ge.

"Some damned impostor," she said. "Some damned impostor."

"Harriet," protested the general, "Harriet, please ... the boy's work
... only copy ..."

She fed another leaf to the fire. "... impostor ..."

"Harriet--" he advanced toward her, but she waved him away with the
sharp blade--"can't burn George's work this way ... gave his life ..."

I had not thought highly of Joe's talents as a musician, believing them
byandlarge to be but reflections of his unfortunate affectations. I
think I can say I appreciate good music and Ive often taken a great deal
of pleasure from hearing a hotelband play Rubinstein's Melody in F, or
like classical numbers, during mealtimes. But even if Joe's symphony was
but a series of harsh and disjointed sounds, I thought its destruction a
dreadful thing for Mama to do and the more shocking, aside from any
question of artistic taste, because of its reversal of all we associate
with the attitude of true motherhood.

"Mrs Thario," I protested, "as your son's friend I beg you to
consider--"

"Impudence," declared Mama, pointing the sword at me so that I
involuntarily backed up although already at a respectful distance.

"Damned impudence," she repeated, feeding another page to the fire.
"Came into my house, bold as brass and said, 'Cream if you please.' Ha!
I'll cream him, I will!" And she made a violent gesture with the saber
as though skewering me upon its length.

I whispered to Constance, who was standing closest, that her mother had
undoubtedly lost her reason and should be forcibly restrained. Unhappily
the old lady's keen ears caught my suggestion.

"Oho. 'Deranged,' am I? I spend my life making more money than I can
spend, do I? I push my way against all decency into the company of my
betters, boring them and myself for no earthly reason, do I? I live on
crackers and milk because Ive spent my nervous energy piling up the
means to buy an endless supply of steaks and chops my doctor forbids me
to eat? I starve my employees half to death in order to give the money I
steal from them to some charity which hands a small part of it back, ay?
I hire lobbyists or bribe officials to pass laws and then employ others
to break them? I foster nationalist organizations with one hand and
build up international cartels with the other, do I? I'm crazy, am I?"

Excited by her own rhetoric she put several pages at once into the
flames. Constance pleaded, "Mama, this is all we have left of Joe.