I Come as a Theif Read Free Page B

would say. He took hold of her life, encouraged her to be an active citizen, to go on the Junior Committee of the Turtle Bay Settlement House. "You must make something of yourself," he would emphasize.
    Why? For years she had not been able to make out if he had a purpose. He had left a big downtown law firm to form a small midtown partnership which had done moderately well but not very much more than that. He had made a name for himself in boys' welfare and recreation, but so had others. He was popular with many friends, but so were others. And then, suddenly, had come his nomination for the State Senate, and, for six months, everything at last had seemed to jell. Volunteers had flocked to his headquarters; money had filled the mail. Tony, like a squirrel long watching a high bird feeder, had finally leaped and landed securely at the first try. There had even been a wild columnist in
The Village Voice
who had entered his name in the list of future presidential aspirants. The whole thing had been a dazzling experience and had made her wonder if all that had mystified her in Tony was not simply that he was a public man.
    "I've made a great decision!" she exclaimed, as soon as the front door opened and he had returned, after taking his mother down. "I've decided that I really want you to be a politician. And not just to irritate your mother, either."
    "You're trying to get out of the scolding you know you deserve. Talk about wet hens! I had to sit in the lobby half an hour calming Mother down."
    "Oh, she loved it. You know she loved it. So did I. I want to be taken out to dinner to celebrate my great decision."
    "We're bust."
    "I have some cash."
    At the Italian restaurant two blocks south, in a back booth, Lee sipped her drink and felt strangely elated. Was it happiness?
    "Will you excuse me to make a call to Max?"
    Her elation collapsed. "Oh, Tony, you're
always
calling Max. I thought now you were out of the law you could leave your partners alone for a bit."
    "But, darling, I'm in so many things with Max."
    "What things?" She detested Max Leonard. She had always detested him. She was convinced that he had done Tony a disfavor in persuading him to leave Hale & Cartwright to set up on their own. Max had had no future in the bigger firm; Tony might have had. And Max was so relentlessly charming, so pallidly handsome, so busy-busy, so scheming. She thought he loved Tony more than he loved his snobby little wife. She thought he was in love with Tony. "I hate Max."
    "You've never given Max his due. He's been a very good friend. It was he, after all, who got me into politics."
    "What things are you in with him?" she repeated.
    "Business things. I've told you, but you never listen. Max and I have gone into a joint capital venture. It's backing a small restaurant chain in Jersey. And then there's the stock in that new computer firm, Herron..."
    "Why?" she interrupted.
    "Why a computer firm?"
    "No. Why do you have to go into these things?"
    "To make money, of course."
    "Why do you need so much money? I thought you only wanted to add to your income a bit."
    "All right, Lee. Let's talk about something else."
    Gin always made her irritable, and she knew that she had to get hold of herself. "No, I'm interested," she said. "Really interested. Why do we have to be rich?"
    "Please, Lee. Tell me about your day. Did you go to the Boys' Club?"
    "No, I want to talk about why you want to be rich. Aren't I and the children enough for you?"
    "Oh, Lee."
    "I'm not being soppy. I want to know. You never tell me what you're really thinking. Please do. Just once." She saw that she was only antagonizing him, and she paused again to drain some of the emotion out of her tone. "I'd like to know the role of wealth in our future. Seriously. Maybe you're right. Maybe we
ought
to be wealthy."
    Tony looked at her with contained exasperation. "Well, it's not fashionable in liberal circles to admit the importance of money in politics, but all the same, there it is.