Cyprian’s same-sex attraction

Cyprian’s same-sex attraction is a long-recognized part of his identity, not a condition the war creates. Delphine learns of it by chance when she sees him with another man, and the disclosure changes their relationship: the intimacy they had shared does not make them lovers, but their ensuing conversation allows them to understand each other in a new way.

Discovery by the River

Two days after Cyprian leaves Delphine alone following their performance, she goes to the river and settles on a bench. When two men arrive, she hides in the brush rather than interrupting them. At first she cannot make out what is happening; as the encounter continues, she becomes curious and gradually recognizes that the men are together. She then identifies the man in the white shirt as Cyprian. Instead of leaving, she steps out and greets them cheerfully.

The discovery first produces shock, but Delphine responds by taking control of the awkward encounter. She sits on the bench, lights a cigarette, and makes polite conversation, steering the three of them toward neutral topics. Her small talk lets the men recover enough to part without a confrontation. She and Cyprian then walk back to their room together, carrying an understanding neither has yet put into words.

An Intimacy That Does Not Resolve the Difference

On the way back, Delphine imagines that the newly exposed truth might allow her and Cyprian to become genuine lovers. She also recognizes that this hope may be naïve. In their room, neither acts on it: they undress, get under the covers, and hold hands in silence, alert and unsettled. The scene marks a pause rather than a reconciliation through romance; what Delphine has witnessed cannot simply be folded into their earlier relationship without discussion.

Later that night, she wakes Cyprian. She intends to challenge him over what she calls his betrayal, and to remind him of the intimacy they once shared. But instead of beginning with accusation, she asks how he balances. The question turns the conversation toward the way Cyprian understands himself and his experience, rather than treating what she discovered only as a breach between them.

Cyprian’s Account of Attraction and War

Cyprian struggles to put balancing into words. He explains that it is not a point, but an experience in which his whole body becomes a thought. The difficulty of finding language for it parallels his difficulty explaining his attraction: he has not previously described either experience to Delphine in this way. The darkness, her knowledge, and the absence of anger make it possible for him to try.

When Delphine later returns to the subject, she asks whether his attraction began in the war. Cyprian initially answers yes, and briefly considers whether wartime proximity to men, gas, wounds, or illness could account for it. He recognizes that these possibilities do not explain the truth. During the war he fell deeply in love with a man whose death he still mourns, but the love itself did not surprise him. He says he had always known that his feelings for men were like the feelings men commonly expressed for women. In his understanding, war did not determine whom he could love; it brought other, greater harms.

Cyprian eventually asks Delphine to consider her own desire as a way of understanding his. His answer does not make their experiences identical, but offers her a point of recognition: he believes her reasons for desiring men are the same as his reasons for desiring men. Rather than presenting his attraction as a sudden consequence of trauma, the exchange distinguishes an enduring orientation from the grief and damage the war left behind.

Kinship and the Limits of Their Partnership

Delphine accepts Cyprian’s answer. She feels a kinship with him that she understands as more female than male, believing that she can tell him what goes on in her heart and that he will understand it from experience. Her response is neither to deny what she saw nor to insist that their prior intimacy should make them a couple. She concludes that they will not be lovers, even as she values a different kind of closeness with him.

Their practical circumstances remain unresolved. The pair are bound for a time by their pledge to Sheriff Hock, and Delphine is unsure whether they will continue performing together. They have also spent money on a hotel, schnapps for Roy Watzka, cleaning supplies, and blankets after the deaths in Roy’s cellar. Facing the need to earn a living, Delphine and Cyprian must consider work as well as the future of their act. The conversation therefore changes the meaning of their partnership without instantly settling its shape: attraction gives way to an acknowledged limit, while mutual understanding remains a basis for their connection.