THE CHILD IS THE MEANING
361
"I have the worst children in the world," she said, and since
the mention of three o'clock had convinced her that Seymour's dead
body was being prepared for the coffin by an undertaker, she cried
out: "Just give me his body and I will never ask you for anything
again."
Sarah and Rebecca laughed and said that there was nothing
wrong with Seymour, and she was behaving like a child.
"Where is he then?" said Ruth. "He has not come home all
night."
Rebecca reminded her of how often Seymour had stayed out
all
night during the past year and begged her to depart. The laughter
of her daughters did not reassure Ruth so much as perplex her.
"Never in my life has anything like this happened: what chil–
dren! not to let their own mother in the house." And she departed,
disgruntled. It still seemed possible to her that Seymour had been
injured elsewhere.
By two some of the guests began to arrive and one of them was
sent downstairs to entertain Ruth until it was time to bring her to
the party. The guest was greeted by Ruth's condemnation of Sarah
and Rebecca as the worst children any mother had ever had. During
this time Seymour returned for a clean shirt, glanced furtively at
the guest, and told his mother not to annoy him when she questioned
him about where he had been. Then she told him about being barred
from Rebecca's apartment and Seymour remembered that there was
to be a surprise party. But he had an appointment elsewhere. H e
decided to return as soon as possible, and without greeting his mother's
guest, who had known him for twenty-five years, he departed once
more.
"Let us go and try Rebecca again," said the friend of the family
when it was time to go to the party.
"I don't want to see her," said the angered mother. But she went,
after she had been urged to make herself pretty, to fix herself up.
When she entered the living room of her daughter's apartment
she was confronted by the friends of many years who sang out:
"Happy birthday, dear Ruth, happy birthday, happy birthday!"
At first she was stupefied. Then she understood and greeted them
with a child's smile. She was very pleased. But the guests were moved
and some began to cry from the strength of the emotion and some
started to clap hands- they had not really known how much they
admired Ruth-and one of them, moved by the desire to think not
only of Ruth, but of such another party, cried out:
