was with him, if only from a venal point of view. Here is this eminent man with a lot of money who's going to take care of her. After all, she's not getting any younger herself. She settles down with someone who's achieved something in lifeâwhat's so wrong with that? Instead the message is: Don't set yourself up to be caretaker of a crazy old guy.
However, since Pegeen had seemingly rejected Carol's account of him, he thought it best to stay silent about that as well as everything else that he didn't like. What would be the good of attacking her mother for butting in? Better to appear to laugh it off. If she should come to see him through
her mother's eyes, there was nothing he could say or do to stop her anyway.
"You're wonderful to me," Pegeen said to him. "You're what the doctor ordered."
"And you to me," he said, and he left it at that. He didn't go on from there to add, "As for your parents, I'd just as soon spare them, but I can't arrange my life according to their feelings. Their feelings don't matter that much to me, frankly, and at this stage of the game they really shouldn't matter that much to you either." No, he would not take off in that direction. Instead he would sit tight and be patient and hope the family would fade away.
The next day Pegeen devoted to stripping the wallpaper in her study. The wallpaper had been chosen by Victoria many years before, and though Axler didn't care about it one way or another, Pegeen couldn't stand the look of it and asked if she could take it down. He told her the room was hers to do with as she liked, as was the upstairs back bedroom and the bathroom beside it, as indeed was every room in the house. He told her he could easily get a painter in to do the job, but she insisted on stripping the walls and painting them herself, thereby making the study officially hers. She had all
the necessary tools for stripping wallpaper at her house, and she had brought them with her to begin the job that Sunday, the very day after her mother, down in New York, had questioned the wisdom of her being there at all. He must have gone in to watch her removing the wallpaper ten times during the course of the day, and each time came away with the same reassuring thought: she wouldn't be working away like that if Carol had succeeded in persuading her to leave him. She wouldn't be doing what she was doing if she weren't planning to stay.
That evening Pegeen drove back to the college, where she had a class to teach early the following morning. When the phone rang around ten on Sunday night he thought it was she who was calling to say that she was safely home. It wasn't. It was the jilted dean. "Be forewarned, Mr. Famous: she's desirable, she's audacious, and she's utterly ruthless, utterly cold-hearted, incomparably selfish, and completely amoral." And with that, the dean hung up.
T HE NEXT MORNING Axler dropped off his car to be serviced, and the mechanic gave him a ride back home in his tow truck. He would return the car to Axler at the end of the day when the job was done. Around noon, when Axler went into the kitchen to make a sandwich for himself, he happened to look out the window and saw something dart across the field adjacent to the barn and then disappear behind it. It was a person this time, not a possum. He stood back from the kitchen window and waited to see if perhaps there was a second, third, or fourth person lurking anywhere else. There had been a worrisome series of break-ins throughout the county in recent months, mainly into unoccupied houses owned by weekenders, and he wondered if the absence of a car in his carport had caught the attention of the robbers and made him a target for a daytime theft. Quickly, he headed for the attic to get his shotgun and load it with shells. Then he went back downstairs to survey his property from the kitchen window. A hundred yards to the north, on the road that ran perpendicular to his, he could see a parked car, but it was too far for
However, since Pegeen had seemingly rejected Carol's account of him, he thought it best to stay silent about that as well as everything else that he didn't like. What would be the good of attacking her mother for butting in? Better to appear to laugh it off. If she should come to see him through
her mother's eyes, there was nothing he could say or do to stop her anyway.
"You're wonderful to me," Pegeen said to him. "You're what the doctor ordered."
"And you to me," he said, and he left it at that. He didn't go on from there to add, "As for your parents, I'd just as soon spare them, but I can't arrange my life according to their feelings. Their feelings don't matter that much to me, frankly, and at this stage of the game they really shouldn't matter that much to you either." No, he would not take off in that direction. Instead he would sit tight and be patient and hope the family would fade away.
The next day Pegeen devoted to stripping the wallpaper in her study. The wallpaper had been chosen by Victoria many years before, and though Axler didn't care about it one way or another, Pegeen couldn't stand the look of it and asked if she could take it down. He told her the room was hers to do with as she liked, as was the upstairs back bedroom and the bathroom beside it, as indeed was every room in the house. He told her he could easily get a painter in to do the job, but she insisted on stripping the walls and painting them herself, thereby making the study officially hers. She had all
the necessary tools for stripping wallpaper at her house, and she had brought them with her to begin the job that Sunday, the very day after her mother, down in New York, had questioned the wisdom of her being there at all. He must have gone in to watch her removing the wallpaper ten times during the course of the day, and each time came away with the same reassuring thought: she wouldn't be working away like that if Carol had succeeded in persuading her to leave him. She wouldn't be doing what she was doing if she weren't planning to stay.
That evening Pegeen drove back to the college, where she had a class to teach early the following morning. When the phone rang around ten on Sunday night he thought it was she who was calling to say that she was safely home. It wasn't. It was the jilted dean. "Be forewarned, Mr. Famous: she's desirable, she's audacious, and she's utterly ruthless, utterly cold-hearted, incomparably selfish, and completely amoral." And with that, the dean hung up.
T HE NEXT MORNING Axler dropped off his car to be serviced, and the mechanic gave him a ride back home in his tow truck. He would return the car to Axler at the end of the day when the job was done. Around noon, when Axler went into the kitchen to make a sandwich for himself, he happened to look out the window and saw something dart across the field adjacent to the barn and then disappear behind it. It was a person this time, not a possum. He stood back from the kitchen window and waited to see if perhaps there was a second, third, or fourth person lurking anywhere else. There had been a worrisome series of break-ins throughout the county in recent months, mainly into unoccupied houses owned by weekenders, and he wondered if the absence of a car in his carport had caught the attention of the robbers and made him a target for a daytime theft. Quickly, he headed for the attic to get his shotgun and load it with shells. Then he went back downstairs to survey his property from the kitchen window. A hundred yards to the north, on the road that ran perpendicular to his, he could see a parked car, but it was too far for
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