That Biddle Boy From Philadelphia, The Flying Dutchwoman and The Man WithThe Piercing Green Eyes of a Wild Animal

That Biddle Boy From Philadelphia, The Flying Dutchwoman and The Man With The Piercing Green Eyes of a Wild Animal

That Biddle Boy
From Philadelphia,
The Flying Dutchwoman
and
The Man With The Piercing
Green Eyes of a Wild Animal

By Oliver Biddle

Read about
Volume I Josephine
Volume III Gussie's Bombshell

Summary || Author || Contents || Chapter Excerpt || Order || Readers' Comments

Contents

Part One: That Biddle Boy From Philadelphia [August 1914 - June 1916]

1 Chapter 1. Pfennigless in Munich

8 Chapter 2. Sydney’s Grandparents

13 Chapter 3. Sydney’s Parents

15 Chapter 4. Medical School

18 Chapter 5. Annie Deane

21 Chapter 6. Sydney’s Prospective In-Laws

24 Chapter 7. The Wedding

Part Two:What Is To Become of Josephine’s One-Third of The Trust Income? [January 1919 - January 1920]

25 Chapter 1. The Hunt For Josephine’s Will

29 Chapter 2. The Bigelow Will

Part Three: Caldwell v. The Northern Trust Company [July 1919 - February 1921]

37 Chapter 1. The Complaint

42 Chapter 2. Gussie and Nina Enter Their Appearances

44 Chapter 3. Judge McGorty "Hands Down" His Decree on April 6, 1920

50 Chapter 4. A Second Bill in Chancery

Part Four: Sukie, Peebo and Olly [July 1919 - Fall 1925]

52 Chapter 1. Jaffrey

58 Chapter 2. A Spendthrift Trust For Sydney

61 Chapter 3. Dorothy and Viggo

63 Chapter 4. Paris

69 Chapter 5. The Cummings Baby Farm

74 Chapter 6. Mrs. Vegex

77 Chapter 7. Olive’s Lapse of Memory

Part Five: Where is Olive? [January - June 1926]

78 Chapter 1. The View From Paris

81 Chapter 2. Olive

82 Chapter 3. At The Villa Fortuna in Menton

85 Chapter 4. At The Psycho In Boston

86 Chapter 5. At The Villa Perret Gentil in Menton

88 Chapter 6. Aunt Nina, Cousin Alice and The Sheik

91 Chapter 7. Mariska and Hunt Diederich

94 Chapter 8. Edith and Mr. Felden

98 Chapter 9. Olive & Sukie at Jordan Marsh

100 Chapter 10. If It’s A Boy...

103 Chapter 11. Infant Daughter

Part Six: Mike [December 1897 - April 1927]

104 Chapter 1. A New Liaison

107 Chapter 2. The Narrow Boardwalk At Groton Between Brooks and Hundred House

110 Chapter 3. World War I

111 Chapter 4. A Wartime Degree From Harvard

118 Chapter 5. Medicine vs. Biochemistry

121 Chapter 6. Wop and Christiana

124 Chapter 7. The University of Cambridge

128 Chapter 8. Harry and Carl

131 Chapter 9. Carcassonne

134 Chapter 10. Christiana and Carl

142 Chapter 11. Pierre

Part Seven: The Deception [April - May 1927]

149 Chapter 1. The Ashcan Incident

152 Chapter 2. Küsnacht, Switzerland

160 Chapter 3. From Mike: A Gulf Stream of Love

165 Chapter 4. From Sydney: Tears and Love at the Bottom of the Well

171 Chapter 5. Mike’s Mask

174 Chapter 6. Wop Morgan

177 Chapter 7. The Big Lie

183 Chapter 8. A Bone To Pick With Wop

Part Seven: Three More Letters From Sydney [April - May 1927]

187 Chapter 1. Sobbing Like A Child

189 Chapter 2. But Is Olive Safe?

193 Chapter 3. The Plain of Beauce

195 Chapter 4. Sukie

198 Chapter 5. Dreaming In The Sunshine

202 Chapter 6. Some Wine, Sherry, Port, Whiskey & Gin

Part Eight: Halstatt or Gozan? [late May - early June 1927]

207 Chapter 1. Dinner At The Tower in Bollingen

210 Chapter 2. Halstatt?

212 Chapter 3. Annette

218 Chapter 4. Or Gozan?

Part Nine: Back in Sydney’s Court [late May - early June 1927]

