He could
have understood "gush," and sentimentalism, but this attitude of which he
had neither heard nor read bothered him until one day he had a sudden,
flash of enlightenment.
V
"Is it class-consciousness?"
He asked the question of Gora, who dropped in upon a class at Alexina's or
Aileen's sometimes on a free afternoon, and with whom he was walking down
to the trolley car.
"Something like that. Caste they would call it if they thought about it at
all, which to do them justice they don't....It used to be the fashion
in San Francisco for everybody to 'knock' everybody else. Then came a
revulsion and everybody began to praise and boost. You see it in all
circles, but the way it has taken that crowd is to show their intense
loyalty to one another by a constant reminder of it in manner, and in
refraining from criticism of one another, no matter how much they may
gossip about others outside of their particular set. Once, just to try my
sister-in-law, I told her that in my nursing I had stumbled across evidence
of an illicit love affair going on between one of her friends and a married
man, the husband of my patient. My sister became so remote that I had the
impression for a few moments that she really wasn't there. Once it would
have infuriated me, but I have improved my sense of humor and developed my
philosophy, so I merely turned the conversation, as she wouldn't speak at
all.
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