316
PARTISAN REVIEW
wise, he would never have made a good salesman. He claimed also
that he was a good listener. When he listened, he made a tight mouth
and rolled his eyes thoughtfully. He would soon tire and begin to
utter short, loud, impatient breaths, and he would say, "Oh yes ...
yes ... yes. I couldn't agree more." When he was forced to differ
he would declare, "Well, I'm not sure. I don't really see it that way.
I'm of two minds about it." He would never willingly hurt any
man's feelings.
But in conversation with his father he was apt to lose control
of himself. After any talk with Dr. Adler, Wilhelm generally felt dis–
satisfied, and his dissatisfaction reached its greatest intensity when
they discussed family matters. Ostensibly he had been trying to help
the old man to remember a date, but in reality he meant to tell
him, "You were set free when Ma died. You wanted to forget her.
You'd like to get rid of Catherine, too. Me, too. You're not kidding
anyone."-Wilhelm striving to put this across, and the old man
not having it. In the end he was left struggling, while his father
seemed unmoved.
And then once more Wilhelm had said to himself, 'But man!
You're not a kid. Even then you weren't a kid!' He looked down
over the front of his big, indecently big, spoiled body. He was be–
ginning to lose his shape, his gut was fat, and he looked like a
hippopotamus. His younger son called him "a hummuspotamus"–
that was little Paul. And here he was still struggling with his old
dad, filled with ancient grievances. Instead of saying, "Good-by,
youth! Oh, good-by those marvelous, foolish wasted days. What a
big clunk I was-I
am ."
Wilhelm was still paying heavily for his mistakes. His wife
Margaret would not give him a divorce, and he h ad to support her
and the two children. She would regularly agree to divorce him,
and then think things over again and set new and more difficult
conditions. No court would have awarded her the amounts he paid.
One of today's letters, as he had expected, was from her. For the
first time, he had sent her a post-dated check and she protested. She
also enclosed bills for the boys' educational insurance policies, due
next week. Wilhelm's mother-in-law had taken out these policies in
Beverly Hills, and since her death two years ago he had to pay the
premiums. Why couldn't she have minded her own business! They