220 Chapter 1. Agnes

224 Chapter 2. Emily

228 Chapter 3. Georgina and Alice; Sylvia and Icky

233 Chapter 4. A Curious Feeling of Mistrust

235 Chapter 5. On Narragansett Bay

Part Ten: London & Paris [late June 1927]

238 Chapter 1. S.S. Homeric

240 Chapter 2. Siegfried

243 Chapter 3. London

250 Chapter 4. Küsnacht

253 Chapter 5. Paris

Part Eleven: Auf Wiedersehen to Küsnacht, Gozan and All That [late June - September 1927]

263 Chapter 1. A Foursome for Dinner: June 30

265 Chapter 2. Eluding Wop and Jung

271 Chapter 3. On Narragansett Bay in Saunderstown with Sukie, Peter and Oliver; On the High Seas with Olive; Sur le Square de l'Opéra Prés du Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris with Mike

273 Chapter 4. The Big Oaken Door

275 Chapter 5. Aboard Le Paquebot Paris on September 15; Over On Narragansett Bay That Afternoon; and Back Aboard Le Paquebot Paris The Next Day

279 Chapter 6. The Cock Horse Inn

283 Chapter 7. Aboard Le Paquebot Paris on September 17 - 19

284 Chapter 8. The James H. Bartlett Camp

287 Chapter 9. The Abortion

Part Twelve: Getting Things Sorted Out [1927 - 1928]

289 Chapter 1. The Grown Ups

291 Chapter 2. The Kids

296 Chapter 3. Christmas Day 1927

298 Chapter 4. Olive’s Plans

302 Chapter 5. S’Town

304 Chapter 6. The Grown Ups

307 Chapter 7. School House Lane

Part Thirteen: The Berlin Years [1929]

310 Chapter 1. "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

314 Chapter 2. Franz Alexander

319 Chapter 3. "Dearest Bunny"

322 Chapter 4. "Will She Or Won’t She?"

326 Chapter 5. For Mike & Olive: A Cheap Little Peasant Hut

329 Chapter 6. "I wish for your sake, you [Olive] could undergo a real analysis"

333 Chapter 7. Dumping Olly for Helen

339 Chapter 8. Back To Square One

344 Chapter 9. Psychological Warfare

350 Chapter 10. Flying Loon Farm

353 Chapter 11. Fanny & Felicia

361 Chapter 12. Threats

364 Chapter 13. The Compromise

368 Chapter 14. The "Kiddies"

Part Fourteen: The Berlin Years [1930]

373 Chapter 1. Another Two Cents Postage Due

376 Chapter 2. The "Boarding Schools" & The "Summer Camp" Questions

384 Chapter 3. Jane

387 Chapter 4. Luftschiff Graf Zeppelin

388 Chapter 5. Betsy Libby

391 Chapter 6. The Camp & The Schools

Part Fifteen: The Berlin Years [1931]

395 Chapter 1. The Kids

397 Chapter 2. Nelly

402 Chapter 3. The Giants

406 Chapter 4. Hildegaarde

414 Chapter 5. Harry Murray and Herr Doktor Franz Alexander

Part Sixteen: The Courtship [1931 - 1933]

416 Chapter 1. The Keynotes

418 Chapter 2. "Bill Healy, The Little Boy I Told You About"

420 Chapter 3. Aunt Julia

422 Chapter 4. Cutting - Killing - Men in Toilet

427 Chapter 5. Skiing with Annette

431 Chapter 6. Dr. Deutsch

433 Chapter 7. A Replay of The Ives Card

436 Chapter 8. Easter 1933

442 Chapter 9. Ruth - in bed - 69 - satisfaction - scared of impreg

448 Chapter 10 "It is all so horribly over and finished"

457 Chapter 11. Feeling Surer and Safer

460 Chapter 12. The Biddle Look

465 Chapter 13. Breaking The News

470 Chapter 14. The Rapscallions

475 Chapter 15. Fanny Writes A Note to Nelly

476 Chapter 16. Sydney’s Confession

Part Seventeen: The Courtship [1934]

479 Chapter 1. New Year’s in Quebec

481 Chapter 2. Peter

483 Chapter 3. Oliver

488 Chapter 4. Kent School

493 Chapter 5. Sukie

494 Chapter 6. Sydney at Work [January - March]

501 Chapter 7. Sydney at Play [January - March]

504 Chapter 8. One Month Left To Go

508 Chapter 9. The Knot: [March 31]

Part Eighteen: An Ironic Twist of Fate [1932 - 1935]

