He speaks with a Virginia accent, and his voice is inflected with humor, as if a punch line is always imminent.

But the newsboy-capped bartender poured another Manhattan, this one inflected with saffron, and the time — it hardly mattered in a place like this.

Musicians bow instruments as if they’re exhausted by all the partying; drinkers are overcome with lassitude; the wild Roman nights are inflected with pain.