you a question," Vago said in Hungarian now, his expression earnest.

"Have I done the right thing by bringing you here? Are you terribly lonely? Is this all overwhelming?"

"It is overwhelming," Andras said. "But I find I'm strangely happy." overwhelming," Andras said. "But I find I'm strangely happy."

"I was miserable when I first got here," Vago said, settling back in his chair. "I came three weeks after I finished school in Rome, and started at the Beaux-Arts. That school was no place for a person of my temperament. Those first few months were awful!

I hated Paris with a passion." He looked out the office window at the chill gray afternoon.

"I walked around every day, taking it all in--the Bastille and the Tuileries, the Luxembourg, Notre-Dame, the Opera--and cursing every stick and stone of it. After a while I transferred to the Ecole Speciale. That was when I began to fall in love with Paris.

Now I can't imagine living anyplace else. After a time, you'll feel that way too."

"I'm beginning to feel that way already."

"Just wait," Vago said, and grinned. "It only gets worse."

In the mornings he bought his bread at the small boulangerie near his building, and his newspaper from a stand on the corner; when he dropped his coins into the proprietor's hand, the man would sing a throaty Merci Merci. Back at his apartment he would eat his croissant and drink sweet tea from the empty jam jar. He would look at the photographs in the paper and try to follow the news of the Spanish Civil War, in which the Front Populaire Front Populaire was losing ground now against the was losing ground now against the Nationalistes Nationalistes. He wouldn't allow himself to buy a Hungarian expatriate paper to fill in the blanks; the urgency of the news itself eased the effort of translation. Every day came stories of new atrocities: teenaged boys shot in ditches, elderly gentlemen bayoneted in olive orchards, villages firebombed from the air. Italy accused France of violating its own arms embargo; large shipments of Soviet munitions were reaching the Republican army. On the other side, Germany had increased the numbers of its Condor Legion to ten thousand men. Andras read the news with increasing despair, jealous at times of the young men who had run away to fight for the Republican army. Everyone was involved now, he knew; any other view was denial.

With his mind full of horrific images of the Spanish front, he would walk the leaflittered sidewalks toward the Ecole Speciale, distracting himself by repeating French architectural terms: toit, fenetre, porte, mur, corniche, balcon, balustrade, souche de toit, fenetre, porte, mur, corniche, balcon, balustrade, souche de cheminee. At school he learned the difference between stereobate and stylobate, base and entablature; he learned which of his professors secretly preferred the decorative to the practical, and which were adherents to Perret's cult of reinforced concrete. With his statics class he visited the Sainte-Chapelle, where he learned how thirteenth-century engineers had discovered a way to strengthen the building using iron struts and metal supports; the supports were hidden within the framework of the stained-glass windows that spanned the height of the chapel. As morning light fell in red and blue strands through the glass, he stood at the center of the nave and experienced a kind of holy exaltation. No matter that this was a Catholic church, that its windows depicted Christ and a host of saints. What he felt had less to do with religion than with a sense of harmonious design, the perfect meeting of form and function in that structure. One long vertical space meant to suggest a path to God, or toward a deeper knowledge of the mysteries. Architects had done this, hundreds of years ago.

Pierre Vago, true to his word, tutored Andras every morning for an hour. The French he'd learned at school returned with speed, and within a month he had absorbed far more than he'd ever learned from his master at gimnazium. By mid-October the lessons were nothing more than long conversations; Vago had a talent for finding the subjects that would make Andras talk. He asked Andras about his years in Konyar and Debrecen--what he had studied, what his friends had been like, where he had lived, whom he'd loved. Andras told Vago about Eva Kereny, the girl who had kissed him in the garden of the Deri Museum in Debrecen and then spurned him coldheartedly; he told the story of his mother's only pair of silk stockings, a Chanukah gift bought with money Andras had earned by taking on his fellow students' drawing assignments. (The brothers had all been competing to get her the best gift; she'd reacted with such childlike joy when she'd seen the stockings that no one could dispute Andras's victory. Later that night, Tibor sat on Andras in the yard and mashed his face into the frozen ground, exacting an older brother's revenge.) Vago, who had no siblings of his own, seemed to like hearing about Matyas and Tibor; he made Andras recite their histories and translate their letters into French. In particular he took an interest in Tibor's desire to study medicine in Italy.

He had known a young man in Rome whose father had been a professor of medicine at the school in Modena; he would write a few letters, he said, and would see what could be done.

Andras didn't think much about it when he said it; he knew Vago was busy, and that the international post traveled slowly, and that the gentleman in Rome might not share Vago's ideas about educating young Hungarian-Jewish men. But one morning Vago met Andras with a letter in hand: He had received word that Professor Turano might be able to arrange for Tibor to matriculate in January.

"My God!" Andras said. "That's miraculous! How did you do it?"