510 Chapter 1. Hancock

515 Chapter 2. Avon Old Farms

521 Chapter 3. 3 East 85^th Street

526 Chapter 4. Memory Lane

529 Chapter 5. 155 East 72nd Street

531 Chapter 6. The Torments

532 Chapter 7. The Thousand Islands

534 Chapter 8. Thelma

540 Chapter 9. The Millstones

Epilogue

542

Family Trees

Page

Prologue:

Trees of Josephine, Gussie and Nina DeHaven dating back to their first American ancestors and of Josephine’s immediate family

The immediate families of Bill and Ted Caldwell and Edith Chapman, the three children of Josephine by Towson Caldwell

iii. The immediate families of Nina DeHaven von Campe and her daughter Alice von Hardenberg

iv. The immediate family of Gussie DeHaven von Alten

Text:

8 Sydney’s family from George Washington Biddle (his grandfather) to Sydney and his three brothers

124 Harry and Mike Murray’s wives and children as of September 1924

125 Wop and Christiana Morgan’s family as of September 1924

228 Tree showing the relationship between Sydney’s first cousins (Georgina and Alice) and his Aunt Julia

422 Tree showing the relationship between Julia Biddle and Arthur Biddle and their relationship to Sydney

Images

Page

Cover: That Biddle Boy From Philadelphia: Sydney Geoffrey Biddle with his two younger sons, Oliver (top) and Peter (bottom) taken on the Atlantic City boardwalk; The Flying Dutchwoman: Passport Photos of Olive and Sukie in Passport No. 371705 issued in Boston to Olive C. Murray on April 30, 1927; and The Man With The Piercing Green Eyes of A Wild Animal: Cecil "Mike" Dunmore Murray in uniform in World War I

Back Cover: The author, Oliver Biddle, in a photo taken at the Time-Life Building in New York City by Tennyson Schad, company counsel, in his office, during the closing of the weekly editions of Time and Life magazines for legal problems.

Text:

5 Letterhead of The Grand Palace Hotel in London (Olive to Heurtley on September 30, 1914)

8 Sydney’s great, great grandfather Clement Biddle, the "Quaker General" (top) and Sydney’s father Algernon Sydney Biddle (bottom)

9 Sydney’s grandfather George Washington Biddle with his youngest son (Sydney’s father), Sydney Algernon Biddle

13 Sydney and his three brothers from left to right: Moncure, Sydney, George and Francis (top) and Frances ("Fanny") Robinson Biddle, Sydney’s mother, with baby Moncure (bottom)

15 Olive at The Beaux Arts Hotel For Women in Manhattan

24 Sydney and Olive in wedding attire at Keene, New Hampshire, on June 11, 1916.

38 Caption of Ted and Edith’s Bill For Interpretation of [the Bigelow] Will filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, on July 21, 1919.

Images (continued)

Page

Text:

61 George Biddle

66 Letterhead of the Providence City Hospital, D.L. Richardson, Superintendent (undated letter from Sydney to Suki in the fall of 1924)

69 Photograph of Sydney with his two younger sons, Oliver (top) and Peter (bottom) taken on the Atlantic City boardwalk.

73 The Cummings Baby Farm in Marshfield on Cape Cod

82 Envelope addressed to Olive c/o "Doctor Sydney G. Biddle, Phycopathic [sic]Hospital" (top) and Letterhead of Villa Fortuna in Menton, France (Dorothy to Olive on February 11, 1926) (bottom)

83 Envelope addressed to Olive c/o "Doctor Sydney G. Biddle, Physopathic [sic] Hospital" from Dorothy on February 20, 1926

103 Dorothy’s Mausoleum

104 Passport Photos of Olive and Sukie in Passport No. 371705 issued in Boston to Olive C. Murray on April 30, 1927

106 Map of Cambridge, Mass., showing Mike’s address at 2 Bond Street, Olive’s address at 5 Garden Street, Leavitt & Pearce on Massachusetts Avenue and the AD Club on Plimpton Street

