390
PARTISAN REVIEW
taining to the Scouts. The only thing Uncle Jake said was,
"If
you'll
<~_pply
yourself you'll be the first Eagle
in
our troop."
"I'm going to," Brother said. "I'm going to
if
it takes every single
afternoon of the week." He was still trying to
think
of "other things,"
I reflected.
When we went downstairs we found Mother and Father back in
the sitting room playing Casino. Virginia Ann was looking on. Father
was winning and he pretended to be very proud and boastful of
his
score. He called us around to look at his hand and observe how clev–
erly he played it. But when he had called, "Cards," and the last hand
was played, Mother had much the larger stack and all but one of
the spade-.s. So now she derided him for his boasting. Father pre–
tended to want to talk of other things now. "I believe," he said with
feigned formality, "I say I believe, my dear wife, that you said you
had a letter from your sister Grace yesterday. What did she say? Do
tell me about it."
And Mother did commence to tell him all about the "nice, fat,
long, happy" letter.
So we left the house amidst a new burst of conversation between
Mother and Father, and I felt a sudden gladness that I was not going
to be in the house tonight.
It
would have meant being there alone with
Virginia Ann. For just as Mother and Father had not invited her or
anyone else to join their game they would not really have allowed
anyone to join their conversation.
On the way to the Scout Meeting, sitting
in
the front seat of the
automobile between my uncle and my brother, I thought of the letter
from my Aunt Grace.
If
she had been there that afternoon I knew
that she would have said, "Virginia Ann, you're a real little fool."
And I did not long to see her tonight, for she would have been singing
in the kitchen and in the hall, full of the sort of cheer that was in
the letter, the exaggerated sort of cheer she had shown the day she
left for Birmingham.
The Scout Meeting was held in an unused servants' room above
the garage of one of Uncle Jake's hunting friends. As we walked
up the shadowy drive to the garage we could see the light already
burning in the room upstairs, and several of the other Scouts were at
the window. But when we came into sight just below the window I
saw them leave the window hurriedly as though they were in school
and the teacher was arriving.
We went into the garage and began to climb the steep, dark stair.
When we were about half way to the top I suddenly reached forward
and grasped Uncle Jake's hand. He held my hand firmly and led me