"I correctly estimated the value of my connections," Vago said, and smiled.

"I've got to wire Tibor right away. Where do I go to send a telegram?"

Vago put up a hand in caution. "I wouldn't send word just yet," he said. "It's still just a possibility. We wouldn't want to raise his hopes in vain."

"What are the chances, do you think? What does the professor say?"

"He says he'll have to petition the admissions board. It's a special case."

"You'll tell me as soon as you hear from him?"

"Of course," Vago said.

But he had to share the preliminary good news with someone, so he told Polaner and Rosen and Ben Yakov that night at their student dining club on the rue des Ecoles. It was the same club Jozsef had recommended when Andras had arrived. For 125 francs a week they received daily dinners that relied heavily upon potatoes and beans and cabbage; they ate in an echoing underground cavern at long tables inscribed with thousands of students' names. Andras delivered the news about Tibor in his Hungarianaccented French, struggling to be heard above the din. The others raised their glasses and wished Tibor luck.

"What a delicious irony," Rosen said, once they'd drained their glasses. "Because he's a Jew, he has to leave a constitutional monarchy to study medicine in a fascist dictatorship. At least he doesn't have to join us in this fine democracy, where intelligent young men practice the right of free speech with such abandon." He cut his eyes at Polaner, who looked down at his neat white hands.

"What's that about?" Ben Yakov said.

"Nothing,"

Polaner said.

"What happened?" asked Ben Yakov, who could not stand to be left out of gossip.

"I'll tell you what happened," Rosen said. "On the way to school yesterday, Polaner's portfolio handle broke. We had to stop and fix it with a bit of twine. We were late to morning lecture, as you'll recall--that was us, coming in at half past ten. We had to sit in the back, next to that second-year, Lemarque--that blond bastard, the snide one from studio. Tell them, Polaner, what he said when we slid into the row."

Polaner laid his spoon beside the soup bowl. "What you thought thought he said." he said."

"He said filthy Jews. I heard it, plain as day."

Ben Yakov looked at Polaner. "Is that true?"

"I don't know," Polaner said. "He said something, but I didn't hear what."

"We both heard it. Everyone around us did."

"You're paranoid," Polaner said, the delicate skin around his eyes flushing red.

"People turned around because we were late, not because he'd called us filthy Jews."

"Maybe it's all right where you come from, but it's not all right here," Rosen said.

"I'm not going to talk about it."

"Anyway, what can you do?" said Ben Yakov. "Certain people will always be idiots."

"Teach him a lesson," Rosen said. "That's what."

"No," Polaner said. "I don't want trouble over something that may or may not have happened. I just want to keep my head down. I want to study and get my degree. Do you understand?"

Andras did. He remembered that feeling from primary school in Konyar, the desire to become invisible. But he hadn't anticipated that he or any of his Jewish classmates would feel it in Paris. "I understand," he said. "Still, Lemarque shouldn't feel"-he struggled to find the French words--"like he can get away get away with saying a thing like with saying a thing like that. If he did say it, that is."

"Levi knows what I mean," Rosen said. But then he lowered his chin onto his hand and stared into his soup bowl. "On the other hand, I'm not at all sure what we're supposed to do about it. If we told someone, it would be our word against Lemarque's.

And he's got a lot of friends among the fourth-and fifth-years."

Polaner pushed his bowl away. "I have to get back to the studio. I've got a whole night's worth of work to do."

"Come on, Eli," Rosen said. "Don't be angry."

"I'm not angry. I just don't want trouble, that's all." Polaner put on his hat and slung his scarf around his neck, and they watched him make his way through the maze of tables, his shoulders curled beneath the worn velvet of his jacket.

"You believe me, don't you?" Rosen said to Andras. "I know what I heard."

"I believe you. But I agree there's nothing we can do about it."

"Weren't we talking about your brother a moment ago?" Ben Yakov said. "I liked that line of conversation better."

"That's right," Rosen said. "I changed the subject, and look what happened."

Andras shrugged. "According to Vago, it's too early to celebrate anyway. It may not happen after all."

"But it may," Rosen said.

"Yes. And then, as you pointed out, he'll go live in a fascist dictatorship. So it's hard to know what to hope for. Every scenario is complicated."

"Palestine," Rosen said. "A Jewish state. That's what we can hope for. I hope your brother does get to study in Italy under Mussolini. Let him take his medical degree under Il Duce's nose. Meanwhile you and Polaner and Ben Yakov and I will get ours in architecture here in Paris. And then we'll all emigrate. Agreed?"

"I'm not a Zionist," Andras said. "Hungary's my home."

"Not at the moment, though, is it?" Rosen said. And Andras found it impossible to argue with that.

