THE CHILD IS THE MEANING
363
mother, and since he became a bookmaker, he has improved in
every way."
And the party ended amid kisses and sincere best wishes, grati–
tude and a sense that after all there was some goodness in life, after
all.
Seymour was forty, his sisters were middle-aged, Nancy was
married, and Jasper had begun a legal career. James at sixty-five
was what he had always been, and John, Ruth's last grandchild, was
in high school, where he made his way painfully because he was a
poor student. Nancy had married and moved to San Francisco and
had had three children immediately.
"Par for the course," said Seymour to Jasper. "Maybe we ought
to send her a booklet about birth control?"
Jasper, returning from Washington where he was a lawyer for
one of the New Deal agencies, came to see his grandmother just after
the defeat of Germany. Arriving at his grandmother's house at noon,
he found Seymour seated at the table in the kitchen in his underwear,
being given his breakfast by his mother as he read the newspapers and
spotted the page with the yellow drops of his soft-boiled egg.
Jasper greeted the two and went with his grandmother to con–
verse in the living room which now served also as Seymour's bedroom:
he had used the studio couch as his bed since his mother was
ill,
although for a long time it had been Ruth who had slept on the
studio couch while Seymour used the bedroom.
Ruth explained this shift to her grandson with some pride.
"You see," she said, "he is really a good son, after all."
"You always look for whatever is good in everyone," said Jasper.
"It is better to be like that," and Ruth, who knew that her grand-
son suspected the worst of most human beings and felt that he suf–
fered because of this suspiciousness.
Seymour, having concluded his breakfast, entered in his bare feet
and underwear and began to dress, as he conversed with Jasper.
"What are the big shots in Washington figuring out now?" he
inquired of his nephew of whose presence in Washington he was
extremely proud.
"They are figuring out how to keep their jobs and how to get
the jobs they have been thinking about," said Jasper.
"I bet they are," said Seymour who approved of such a view of
human beings and who liked such observations because they gave him
the feeling of being in .the know. Meanwhile as he conversed with his
