“That’s eleven so far,” Gwen said.

“One into the utility room,” Charley said.

“Twelve.”

“None into the study,” Charley said. “I guess it’s twelve. At least twelve. There’s always one of them hanging open, letting out heat.”

“Fay’s brother has been giving her a lot of help,” Gwen said. “He’s been doing all the shopping and housecleaning for her, running all kinds of errands for her.”

“That’s right,” Charley said. “I forgot about him completely. He’s there, if anything happens.” It had been in his mind that Fay and the children were the only ones there, alone in the house, now, without a man. The Anteils had overlooked him, too. None of them considered it the same as there being a man in the house, and apparently Fay felt the same way. But anyhow, Jack did the chores for her, so she did not have the burden of work around the house, along with her worry.

“There’s no financial problems that you’ve heard her mention, is there?” he asked. “There shouldn’t be. She has the joint checking account, and I have insurance that ought to be paying off around now.”

“She never mentioned any problem if there is one,” Gwen said. “She seems to have money.”

“She’s always down at the Mayfair cashing a check,” Nat said, with a smile.

“She’ll manage to get it spent,” Charley said.

“Yes, she seems to be doing okay,” Nat said.

“I hope she remembers the bills,” Charley said.

Gwen said, “She has a whole box of bills; I saw it on the desk in the study. She was going over them, trying to decide which ones to pay.”

“I usually do that,” Charley said. “Tell her to pay the utility bills. That’s the rule. Always pay them first.”

“Well, there’s no problem, is there?” Nat said. “She has the ready capital to pay all of them, doesn’t she?”

“Probably does,” Charley said. “Unless this god damn hospitalization is running too much.”

“She could always borrow from the bank,” Gwen said.

“Yes,” Charley said. “But she shouldn’t have to. We have plenty of money. Unless she fouls it up.”

“She’s quite resourceful,” Nat said. “Anyhow, she always gives the impression; I assume she is.”

“She is,” Charley said. “She’s good in a crisis. That’s when she’s the best. One time we were out on Tomales Bay in a sailboat and we couldn’t pump. The pump was busted. Water was coming in. She steered the boat while I bailed by hand. She never got scared. But actually we might have gone down.”

“You told us about that,” Gwen said, nodding.

“She can always get somebody to help her,” Charley said. “If she breaks down on the road she always gets somebody to stop.”

“A lot of women are like that,” Nat said. “They have to be. It’s almost impossible for a woman to change a tire.”

“She wouldn’t change a tire,” Charley said. “She’d rustle up somebody to change it for her. Do you think she’d change a tire? Are you kidding?”

Nat said, “She sure is a good driver.”

“She’s a fine driver,” he said. “She likes to drive.” He added, “She’s good at anything she likes to do. But if she doesn’t like to do it she doesn’t do it; she gets somebody else to do it. I never saw her do anything she didn’t want to do. That’s her philosophy. You must know that; you’re always talking philosophy with her.”

“She’s made the drive down here,” Gwen said. “There’s nothing pleasurable about that.”

“Sure she’s made the drive,” Charley said. “You know what she never has done and never will do? Think of another person besides herself. Everybody’s just somebody to do things for her.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” Gwen said.

“Don’t tell me about my wife,” he said. “I know my wife; I’ve been married to her for seven years. Everybody in the world’s a servant. That’s what they are, servants. I’m a servant. Her brother is a servant. She’ll get you to wait on her. She’ll sit there and have you doing things for her.”

The doctor came in and said that the Anteils had to go. Or perhaps it was the nurse. He saw a white figure approach; he heard them talking. Then the Anteils said a rapid good-bye and were gone.

Alone, he lay in the bed, thinking.

Several times in the next few days Fay visited him, with and without the children, and Jack, and friends.

The next time that the Anteils came back only Nat came. He explained that Gwen had to go to the dentist in San Francisco, and that she had let him off here at the U.C. Hospital.

“Where is this hospital?” Charley said. “What part of San Francisco is this?”

Nat said, “Out around Parnassus and Fourth. Getting toward the beach. We’re up high, overlooking the Panhandle of Golden Gate Park. It’s a stiff walk around here.”

“I see,” Charley said. “I could see houses, but I couldn’t figure out what pant of the city it was. I don’t know San Francisco very well. The green I saw must be the park.”

“The beginning of the park,” Nat said.

After a time Charley said, “Listen, has she got started getting you to do things?”

With deliberation, Nat said, “I’m not sure what you mean. Both Gwen and I are glad to do anything we can, not for her as such but for you, both of you. For the family.”

“Don’t let her get you to do things,” he said.

Nat said, “It’s natural to do things, anyhow it’s natural to do certain kinds of things. Of course, there’s a limit. We both recognize, Gwen and I, that she’s impulsive. She’s frank; she speaks right out.”

“She’s got the mind of a child,” he said. “She wants something so she goes after it. She won’t take no.”

Nat said nothing to that.

“Does it bother you?” Charley said. “My saying that? Good god, I don’t want you trotting around doing errands for her. I don’t want to see her nob you of your self-respect. No man should do a woman’s errands for her.”

“Okay,” Nat said in a low voice.

“Sorry if this upsets you,” Charley said.

“No, it’s okay.”

“I just want to warn you. She’s an exciting person and people are drawn to her. I’m not saying anything against her. I love her. If I had to I’d marry her again.” No, he thought. If I could I’d kill her. If I could get out of this bed I’d kill her. He said aloud, “God damn her.”

“It’s okay,” Nat said, to make him stop.

“No,” he said, “it’s not okay. That bitch. That devouring bitch. She ate me up. When I get back there I’m going to take her apart piece by piece. God, you know your original reaction to her. I heard. You told Betty Heinz that Fay was a bossy, demanding woman and you didn’t like her.”

“I told Mary Woulden that I had difficulty dealing with her because she was so intense,” Nat said. “And I said she was bossy. We patched it up.”

“Yes,” Charley said. “She was sore. She can’t stand that.”

“We haven’t had any difficulty carrying on a relationship with your wife. We’ve had a very equitable relationship with her. We’re not terribly close to her, but we enjoy her company; we enjoy the children and the house—we like to be over there.”

Charley said nothing.

“To some extent I know what you mean,” Nat said presently.

“Anyhow it doesn’t matter,” Charley said. “Because when I get out of here I’m going to kill her. I don’t care who knows it. I don’t care if Sheriff Chisholm knows it. She can swear out a warrant. Did she tell you I hit her one time?”

Nat nodded.

“She can swear out a warrant for felony wife-beating,” he said. “It’s all the same to me. She can get that twenty-dollars-an-hour psychoanalyst to swear in court that it’s all in my mind, that I’m eaten up with hostility, that I resent her because she has taste and refinement. I don’t care. I don’t give a good god damn about anything. I don’t even care about my kids. I don’t care if I ever see either of them again. I don’t expect to see that house again; I can tell you that. I’ll probably see them, the kids; she’ll bring them here.”