Ulla and Modena’s Relationship

Ulla and Modena’s Relationship is portrayed as a connection whose label is clearer than its emotional terms. Modena is described as Ulla’s lover, but the narrator qualifies that description: she has allowed him to call himself that for some time. In their brief appearance together at the bar, Modena’s taciturn manner, Ulla’s practiced social ease, and a covert transfer of money hint at a relationship shaped by unequal visibility and private arrangements, without resolving what either person believes it to mean.

An Unevenly Defined Companionship

Modena enters the scene as a young Spanish man, dark and brooding in appearance, undernourished, dour, and taciturn. He conducts black-market business with French, Italian, and African tourists. Ulla, a slim German woman, is his companion; the narrator’s careful formulation is that she has for some time allowed him to call himself her lover. That phrasing makes the distinction between his claim and her endorsement central. The relationship is named, but not presented as a mutually declared romance.

Their public interaction offers little conventional intimacy. When Didier Levy reaches across Karla to slap Modena on the shoulder and calls on him to buy the next round, Modena flinches and scowls, then calls the waiter and orders drinks. The moment shows him accommodating the table’s demand despite his discomfort, while Ulla speaks with Karla in German and English in a way that obscures the conversation’s most interesting parts. The scene does not explain whether the language choice is intended to exclude Modena, but it establishes that Ulla can maintain a private channel even while sitting beside him.

Later, two men approach the table separately, one to speak with Didier Levy and the other with Modena. Ulla uses their divided attention to lean toward Lin and slip something into his hand beneath the table. It feels like a small roll of banknotes. She asks him not to draw attention to it, and he puts it away without looking. The action makes discretion part of her relationship with Modena: whatever the money is for, she does not want him to know about the transfer at that moment.

Flirtation, Work, and the Narrator’s Reading

In conversation with Lin, Ulla asks whether someone is waiting for him or whether he has someone he should go to. Her smile is described as practiced but passionless, and the narrator later places it within a broader habit: she uses the same manner with customers, friends, waiters, Didier Levy, and Modena. This account resists treating flirtation as reliable evidence of romantic preference. In Ulla’s case, it is a way of moving through social encounters, not a clear measure of whom she loves.

The narrator says that, in the months and years that follow, other people criticize Ulla for flirting, sometimes cruelly. He does not agree with them. As he comes to know her, he understands the behavior as the only real kindness she has learned to offer or share, and as a way of trying to ensure that men are kind to her in return. He recalls her belief that the world lacks enough niceness. His interpretation does not turn her manner into deep feeling or deep thought; instead, it recognizes a modest, practical intention within a habit that others judge harshly. The account also prevents her connection to Modena from being reduced to a simple contrast between a lover and other men: she directs the same smile toward him, but that gesture alone cannot establish the depth or security of their bond.

Secrecy and Practical Arrangements

Ulla’s money transfer acquires a more specific purpose when Karla explains that the notes are American dollars meant for her. Ulla has told Karla this in German so that Modena will not understand. Karla is to collect the money from her own place at eleven the following morning, and she refuses to take it from Lin at the bar. The episode establishes a discreet arrangement between the two women that depends on excluding Modena from the information.

The scene does not state why Ulla chooses to conceal the money or what its eventual use will be. It does, however, distinguish her relationship with Modena from her capacity to make decisions and commitments elsewhere. At the same time, the text gives no basis for treating the hidden transfer as proof of a particular conflict between the couple. What it shows is a boundary: Ulla controls what she shares with Modena, and she can arrange for money to pass through Lin and Karla without making the exchange public.

As the group breaks up, Modena gives Ulla a sign, and she stands, gathers her purse and cigarettes, and follows him toward the street. Before leaving, she invites Karla to meet the next day and says she would like to have dinner with Lin if he is still there. She departs after Modena, while men in the bar watch her. The movement links them as companions in public, but the separate invitation and concealed payment show that her evening also contains plans and relationships not organized around him.

What the Relationship Leaves Unresolved

The evidence offers no account of how Ulla and Modena first became companions, how long their arrangement continues, or whether Ulla ever accepts the word lover on her own terms. Nor does the later narration provide a definitive resolution to their relationship. Its significance lies instead in the carefully qualified introduction and the small actions around it: Modena’s claim, Ulla’s fluent social performance, her private conversation with Karla, and the covert passage of money.

Together, these details make the relationship legible as companionship without making it transparent. Ulla’s habitual flirtation cannot be taken as proof of devotion, while her departure alongside Modena does not erase the independence suggested by her secret arrangement. The narrator’s sympathetic account shifts attention from judging her conduct to asking what kindness and discretion mean in her circumstances. The result is a portrait of intimacy in which the public label is available, but the private balance of feeling, trust, and choice remains deliberately unsettled.