110 Mike in uniform in World War I

122 Christiana Morgan

160 Envelope of letter from Mike to Olive of May 10, 1927 at The Hotel Sonne in Küsnacht, Switzerland

161 Excerpt from Mike’s letter to Olive of May 10, 1927 with drawing of martini glass

196 Letterhead of Eaglebrook Lodge, Deerfield, Massachusetts (Sydney to Olive on May 22, 1927)

199 Olive during her analysis, with rhinestone necklace and hair cut short

200 Excerpt from Sydney’s letter to Olive of May 22, 1927 (top) and the envelope in which it was mailed (bottom)

236 Helen Brown

244 Letterhead of The Goring Hotel, London, Belgravia, S.W.I (Mike to Olive on June 11, 1927)

245 Excerpt from Mike’s letter to Olive of June 11, 1927

257 Letterhead of The Hotel Du Palais, Champs Elysées, Paris (Mike to Olive on June 26, 1927)

270 Letterhead of Cintra de Ruyter & Co., 6 Square de l’Opéra, Paris (Mike to Olive on September 5, 1927)

275 Letterhead of Le Paquebot Paris (Mike to Olive on September 15, 1927)

287 Letterhead of the James H. Bartlett Camp in Greenville, Maine with excerpt of Sydney’s letter to Olive posted on September 30, 1927

291 Alice Biddle with Helen Brown

Images (continued)

Page

Text:

299 Envelope of Special Delivery letter from Mike to Olive at 3 Craige Circle, Cambridge, Massachusetts on June 9, 1928

311 Excerpt from Sydney’s letter to Olive from Pension Schaumann am Krie, Hardenbergstrasse,

Berlin on January 25, 1929

344 Envelope of Sydney’s letter of May 29, 1929, to Olive forwarded from 7 East 85^th Street to Chesham, New Hampshire

347 Olive and Sukie

375 Envelope of Sydney’s letter of January 8, 1930 via S.S. Columbus, Nord Deutche Lloyd, Bremenhaven to Olive at 5 East 85^th Street, New York City — 2 Cents Postage Due

387 Text of postcard from Sydney to Peter via the Graf Zeppelin on June 25, 1930 (upper right) and photograph of Sydney on reverse side (lower left)

391 Letterhead of Camp Marienfeld, Chesham, New Hampshire (R. J. Shortlidge, Headmaster, to Olive, September 3, 1930)

402 The "Giants" Middle School 1930 soccer team at St. Bernards School, Oliver with his bowl haircut in the second row.

403 The "Giants" Middle School 1931 baseball team at St. Bernards School, Oliver with his bowl haircut in the the third row

404 The "Giants" Middle School 1931 soccer team, Oliver with his hair neatly combed and parted to the right

425 Back of envelope of letter from Nelly to Sydney on January 10, 1933, bearing Sydney’s notes, among others: Cutting - Killing - Men in Toilet

431 Back of envelope of Nelly’s letter to Sydney on February 26, 1933 bearing Sydney’s notes, among others: Vagina & F. Alex

433 Letterhead of the Judge Baker Foundation at 38 ½ Beacon Street, Boston (Nelly’s letter to Sydney on March 8, 1933)

437 Back of envelope of Nelly’s letter to Sydney on February 20 bearing Sydney’s notes, among others: Instinctual wish to become a woman

447 Back of envelope of Nelly’s letter to Sydney in mid-June 1933 bearing Sydney’s notes, among others: Ruth - in bed - 69 - satisfaction

451 Letterhead of Sydney Geoffrey Biddle, 237 South 14^th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. (Sydney to Nelly on June 28, 1933)

455 Excerpt ("It is all so horribly over and finished") from Nelly’s letter to Sydney of July 6, 1933

462 Nelly On Camping Trip

483 Oliver’s Report Card from St. Bernards Preparatory School for February 1934

511 Mike in shirt sleeves on the dock at Lake Nubanusit

517 Sukie and Olive at Brooks Brothers

Summary || Author || Contents || Chapter Excerpt || Order || Readers' Comments

Three More Letters From Sydney

Chapter 6

Some Wine, Sherry, Port, Whiskey & Gin

The letter that Sydney is writing to Olive on the next to last day in the month of May, a Monday, is being composed at midnight as the author sits stark naked before his desk, listening to a jazz record on his wind-up Victrola. It is an old 78" disc he had borrowed from Marghetta, the wife of his classmate George Bigelow, on his week-end trip to Jaffrey with the gang from the Psycho: Emily, Dr. Fulston, Miss Hyde (Social Service), Kubick, Kimberley, and Bush. Gildea wanted to come, and would have but for Tommy Linton coming down with the mumps and her wanting to sit by his beside, take his temperature and nurse him back to health.

Miss Hyde, for all her prim manners, was at heart a jazz buff, intent upon exposing a reluctant Sydney to the infectious rhythms of such arcane groups as The New Orleans Feetwarmers and The Red Hot Peppers. Having gotten Sydney on his feet by brute force, only to see him collapse in an over-stuffed armchair, she turns to Emily for help.

