Page:Strange Interlude (1928).djvu/157

Rh

[Thinking]

Let me see. I am in the laboratory and they are guinea pigs in fact, in the interest of science, I can be for the purpose of this experiment, a healthy guinea pig myself and still remain an observer  I observe my pulse is high, for example, and that’s obviously because I am stricken with a recurrence of an old desire  desire is a natural male reaction to the beauty of the female  her husband is my friend. I have always tried to help him

[Coldly]

I’ve been considering what Sam’s wife told me and her reasoning is quite sound. The child can’t be her husband’s.

Then you agree with Sam’s mother? She said: “Being happy is the nearest we can ever come to knowing what good is!”

I agree with her decidedly. Sam’s wife should find a healthy father for Sam’s child at once. It is her sane duty to her husband.

[Worriedly thinking]

Have I ever been happy? I have studied to cure the body’s unhappiness I have watched happy smiles form on the lips of the dying  I have experienced pleasure with a number of women I desired but never loved  I have known a bit of honor and a trifle of self-satisfaction  this talk of happiness seems to me extraneous