Chapter 2 Summary

The clerk hands him his mail that includes his room rent. He doesn't have the money for the rent because he has invested what little he has in stocks. His father had said, a few weeks previously, "Well, Wilky, here we are under the same roof again, after all these years." At first, it had heartened him and then he understood that his father was actually questioning why he was here and not at home with his wife and two sons.

He considers himself a good conversationalist, but not with his father. He has a slight stammer, which is exaggerated when he is with him. He tends to lose control of himself; and after any encounter with the doctor, he's dissatisfied with himself. He mourns his mother's death but feels that his father was just glad to get rid of her and would...