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PARTISAN REVIEW
family, and this too astonished Rebecca. Sarah too was touched by
the extraordinary affection which everyone showed toward her mo–
ther. But she was also critical.
"It's just because she never knocks anyone," said Sarah, "she
has a good word for everyone. She does not admit to herself what
she thinks about them most of the time."
The morning that the party was to occur Rebecca arose early,
as her mother might have, to prepare the party food. When Ruth
came from the first floor of the apartment house, where she lived,
to the fourth-floor apartment where her daughter lived, to make
her habitual morning visit and see that all was well with her daugh–
ter's family, Rebecca came to the door and would not let her mother
come in. She said she was taking a bath. Ruth went downstairs and
by the time the elevator had reached the first floor, she knew that
her daughter's refusal to admit her was very strange, since the reason
given was unheard-of, her daughter had taken many baths in her
presence, this was the first time in her life that Rebecca had been
squeamish about her mother's presence or refused her admission
to her house.
It
took an hour for Ruth to decide that Rebecca was trying to
conceal something from her and she felt that all concealment was
concealment of evil, she had never known anyone to have a reason
for concealing goodness.
Seymour had been told to keep his mother from visiting her
daughter's apartment, but he had not come home that night, a
habit which was becoming more and more frequent. He had been
told by Rebecca to use any possible subterfuge to keep his mother
from coming upstairs to Rebecca and
if
he had been at home there
were countless resources which he had spontaneously made use of
through the years to keep his mother near him.
Ruth, having decided that Rebecca was concealing a disaster
from her, returned
in
the elevator to Rebecca's apartment to make
sure. When Rebecca sent Sarah to the door, Sarah told her, smiling,
that she must not come in, supposing that the smile would be suffi–
cient to reassure her mother. Ruth again went to her own apartment,
thought more about her banishment and decided that Seymour had
been injured or killed in the accident she long had feared. She re–
turned in the elevator again, was greeted at the door by both Rebecca
and Sarah who told her that she could not enter now, but that at
three o'clock in the afternoon, she would be welcome.
Ruth demanded to be admitted with passion and anger.
