PARTISAN REVIEW
He told them of the new dialogue between his parents, discussing
the Irish Sweepstakes. .
"What would you do,
if
you won one hundred and fifty thou–
sand dollars?" Mrs. Tyler had asked her husband. The cruelest irony
was in her voice, for she resented her husband very much because
her life had not been what she had expected it to be. What she was
saying was that he would not know what to do with a great deal
of money.
"What would you do with it?" she said again for emphasis,
disturbing Mr. Tyler's careful examination of the evening newspaper.
"I would sleep," said Mr. Tyler flatly and strongly, for he
recognized this as a criticism of his powers and his way of life.
"But you sleep now," said Mrs. Tyler, unwilling to be put off,
"I never saw anyone sleep as much as that man," she said to Lloyd
who was trying to keep out of an interchange in which he recognized
twenty-five years of feeling.
"It would be a different sleep," said Mr. Tyler.
"If
I had one
hundred and fifty thousand dollars, it would not be the same kind of
sleep."
"No one sleeps better than you do," said Mrs. Tyler, but weakly,
knowing that she had been worsted.
"What a triumph!" cried Edmund joyously. "Not even Swift
would have made a better answer."
"Yes," said Rudyard, "we ought to strike a medal for your
father, Lloyd. He has justified all of us."
"I wonder what he would do with one hundred and fifty thou–
sand dollars," said Marcus.
"He would sleep the sleep of the just and the self-fulfilled,"
Jacob answered. "What does he have to show for his thirty years
of work? He has nothing."
"He has himself," said Rudyard, who often chose to regard all
things in an ideal light.
"He does not like himself," said Lloyd, "he does not care very
much for himself."
"It
is
his own fault if he does not care very much for himself,"
answered Rudyard.
"Is it his own fault?" asked Lloyd sadly, for he liked his father
very much. "He thinks that he would see my sister and her husband
286