For the next two weeks he waited for news from Modena. In statics he calculated the distribution of weight along the curved underside of the Pont au Double, hoping to find some distraction in the symmetry of equations; in drawing class he made a scaled rendering of the facade of the Gare d'Orsay, gratefully losing himself in measurements of its intricate clock faces and its line of arched doorways. In studio he kept an eye on Lemarque, who could often be seen casting inscrutable looks at Polaner, but who said nothing that could have been construed as a slur. Every morning in Vago's office he eyed the letters on the desk, looking for one that bore an Italian postmark; day after day the letter failed to arrive.

Then one afternoon as Andras was sitting in studio, erasing feathery pencil marks from his drawing of the d'Orsay, beautiful Lucia from the front office came to the classroom with a folded note in her hand. She gave the note to the fifth-year monitor who was overseeing that session, and left without a look at any of the other students.

"Levi," said the monitor, a stern-eyed man with hair like an explosion of blond chaff. "You're wanted at the private office of Le Colonel."

All talk in the room ceased. Pencils hung midair in students' hands. Le Colonel was the school's nickname for Auguste Perret. All eyes turned toward Andras; Lemarque shot him a thin half smile. Andras swept his pencils into his bag, wondering what Perret could want with him. It occurred to him that Perret might be involved with Tibor's chances in Italy; perhaps Vago had enlisted his help. Maybe he'd exerted some kind of influence with friends abroad, and now he was going to be the one to deliver the news.

Andras ran up the two flights of stairs to the corridor that housed the professors'

private offices, and paused outside Perret's closed door. From inside he could hear Perret and Vago speaking in lowered voices. He knocked. Vago called for him to enter, and he opened the door. Inside, standing in a shaft of light near one of the long windows that overlooked the boulevard Raspail, was Professor Perret in his shirtsleeves. Vago leaned against Perret's desk, a telegram in his hand.

"Good afternoon, Andras," Perret said, turning from the window. He motioned for Andras to sit in a low leather chair beside the desk. Andras sat, letting his schoolbag slide to the floor. The air in Perret's office was close and still. Unlike Vago's office, with its profusion of drawings on the walls and its junk sculptures and its worktable overflowing with projects, Perret's was all order and austerity. Three pencils lay parallel on the Morocco-topped desk; wooden shelves held neatly rolled plans; a crisp white model of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees stood in a glass box on a console table.

Perret cleared his throat and began. "We've had some disturbing news from Hungary. Rather disturbing indeed. It may be easier if Professor Vago explains it to you in Hungarian. Though I hear your French has advanced considerably." The martial tone had dropped from his voice, and he gave Andras such a kind and regretful look that Andras's hands went cold.

"It's rather complicated," Vago said, speaking in Hungarian. "Let me try to explain. I received word from my friend's father, the professor. A place came through for your brother at the medical college in Modena."

Vago paused. Andras held his breath and waited for him to go on.

"Professor Turano sent a letter to the Jewish organization that provides your scholarship. He wanted to see if money could be found for Tibor, too. But his request was denied, with regrets. New restrictions have been imposed this week in Hungary: As of today, no organization can send money to Jewish students abroad. Your Hitkozseg's student-aid funds have been frozen by the government."

Andras blinked at him, trying to understand what he meant.

"It's not just a problem for Tibor," Vago continued, looking into Andras's eyes.

"It's also a problem for you. In short, your scholarship can no longer be paid. To be honest, my young friend, your scholarship has never been paid. Your first month's check never arrived, so I paid your fees out of my own pocket, thinking there must have been some temporary delay." He paused, glancing at Professor Perret, who was watching as Vago delivered the news in Hungarian. "Monsieur Perret doesn't know where the money came from, and need not know, so please don't betray surprise. I told him everything was fine. However, I'm not a rich man, and, though I wish I could, I can't pay your tuition and fees another month."

An ice floe ascended through Andras's chest, slow and cold. His tuition could no longer be paid. His tuition had never been paid. All at once he understood Perret's kindness and regret.

"We think you're a bright student," Perret said in French. "We don't want to lose you. Can your family help?"

"My family?" Andras's voice sounded thready and vague in the high-ceilinged room. He saw his father stacking oak planks in the lumberyard, his mother cooking potato paprikas at the stove in the outdoor kitchen. He thought of the pair of gray silk stockings, the ones he'd given her ten years earlier for Chanukah--how she'd folded them into a chaste square and stored them in their paper wrapping, and had worn them only to synagogue. "My family doesn't have that kind of money," he said.

"It's a terrible thing," Perret said. "I wish there were something we could do.

Before the depression we gave out a great many scholarships, but now ..." He looked out the window at the low clouds and stroked his military beard. "Your expenses are paid until the end of the month. We'll see what we can do before then, but I'm afraid I can't offer much hope."

Andras translated the words in his mind: not much hope not much hope.