574
PARTISAN REVIEW
staring past Sebastian and out into the dark where now the high
yellow window spilled a single shaft of light. Sebastian stood slicing
potatoes and onions into a saucepan, and sometimes looked at her,
when he nodded sympathetically, but continued with the task of
making soup.
Her weeping made no claims on him, nor on the world . At one
point he handed her a box of tissues. At another he pushed towards
her a glass of wine - as if they had not already had enough of it.
Later he inquired, "Your boy?" and she nodded.
"I've lost him, you see ," she said .
He gave her a long, acute look, checking for exaggeration, and
then grunted an assent . He said, "I'm sorry, Jody . Well , it can't be
easy seeing how Henry and Angela deal with it ."
With a sigh she said, "As successful as possible, I suppose . And
your child - Marion?"
"Luckily she's the same age as Connie ."
"There's your wife , not just Henry and Angela."
He nodded . "Right. But Olga and I have made a point of not
involving poor Marion in our disagreements . I don't think we go to
the lengths Henry and Angela do-to my mind they overdo it , but
Marion's all right." At her look he insisted, "Yes, really all right. She
is doing well at school- surely that's a pointer? She likes coming
here with Olga - they were here only a month ago, the two of them."
"Your ex-wife Olga, and your daughter, and Henry and
Angela and Connie and you?"
"And some other people came too . A house party. A real one.
No, I couldn't make it , I was working. I do work you know. "
"So do I," she insisted. "I work hard."
"We all work hard . We are the hard working classes."
She had stopped crying. She sat straight up, as was her way,
shoulders back, as if at some health course or other she had been in–
structed how to sit and had never compromised since . But her hands
on the table in front of her were clenched in the tension of her
mlsery .
"Does your ex-husband know how you feel?" Before she could
explode at him, something he obviously felt was imminent, he went
on steadily , keeping his eyes on her face, a kindly-meant warning, or
pressure: "I mean , I don't think I would have known how Olga felt
about it all if we hadn't discussed it so much . And discussed it and
discussed it - " he continued, almost frivolously, but his laugh was
rueful. "In my view, things can be discussed too much ."
