Fioritura in maschera

Even the embroidery need not end with the cloth. Its continuation would take nothing from the first surface. The same interval could recur elsewhere, and recur again, without requiring anything further of the person who wore it.

We had allowed this to confuse our account of nearness. At the joined hands, continuation required something different. Each encountered a limit that the other had to maintain. Either could withdraw and end the contact for both. Almost everything else could remain withheld; the pressure still had to be answered where it was received.

The reckoning becomes less certain here. What extends from a person may be carried on without them. What occurs between two people requires their separate presence at every instant, even when neither moves. The fingers need not close with equal force.