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THE REAL ROOT OF EVIL 109
live-in servants, typically a couple who divided household and outdoor
tasks between them. Lunch was served on a regular schedule, but all
understood they were not to speak to Ayn unless spoken to. If she was
lost in thought the meal would be a silent affair. Dinner was more formal,
with servants delivering a hot meal to the couple when summoned. 22
Despite his new independence Frank remained an attentive and
much needed consort for Rand. She did not drive, so he chauffeured her
into Hollywood whenever business called. More important was his role
as peacekeeper and social mediator. The O’Connors invited friends to
their home on a regular basis. When the conversations stretched all night
Frank retired midway through the evening, and when Rand hosted the
Hollywood conservatives he remained on the sidelines, a gracious yet
opinion-free host. But when social occasions became fraught or tense,
Frank stepped in to manage the situation. One memorable afternoon
Rosalie Wilson was visiting with her mother, Millie. As a child Rosalie
had briefl y lived with the O’Connors in Hollywood while her parents
were divorcing. During a spirited political discussion Millie shocked the
others by opining, “I don’t think much of Hitler, but I’ll have to agree
with him he should have incinerated all those Jews.” Rosalie remembered
a silence that stretched to eternity. Then Rand said in a beautifully
modulated tone, “Well, Millie, I guess you’ve never known, but I am
Jewish.” The silence continued as Frank walked the Wilsons to their car.
Leaning through the window with tears on his face he squeezed Rosalie’s
shoulder one last time. 23
Sometimes Frank was able to salvage relationships on the brink.
Ruth Beebe Hill, a new acquaintance of the O’Connors, incurred Rand’s
wrath by mentioning that she had memorized Plato’s Republic as part
of a stage act. Hill did not know that Rand considered Plato the godfather
of Communism (an opinion also held by Isabel Paterson). She
could tell that she had said something wrong, though, for “the room
became cold air, frigid, as if the room had frozen.” Frank quickly came
to Hill’s rescue. He scooped her up off the fl oor where she had been sitting
and resettled her in an armchair with a blanket tucked around her.
“Ruth was just thinking back to college days, when she probably was
required to memorize these different things,” he told Ayn. “How about
some coffee?” To Hill the incident was both a warning of Rand’s capricious
temperament and an important illumination of the O’Connor
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