202
PARTISAN REVIEW
theosophy lectures, and modern dance classes. But she painted more
than she did those other
things.
Now she had started going to Hof–
mann's, and in her conversations about the future she more often
outlined for herself the life of a painter than anything else. Mrs.
Weiss was not entirely pleased with the implications of this career,
although publicly she gave her modified approval. The last year had
convinced her that the future was not far off. Gretchen's boyfriend,
Byron Kahn, for instance, was a painter. Fortunately, Mrs. Weiss
thought, he had gone away the previous summer, and this was when
Gretchen met her nice new friend Sheila Fairfield, when they were
both counselors at a settlement house camp. During the fall and
winter, Mrs. Weiss had reason to believe that Byron was no longer
so much
in
question. Gretchen spent more of her Saturdays with
Sheila now, and Byron came to 93rd Street less often than before.
Sheila Fairfield, blond, thin, and earnest, appeared to Mrs. Weiss
as the type of wholesome friend of good character that her daughter
had previously avoided, so she always welcomed this new friend for
dinner or to take Gretchen to lectures or for walks in the Park. Sheila's
lonely situation-poor, motherless
girl, all
alone-recommended her
even more to Mrs. Weiss, who privately hoped that her daughter
might begin to appreciate those numerous advantages previously
scorned.
Mrs. Weiss's hopes were in a sense fulfilled. Gretchen
did
begin
to emulate her wholesome friend. But Mrs. Weiss did not realize that
Gretchen made her own choice of qualities or circumstances to emu–
late: like Sheila, she planned to leave home when she finished high
school and live in a furnished room. Mrs. Weiss did not know either
that Gretchen's boyfriend Byron, and her relation with him, was a
constant source of fascination for Sheila Fairfield, and that Gretchen's
"advantages" counted for so much less than Gretchen's sophistication.
The High School of Music and
Art
might not seem to everyone the
mark of the elect, but it worked as more of an advantage than any
other, for Sheila had gone to an obscure and awful school in the
Bronx-this was before she left home, when she still lived with her
terrible father and quite wicked grandmother. Gretchen had had
the whole story from her. The report was, of course, properly edited
for Mrs. Weiss. But Gretchen did not plan to emulate her friend
completely. For example, she liked her own name well enough not
