listen, nick; let me tell you what i said when she was born. would you like to hear?

very much.

it’ll show you how i’ve gotten to feel about — things. well, she was less than an hour old and tom was god knows where. i woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. she told me it was a girl, and so i turned my head away and wept. „all right,“ i said, „i’m glad it’s a girl. and i hope she’ll be a fool — that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.