THALIA SELZ
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children she never could figure out. She knew her father was
predicting her future , as usual, and that as usual it had some–
thing to do with being Greek, and if there was one thing she had
long ago decided, sometime way back in her second or third year
(though she couldn't have specified the time had anyone known
enough to ask), it was that she was not going to be Greek. She
didn't know exactly how she would manage, but she knew it just
the same. She wasn't going to be anything her father with his
racket and rumpus wanted her to be, and that was that.
Athos, on the other hand, knew that at last he could be
something someone he respected wanted him to be. Sally Sparks
and Archie Anderson had loved him, but they had never had
time or inclination to know what went on in his head. Mrs. Nau–
sicaa Paleologos had cared only what went on at the other end.of
him. Moscow was his loyal friend, but Moscow was always try–
ing to reform him. Here at last was someone who needed his serv–
ices, rather like Nausicaa but in a very different area of skill, an
area which was far more congenial to Athos. And someone who
cou ld be a friend, too; that much was pretty clear to Athos Hart–
ford Anderson as he rode home in a decrepit automobile with
Pano and Maude and the little girl with the unhealthy shadows
under her eyes. She was an additional reason for his going home
with them, but Athos didn't quite dare admit it to himself just
yet. Anyhow, what were most important were food and bed and
the etymological discussions for which he could pay by translat–
ing scientific abstracts and in return for which he would-thank
god-not have to go to church, for he had known from the very
moment he had laid eyes on the little triumvirate at the long
table tha t they were not a churchgoing family.
Athos was to enter a Greek church only one more time in
his life, in July of 1942, but in Moscow, his best friend, and in
Pano and Maude, his benefac tors , he had found those who per–
formed what that church calls the seven corporal works of mercy:
to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty , to clothe the
naked, to visit and ransom captives, to harbor the harborless, to
visit the sick, and finally-that afternoon in July of 'Forty-two–
to
bury the dead.
