Day of a Scientist 157 



up. Jane was a good girl with an excellent college degree 

 in history and government and knew a lot of things about 

 life that Bill didn't. He was quite happy to leave the com- 

 plex human relations problems of family life to her. Indeed, 

 during the early years of their marriage, Bill really wasn't 

 home an awful lot. He was working on a problem which 

 required observations every three hours for eighteen hours 

 of the twenty-four, and since it took him over an hour to 

 get from their house to the lab, the result was that at least 

 three evenings a week he didn't get back until one or two 

 in the morning. Jane seemed to take all this without too 

 much stress, although she clearly didn't Uke it very well 

 when she had to go to the hospital alone when her first 

 baby was born because Bill was working in his lab and the 

 central switchboard was closed. It was at about this time 

 that Bill overheard an intellectual at a cocktail party quot- 

 ing some Frenchman to the effect that all the troubles of 

 the world boil down to the fact that women love their men 

 and men love their work. Years later he had still remem- 

 bered the remark. Recently, however, he had given more 

 time and energy to domestic matters. The children were 

 reaching an age at which they could clearly profit from 

 the attention of two parents, and, in any case, he was find- 

 ing them more interesting and attractive. Even more im- 

 portant was the fact that as he rose in the departmental 

 hierarchy and served on more and more panels and com- 

 mittees, he was beginning to encounter those human rela- 

 tions problems which seemed so remote when he was a 

 student. Jane had been very helpful in steering him 

 through several such crises. 



Carol slipped the eggs out of the frying pan, added a 

 couple of pieces of bacon which had been drying off on 

 a bit of paper towel, and sat down opposite her father. 



"Daddy, do you think you could come with mother to 



