268
PARTISAN REVIEW
mother's bed, had been awakened by the light and he blinked at the
scene, knowing what argument had preceded it. Swiftly Rebecca
drew her hand from the open dresser drawer.
"Look," she said, holding up a handful of dollar bills, "it was
here all the time!" and she gave her sister the money.
Sarah took the money and said, "You put it there yourself," for
she was not one to permit anyone to get away with anything.
"It was there all the time," said Rebecca, looking with hatred
at her sister, and conscious that her money, as Sarah knew, was being
given to her although Seymour was Sarah's brother as well as Re–
becca's.
"She does that because she is ashamed that her brother is a
thief," said Sarah to her son Jasper when Rebecca had departed.
"She is afraid that she will not get a husband if anyone knows that
your uncle is a thief. But everyone knows that he is a good for nothing,
anyway."
Jasper felt so much sympathy and pain for his mother and his
aunt that he was unable to fall asleep for a long time and he felt
like crying.
Meanwhile Rebecca damned her sister as she spoke to
ha
mother in the bedroom they shared. Ruth always defended everyone
and she defended Sarah by reminding her sister of Sarah's lot, how
cruel her husband was to her, and how she needed money, now that
Michael gave her just a bare subsistence.
"I need money too," said Rebecca. "I don't have any husband."
"Money is the reason for all the trouble in the world," said Ruth,
speaking with a sense of all the years she had known.
When the incident was passed, and all were friendly again, Jasper
was sent with Seymour one day to get a haircut. Seymour gave the
barber a dime tip, and Sarah became outraged once again, and said
that she had no money to give barbers tips, she was a woman deserted
by her husband.
"That does not mean that I have to look like a cheap skate,"
said Seymour. "You told me to take the kid to the barber: next time
take him yourself and see what happens when you don't tip the
barber."
"I never tip him," said Sarah. "You're just a big sport on your
sister's money."
And in fact, Sarah never tipped the barbers for the children's
haircuts and she disregarded the gestures of contempt and anger
