258
PARTISAN REVIEW
"Mamma, Jasper will be just like Leonard," said Sarah, "you
wait and see."
The mother regarded her daughter and her grandchild with an
absent-minded politeness. She was too kind a person to resist these
efforts at consolation and she was too kind to say how ridiculous it
was to expect a mere infant to take the place of a grown man who
had become a doctor.
"I would like to be alone," she said politely, and she said nothing
when Sarah insisted that it was not good for her to be alone.
Leonard's death disturbed Samuel a good deal. He was fifteen
years old at the time and he had been impressed but disturbed when
family visitors had said to him, "Now you are the man of the family."
The funeral was the most serious event of Samuel's life, and he
behaved in a subdued and official way, but this did not prevent him
from getting the evening paper when the family returned from the
cemetery and studying the final scores in the major league pennant
races. Actually Leonard's death made Samuel very much afraid,
but he concealed his fear that he might die in early youth like his
brother. He concealed his fear most of all from himself by means of
his devotion to professional sports, major league baseball especially,
which were not only the basis of much of his gambling with the
other boys, but also as interesting to him as the ancient epics must
have been to the classical world;
After Leonard's death, when his mother slowly took hold of
herself and rose from her stony mourning, Samuel had his own way
in all things. His mother spoiled him as never before, she was undis–
turbed when he lost or quit his jobs, and she never disturbed him
when he slept late in the morning She was particularly concerned
about his meals, this was the one part of life about which she en–
forced her own feelings, she insisted that Samuel eat well and she
watched him eat with an intensity which was needless, since Samuel
usually ate very well. He preferred sharp dishes, pickles, and deli–
catessen, and sweet dishes. It was for Samuel and not for Rebecca
that his mother went down to the store in the cold early mornings
of winter to get fresh rolls and coffee cake.
"This
is
rotten," Samuel said often of what his mother gave
him, for he had come to expect to be pleased at every meal.
Meanwhile Rebecca, the good daughter and the one who sup–
ported her mother and her brother, went to business with two sand–
wiches and an apple in a brown paper bag, thus saving money. She
