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PARTISAN REVIEW
the bed--bam! The bed looked kicked to pieces. Then he drank the
gin as though it were tea, and urged his team on with his fist. The
smell of dirty clothes was outrageous. By the bedside lay a quart bottle,
and foolish magazines and mystery stories for the hours of insomnia.
Wilhelm lived in worse filth than a savage. When the doctor spoke to
him about this he answered, "Well, I have no wife to look after my
things." And
who-who!-had
done the leaving? Not Margaret. The
doctor was certain that she wanted him back.
Wilhelm drank his coffee with a trembling hand. In his full face
his abused, bloodshot gray eyes moved back and forth_ Jerkily he set
his cup back and put half the length of a cigarette into his mouth;
he seemed to hold it with his teeth, like a cigar.
"I can't let them get away with it," he said. "It's also a question
of morale."
His father corrected him. "Don't you mean a moral question,
Wilky?"
"I mean that, too. I have to do something to protect myself. I was
promised executive standing." Correction before a stranger mortified
hIm, and his dark blond face changed color, more pale, and then more
dark. He went on talking to Perls but his eyes spied on his father. "I
was the one who opened the territory for them. I could go back for
one of their competitors and take away their customers.
My
customers.
Morale enters into it because they've tried to take away my confidence."
"Would you offer a different line to the same people?" Mr. Perls
wondered.
"Why not? I know what's wrong with the Rojax product."
"Nonsense," said his father. "Just nonsense and kid's talk, Wilky.
You're only looking for trouble and embarrassment that way. What
would you gain by such a silly feud? You have to think about making
a living and meeting your obligations."
Rot and bitter, Wilhelm said with pride, while his feet moved
angrily under the table, "I don't have to be told about my obligations.
I've been meeting them for years. In more than twenty years I've never
had a penny of help from anybody. I preferred to dig a ditch on the
WPA but never asked anyone to meet my obligations for me."
"Wilky has had all kinds of experiences," said Dr. Adler.
The old doctor's face had a wholesome reddish and almost translu–
cent color, like a ripe apricot. The wrinkles beside his ears were deep
because his skin conformed so tightly to the bones. With all his might,
he was a healthy and fine small old man. He wore a white vest of a
light check pattern_ His hearing aid doodad was in the pocket. An
unusual shirt of red and black stripes covered his chest. He bought his
clothes in a college shop, farther uptown. Wilhelm thought he had no
business to get himself up like a jockey, out of respect for his profession.
"Well," said Mr. Perls. "I can understand how you feel. You want
to fight it out. By a certain time of life, to have to start all over again
can't be a pleasure, though a good man can always do it. But anyway
