396
PARTISAN REVIEW
where never a Moor or Jew had once set foot) ;-"but God said–
but
God
said," says Louis, raising a forefinger, "Make
Succoth,
Booths." At this quotation, suddenly, tears glisten in his eyes and
he sinks into the deepest gloom. "Besides," he finishes airily,
"except the purity of our Jewish morals, what defense do I have
against adultery and sodomy?"
It is especially this breezy ending that makes Ronnie punch
him in the nose-almost; yet this happens to be his only heart.felt
remark, tho in the form of a wish.
In the afternoon, in front of the impassive checkerboard of
The Three Musicians,
the little girl again bursts into tears. Louis,
who has with some skill been pointing out to her only such features
of the difficult paintings as she is adequate to, an underfed and
melancholy face, a marvelous mother bathed in rose, the fact that
in 1920 the colors are no longer blended, and enveloping it all in
fanciful anecdotes-he looks at her in stupefaction.
"It's not fair! It's not fair!" she sobs.
They are alone in the room.
"What's not fair?" says Louis.
"It's not fair 'cause it's a myst'ry, and I won't
ever
be able
to understand it."
"Why you've been understanding it very well, Marcia. What
you said about the colors I didn't know myself, because you're a
painter and I'm not."
"You're
lying
to me-'cause it's a secret myst'ry, and I won't
ever be able to understand it 'cause I'm only a girl, even if I'm
a Juice."
? ?
"I understand about the colors and the poor boy, but I can't
understand it
all,
'cause they cut my thing off when I was little
and Picass' is a man- An' I have nothing left but to be an
actress."
He takes her hand, for the tears are rolling down her cheeks.
"-1 won't ever be able to make 'em any more with a myst'ry
if I live to be a million years old."
She hides her face in her other arm, and she cries with the
pent·up anxiety of her 3rd to her 9th years.
A guard comes in and hastily goes out the other door.
