34
PARTISAN REVIEW
fell out of an upper window and happened to land in my lap. I
think that I was also the last person in the village to be aware that
thl;: house, where I was born and spent most of my childhood, was
beginning to collapse. I noticed it quite by accident from the hill. The
house was swaying very gently, the top of the cobblestone chimney
with a graceful and independent motion, rather like the tail of a fish,
and the foundations with a more irregular ebb and swell as if the
stones were offering a futile resistance to their downfall. The kitchen
ell and the woodshed had already gone down, tearing an ugly wound
in the north wall and leaving the servants' quarters exposed.
Naturally I made my way back as quickly as possible, but the
lane had become so overgrown with sumach and brambles that it
was almost half an hour before I reached the road. By that time the
whole town was present and the lawn was already clotted with little
groups of people (in one place the ladies of the Altar Guild, in an-
other the three families that lived off the town, and so on) debating
the causes of the collapse and the possibilities of doing something
about it. My mother was running from one group to another, shaking
hands with everyone, receiving advice and expressions of sympathy:
She had been at a cocktail party and cut an especially charming
figure, with her white picture hat and her flowered print. So much
so that for some time-until the front wall actually began to bulge
out over the lawn, like a paper bag slowly surcharged with water-
most of the people were unable to keep their minds on the disaster
and acted as if they were attending an ordinary funeral or tea.
Now and then my mother paused in her rounds as hostess, tuck·
ing the minister's arm under hers, and while appearing to cast down
her eyes, with one of her green calculating upward Victorian glances
managed to caress his face. "Ah Padre," she sighed, plucking at the
black cloth under her fingers, "what a good friend you are," and
added, turning to the church ladies, "He's the best Democrat any of
us has ever seen." The minister, who had also been at the cocktail
party and whose cheeks were somewhat flushed, gazed with sly ben-
evolence over his flock, laughed his deep-bellied indifferent laugh,
and kissed my mother's hand. "Ha ha ha," rattled the church ladies,
and with one motion, as from a released spring, began to run in tiny
circles around him, pointing delightedly at his full chest and the
rather uncouth vigor of his jaw. "Always joking," said the minister,
"here her house is on the verge of collapse and she talks about de-
mocracy! What a woman!" At this the church ladies could no longer
control themselves, they rolled and pivoted with laughter, poking
each other's corsets and smacking their lips enviously toward my
mother. "It's true, upon my word it's true!" she cried, one arm to
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