“Come on Geoff,” coaxes Emily, swaying back and forth in front of a burnt-out Sydney, “on your feet!”

“I'm not mush of a dansher, Emily,” Sydney grins, “And beshides, I'm feeling a wee bit tipshy”

It is close to midnight, the heat is intense and the group has been imbibing just about every imaginable alcoholic beverage to be had from the local liquor store: wine, sherry, port, whiskey, vodka and gin. Most of the crowd, including Sydney, are looped or least half crocked.

“No excuses, Geoff!” Emily persists, puckering her Clara Bow lips into a provocative bud and flapping her Wilma Banky bangs. “It's time you stopped moping about Olive and had some fun!”

Fun. Ah, yes: sweet bitter fun. How can I have fun, asks Sydney, when my poor heart is cracked and my brains are fried? On the floor of the living room in Sydney's house -- the house in which he had delivered Peter on the kitchen table -- the carpets had been pushed aside to make room for the dancers.

Sydney tries to keep up with Emily for a while, stepping on her feet each time he had started to cut loose, seeing double, finally giving up, sinking back onto the sofa from which he had been so forcibly yanked by Miss Hyde, mopping his face with a handkerchief, saying, “It's no yoush, Emily. You can't teesh an old dog new ticks.”

************************************************************

Monday Eve

May 30th

Dearest Bunny,

I shall be so anxious to get your first impressions, and hear all about your dear self.

How time tears by! I am sitting naked in my room at midnight -- the evening is warm, -- and listening to an old record of Marghetta on the gramophone which I have brought from Jaffrey. I was up over the week-end with a crowd - Emily, Dr Fulston, Miss Hyde (Social Service), Kubick, Kimberley, Bush and myself. Gildea had to stay on duty unfortunately, and answer for Tommy Linton who has the mumps.

We managed to make merry over some wine, sherry, port, whiskey and gin which I had procured from Levinson. The day was happy, but my old heart was cracked with the associations of so many things that had happened there. Motored back starting at 5 A.M. this morning, and I am very tired as I slept only a few hours all told.

What else? Oh! Tommy. Not one of the Psycho crowd, Tommy had become a banker. Supping with Tommy that night, having to listen to this conceited idiot crow about his new car, and worse, how Tommy singlehandedly had beaten -- the word he had used was “Jewed” -- the dealer down on the price. It had left Sydney both revolted and, in truth, a bit envious, too. Olive, however, needn't know about that!

Had supper with Tom and went to see “Resurrection” in the movies. Tom has gotten a new Franklin now -- and a very good one having beat the man down to almost nothing for it. He is working at the 1st National Bank.

What else? Oh yes, the Murrays. Why the Murrays? They weren’t what you would call good friends. That Sydney hasn't seen them recently was therefore hardly surprising. Nor that they hadn't asked him over since the party at their house he and Olive had gone to just before Olive had sailed for Europe. Funny that Mike and Veronica should pop into his head like this.

I haven't seen the Murrays since our party together, and they haven't asked for me, but I shall drop in for tea some afternoon before they go.

************************************************************

“Sydney! What a surprise!” exclaims Veronica, her hair still up in leather kids. “Do come in. Mike is upstairs getting dressed. The Morgans have invited us out to dinner.”

“Why, thank you, Veronica,” Sydney replies, stumbling over the threshold. He looks a wreck. Most of the buttons on his shirt are unfastened and flakes of dandruff have collected on the shoulders of his coat. “I should have called. But you know, living so close to each other, I thought it would be the more neighborly thing just to pop over around tea time...”

“Tea? Can I get you a cup of tea?” Veronica, looking extremely uncomfortable, walks to the foot of the stairs and shouts up to Mike: “Cecil! Your friend Sydney Biddle is here. He has come for a cup of tea! Do come down and say hello.” Turning back to Sydney, she says, “I don't want to seem rude, Sydney, but I must get these curlers out of my hair. We've been so busy, you know, making preparations for the summer. How's Olive?”

Stunned by the mention of her name, tears spring into Sydney's eyes. He pulls a soiled handkerchief from his coat pocket and dabs his cheeks. “Excuse me, Veronica, I, I, feel so miserable with Olive being away. I know she's doing the right thing, but...”

“I shouldn't have mentioned her, Sydney. It was thoughtless. How are the children?”

Rocked anew, Sydney collapses on the sofa and sobs like a child.

“Mike!” Veronica shouts up the stairs. “Come down here! I need you, now!”

“Do you believe in God, Veronica?” Sydney asks, looking like a little boy addressing his mother.

