Trust

In 1938, Partenza arrives at Bevel’s mansion for their first work session through the service entrance. After she signs a strict NDA, Bevel tells her that her job is to compose an autobiography from what he dictates, embellishing when needed. He reiterates that his main concern is to portray his wife as lucid and gentle, against Vanner’s depiction: “Mildred was a clear-sighted, serene woman. How could someone as good and frail as her be defamed in such a way? It’s like mocking a child” (258). He’s also indignant that in Bonds Rask is responsible for Helen’s death; while Mildred died in a Swiss hospital, Bevel didn’t subject her to any cruel medical treatments.

Partenza suggests that she sit on the sofa and take shorthand rather than sit at the typewriter desk to make the conversation less formal. Bevel prefers the more formal arrangement but agrees to her suggestion.

Partenza receives $200 for her first paycheck and expenses—the most money she’s ever seen. She uses it to pay off her and her father’s debts and save them from eviction. She invites Jack to go shopping with her for a typewriter, wanting his expertise as an aspiring journalist. It turns out he doesn’t know how to type, which he tries to hide. He is clearly resentful that she has enough money to buy the typewriter she chooses without an installment plan.

Outside the store, Jack says he needs to find the perfect scoop to get a job at a paper. Grudgingly, he asks Partenza for money, which she gives him. He’s unhappy that Partenza works alone with Bevel (whose name she withholds) at his mansion. He pries about her boss’s name, to which Partenza retorts with the flat affect of Bevel: “I’m not going to ask you to trust me. I’m not going to give you names you have no use for, just to make you feel good. I’m not going to say anything to appease you” (264).

At their next meeting, Bevel has a cold. He reviews the pages Partenza constructed from their last session. Although they are faithful to what he said, he doesn’t think they reflect his character: They are too flat and indecisive. He asks her to rewrite the pages with the nature of his job in mind: “My job is about being right. Always. If I’m ever wrong, I must make use of all my means and resources to bend and align reality according to my mistake so that it ceases to be a mistake” (266).

Partenza persuades Bevel to tell her some childhood memories for icebreakers in the book. His mother was loving and brilliant, like Mildred, and nurtured his talent for mathematics. When he was seven, she started having him personally fire his tutors if they didn’t meet his standards. Bevel ends the session early because of his cold.

Partenza struggles to rewrite the pages according to Bevel’s direction. She realizes the problem is twofold: The power of Bevel’s presence isn’t only in his speech but in his reputation and surroundings. Furthermore, Bevel wants to sound like a better version of himself, not himself. She decides to create the voice he wants out of the voices of other American titans. She reads the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Theodore Roosevelt, and Henry Ford (among others), constructing from them a pastiche of the titan’s voice. Common to these men is their conviction in the absolute importance of their words and lives.

Partenza works on this rewrite for a couple of weeks, during which time she hardly sees her father, who she suspects is angry about her job on Wall Street. She thinks the only way to reconcile is to admit she was wrong to get the job. Her father ensures his mood affects everybody around him: “My father exerted an emotional monopoly. His happiness tolerated no dissent […and] whenever he was low or had been wronged, he made everyone pay for it” (271). When she talks to her father, he pretends he isn’t angry at her. She challenges his dislike of her job, saying she’s no more of a capitalist than the workers he claims to support. He agrees and asks her to make him coffee and tell him about her job.

Bevel approves of Partenza’s revisions. As they begin mapping out the book, it becomes clear that Bevel has three main preoccupations: to exonerate his wife, to show his extraordinary business prowess, and to emphasize that both his and his forefathers’ investments helped the country as a whole.

Bevel struggles to find the words to express what Mildred meant to him, which Partenza finds touching. He affirms that she infused their house with life through beauty and music. In her simplicity and frailty, there was a wisdom that allowed her to see the basic truths of life.

Partenza probes Bevel for the similarities between Helen and Mildred. Bevel denies that Mildred kept journals. Her favorite composers were Beethoven and Mozart, but the music at the recitals she organized often sounded dissonant and avant-garde. Partenza asks to interview Mildred’s friends in the art world, but Bevel doesn’t want other voices in his story: “I am writing this book to stop the proliferation of versions of my life, not to multiply them. I most emphatically do not want more perspectives, more opinions. This is to be my story” (279).

Jack brings Partenza roses in apology for his sulkiness. He and her father begin talking about European politics. Both men agree that violent action is required to stop the spread of fascism. Partenza doubts her father ever took the violent action he boasts he did with his anarchist friends. Jack wonders whether he should go to Europe to report from the frontlines like Hemingway. All Partenza hears is idle talk:

Their bombast. Their boyish earnestness. If they only knew how decisions really were made, if they could only hear how subdued the true voice of authority was, if they could only see how impossibly removed the two of them were from any sort of actual power (282).

She feels guilty for thinking Bevel is better than Jack and her father.

After Partenza’s father leaves, Jack picks up one of her papers from Bevel’s book. She snatches the paper from his hand, explaining that she’s sworn to secrecy. He leaves in a huff.

At their next meeting, Bevel happily informs Partenza that, having lost his libel case against Vanner, he’s resorted to buying the house that publishes Bonds. This allows him to trap Vanner in his contract indefinitely, ensuring that he can’t publish through anyone else, and buy and pulp all future runs of Bonds. Partenza suggests this is gratuitous. Bevel retorts that he cannot have his autobiography share the world with Vanner’s book, asserting, “[R]eality needs to be consistent. How incongruous would it be to find traces of Vanner in a world where Vanner never existed?” (288). This frightens Partenza.

Bevel tells Partenza to change her depiction of Mildred: He fears her taste in avant-garde music will make her seem pretentious. He instructs Partenza to invent stories that illustrate Mildred’s homey, frail character. This request to fabricate Mildred’s personality surprises and angers Partenza.

Partenza’s father respects how hard she’s working—for him work is the ultimate measure of someone’s worth. His curiosity in the details of her work presents a dilemma: Partenza can either lie to her father or betray the NDA she signed with Bevel. She tries to keep her answers to her father’s questions vague; however, once he recognizes her reticence, he withdraws into resentful silence. To reconcile, Partenza invents a story, telling her father that she transcribes secret business meetings that implicate Washington in illegal dealings. This story enthralls him; Partenza feels guilty for siding with Bevel, the embodiment of everything her father hates.