SEIZE THE D AY
381
monkey-striped shirt were laughing, Wilhelm could not restrain himself
and joined in with his own panting laugh. But he was in despair. They
were laughing at the man to whom he had given a power-of-attorney
over his last sevcn hundred dollars to speculate for him in the com–
modities market. They had bought all that lard.
It
had to rise today.
By ten o'clock, or half-past ten, trading would be active, and he
would see.
III
Between white tablecloths and glassware and glancing silver–
ware, through overfull light, the long figure of Mr. Perls went away
into the darkness of the lobby. He thrust with his cane, and dragged a
large built-up shoe which Wilhelm had not included in his estimate of
troubles. Dr. Adler wanted to talk about him. "There's a poor man,"
he said, "with a bone condition which is gradually breaking him up."
" One
oi those progressive diseases?" said Wilhelm.
"Very
bad. I've learned," the doctor told him, "to keep my sym–
pathy for the real ailments. This Perls is more to be pitied than any
man I know."
Wilhelm understood he was being put on notice and did not express
his opinion. He ate and ate. He did not hurry but kept putting food on
his plate until he had gone through the muffins and his father's straw–
berries, and then some pieces of bacon that were left. He had several
cups of coffee, and when he was finished he sat gigantically in
:1
state
of arrest and didn't seem to know what he should do next.
For a while, father and son were uncommonly still. Wilhelm's
preparations to please Dr. Adler had failed completely, for the old man
kept thinking, 'You'd never guess he had a clean upbringing. What
a dirty devil this son of mine is. Why can't he try to sweeten his appear–
ance a little. Why does he want to drag himself like this. And he makes
himself look so idealistic!'
Wilhelm sat, mountainous. He was not really so slovenly as his
father found him to be. In some aspects he even had a certain delicacy.
His mouth though broad had a fine outline, and his brow and his
gradually incurved nose, dignity, and in his blond hair there was white
but there were also shades of gold and chestnut. When he was with
the Rojax Corporation, Wilhelm had kept a small apartment in Rox–
bury, two rooms in a large house with a small porch and garden, and
on mornings of leisure, in late spring weather like this, he used to sit
expanded in a wicker chair with the sunlight pouring through the weave,
and sunlight through the slug-eaten holes of the young hollyhocks and
as deeply as the grass allowed into small flowers. This peace (he forgot
that that time had its troubles, too), this peace was gone. It must not
have belonged to him, really, for to be here in New York with his old
father was more genuinely like his life. He was well aware that he didn't
stand a chance of getting sympathy from his father, who said he kept
it for real ailments. Moreover, he advised himself repeatedly not to
discuss his vexatious problems with him, for his father, with some justice,
