"A Certain Author's Scoundrel Talk"

A new editor came to see me, a reclusive writer, replacing my previous editor who had retired after getting married. A real person in flesh and blood—and a man at that—is too dazzling for someone like me, living curled up in the corner of the world. "It makes me want to die, so could I close the door?" "What kind of joke are you making?" This is a story about how these two people interact with each other, and how I retreat into isolation.