THE CHILD IS THE MEANING
259
gave most of her salary to her mother each week, and her mother
put as much as possible in the bank, so that Rebecca would have
a handsome dowry to give her husband.
When Samuel again and again gambled and lost the money he
had collected, mother and daughter did not need to confer. Money
was withdrawn from Rebecca's hard-earned savings, and without
hesitation the money was returned to the rightful possessor.
"You support your brother as a gambler," said Sarah. "He is
not even a good gambler. He always thinks he is going to win."
"It is my money," Rebecca replied. "I don't want to see Mamma
miserable."
"Mamma is your weakness," said Sarah.
"Who is
your
weakness?" Rebecca replied. And it was true that
Sarah was hard on everyone, especially hard on her husband, a dif–
ficult man in many ways.
But after this exchange, Sarah, insulted, sought out a motive for
Rebecca's generosity. She decided that it was fear that when the
proper husband came along for Rebecca, he would be repelled and
perhaps driven off by the knowledge that the brother of the family
was a scoundrel and a crook.
"That's true," said Rebecca when Sarah accused her of being
thus motivated, "but that's not the only reason."
Rebecca then went to Samuel and told him what Sarah had
said. "You see, not only do you make your mother miserable, but
you make me look like a fool. Who ever heard of a sister who had
to pay her brother's gambling debts to be sure that she would get a
husband?"
"Why do you do it, if you don't want to?" asked Samuel, be–
mused in the abstract by his sister's behavior. And when Rebecca
was enraged by this query, Samuel said that she was a crank and
left the house.
Having arrived at early manhood, it was now possible for
Samuel to get jobs in the garment district where his sister was em–
ployed and where she was liked by everyone. But these jobs also
involved getting up early in the morning and when he was late to
work day after day, he was fired, though not without a polite apology
by the boss to Rebecca. Each time that he was fired, Samuel lost his
temper and told the boss what he thought of
him,
what a cheap skate
he was; and he was sure that he was in the right. Only when his
sister had to pay his debts did he become contrite for a time.
Sarah's marriage showed no sign of improvement, on the con-