“Do I believe in God?” Veronica repeats, taken aback by this extraordinary question at this most inappropriate of times. “Do I believe in God?”

“I mean no irreverence, Veronica. It's just that driving back from seeing Sukie, my eldest boy -- he's at school up in Deerfield, you know -- I kept thinking to myself, How ridiculous to think that there is any God. It's not that I'm irreligious, you know. It's just that everything seems so topsy turvy, upside down. I'm not making any sense, am I? I apologize, Veronica.”

“Nothing to apologize about, Sydney. How old is this boy, Sukie, anyway?”

“Why, let's see, this is 1927 and Sukes was born in 1918. He should be ten, I mean nine...in August...I think.”

“Isn't that a little young to send a boy off to boarding school?”

“Well, you know, it was Olive's idea. It was either that or hire some expensive governess and send him to the public schools. It seemed like the logical thing to do what with Bunny overseas and my having to be on call all hours of the day and night. I go up to Deerfield to see Sukie whenever I can, though. And, you know, he doesn't miss me or his mother even the teensiest, weensiest little bit.”

“Amazing! How about your other two boys? What have you done about them?”

“Oh, you mean Peter and Oliver. I forgot all about them.”

“Mike!” Veronica roars. “For God sake! Will you come down. Enough primping is enough!”

Mike suddenly appears at the head of the stairs, black bow tie half undone. “I'll be right down, Veronica. There's no need to shout! What is Sydney doing here, anyway. Doesn't he know we're going out?”

“I'm j-j-just leaving, Mike,” Sydney stutters, coming to the foot of stairs. “I just wanted to drop by and wish you and Veronica a pleasant summer. I should have called first. I guess I'll be going.”

After Sydney has departed Veronica angrily stamps up the stairs, calling to Mike, “God, you can be rude! The poor man is suffering. His wife -- you remember Olive, don't you dear? The delightful lady from Garden Street? -- she's leaving him. Cherchez l'homme!”

“What do you mean by that crack?” shoots back Mike. “Never mind. The trouble with Sydney is that the man is a nothing but a dreamer, shooting arrows from his quiver at Diana's moonbeams.”

*********************************************************

Sydney's unfortunate visit to Mike and Veronica occurred, of course, several days after he had posted his stark-naked letter to Olive of May 30th. The very mention in his letter of the name Murray, however, has put a damper on Sydney's soul. That and the senseless butchery with which Zola is wrapping up his tour into realism among the peasant farmers on the Plain of Beauce. Picking up where he had left off about paying the Murrays a visit before they go, Sydney comes close to bursting into tears anew:

Things are pretty miserable for me. Everyone is very nice, but my heart just seems cracked right across, and I don't think it will mend in a hurry - I have been really depressed, but I guess no one would guess it, except perhaps now and then someone thinks I do something odd. But I shall improve. Indeed, I already feel myself getting stronger.

Still reading La Terre - one chapter in a restaurant at Fitchburg over an egg sandwich and glass of milk, on the way back from Suki. After I got through I heard myself saying to myself, “How ridiculous to think that there is any God.”

Geoff

*************************************************************

From the seat of the analysand in the Garden Room at 228 Seestrasse, Olive can see storm clouds forming on the horizon. It is late in the afternoon and today her customary hour with the celebrated Herr Doktor Jung has stretched into two. All of Sydney’s letters to her have now been dutifully divulged to him, leaving her more emotionally torn than ever. “Und zo!” she hears herself saying, preempting Jung’s favorite opening gambit.

Jung smiles. “You are learning fast, Frau Biddle. Und zo, indeed! Would you like to hear what I believe, ya?” Without waiting for a ya in response, Jung plunges ahead. “Your husband cannot cope with you as his wife. As I said before he needs the strong constructive libido of the mother. But you cannot construct him because you are not the mother to him.”

“Yes, I know. I mean, No, I am not. What should I do?”

“What we must do, Frau Biddle, is to turn our attention from this tearful husband of yours to the man who feels like a bandbox thrown to the whitecaps and whose soul the wind is blowing at 60 miles an hour.”

“The man named Murray!”

“Precisely! It seems to me, Frau Biddle, that the man named Murray has a very great spirit in his personality -- one side very much developed and the other side childishly underdeveloped.”

“Will this split continue with Mike? Will I be a part of it?

“Well that is the gamble -- The chance you take. From what I learned of Murray I would say that he had fine possibilities -- but they may come out or they may not.”

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Summary || Author || Contents || Chapter Excerpt || Order || Readers' Comments