PARTISAN REVIEW
The Almstadts live on the Northwest side, a dreary hour's
ride on the El. I found the house in great disorder.
Mrs.
Almstadt was trying to make the beds, cook, attend her husband
and answer the telephone all at the same time. The telephone
was never idle for more than five minutes. Her friends kept
calling and to each she repeated the full story of her troubles.
I have always disliked my mother-in-law. She is a short, fair,
rather maidenish women. When visible, her natural color
is
healthy. Her eyes are large and they wear a knowing look, but
since there is really nothing to be knowing about they only
convey her foolishness. She is powdered thickly and her lips
are painted in the shape that has become the universal device
of sensuality for all women, from the barely mature to the very
old. Mrs. Almstadt, nearing fifty, is already quite wrinkled,
much to her concern, and she is forever on the watch for new
packs and face lotions.
When I came in she was busy talking to someone and I
went to my father-in-law's room. He was lying with his knees
drawn up and his shoulders raised so that his short-haired red
head seemed joined without a neck directly to his body. Through
an opening in his pajamas, his flesh showed white and fatty
under greying hair. He looked unfamiliar in the high buttoned
tunic with the crest on the pocket, and a little ludicrous. This
was Mrs. Almstadt's doing. She bought his clothes and she had
dressed him for bed like a Mandarin or a Romanoff prince. His
broad knuckles were joined on the silken quilt. He greeted
me with a not wholly ungrudged smile and also as though it
might be considered unmanly or unfatherly to fall sick. At
the same time, however, he tried to make it plain that he could
afford to spend a few days in bed; he was far enough ahead of
the game; the business (this he told me with conflicting non–
chalance and defiance) was in good hands.
The phone rang again and Mrs. Almstadt once more began
to tell her story to one of her innumerable connections (who
knew who they were). Her husband had come down yesterday
and they had the doctor in, and the doctor had said there was a
regular epidemic of grippe this winter. She was worn out, just
