386
PARTISAN REVIEW
changes. "But, in any event, my lamb here will act as chaperon
when Mr. Evers does arrive today. How is the weather out, Jake?"
A cold unexpected rain fell that afternoon.
They had all observed the grey overcast sky before they left,
but none of them could predict what sort of weather would result.
The rain that fell, not a downpour or a mist but a fitful and
wind-driven rain, was of such an uncertain character that I could not
tell whether or not it would bring the family home early.
But the wind and rain together did bring them home. The wind
that sprayed the rain against the pane of the bedroom window seemed
to have blown them all into the front hall at once. Or, rather, it
seemed to have blown them all through the hall and into the living
room where Virginia Ann and Bill Evers had for the past half hour
kept a silence that I felt I could not endure another second, a silence
utterly unnatural in a house where someone had always before been
talking and talking.
"How dare you you get out of here you common dog." Father's
voice burst upon the quietness.
Then everyone seemed to be talking at once. Mother uttered
something as near to a scream as she had ever been known to utter :
"Virginia Ann I want you to get yourself upstairs out of your father's
sight."
"Get out of here and never let me catch you on my premises
again."
"How could you take such an advantage?"
Uncle Jake spoke too, but what he said was inaudible from
where I stood in the doorway to mine and Brother's room. But the
sound of their voices in the house once more had filled me with con–
fidence, had filled me with a sense of relief. Father's first indignant
commands were the relief and the proof I'd been waiting for. All
my feelings of shock, and fear, and resentment were gone. I could
enjoy the wonderful satisfaction that Father and Mother and Uncle
Jake and even Brother had been driven home by the rain to make a
reality of something that I felt had been frightening because of it<>
unreality.
I had gone to the kitchen soon after the front door had closed
behind the family when they left for the game. I had waited there,
watching the cook dash the pots and pans about in her great haste
to get away on Thanksgiving afternoon. The doorbell finally rang,
and the cook and I heard Virginia Ann in the front hall saying to
Bill Evers, "Hello, Cousin." The cook ceased her noisy business long
