Hall Porter Senf’s Wife Is in Labor

Where marriage, and babies, and friendship are at issue, the capacity to wait turns out to be very important. It appears to be the case, for marriage, for looking to babies, and for friendship, that you won’t stay with them—wait for them this is to say—unless you’ve had a lot of practice at affiliative interaction. In this chapter the author will attempt to illustrate how affiliative interaction becomes so important in the lives of some primates, vervet monkeys in this case, but also the endearing Hall Porter Senf from Vicki Baum’s novel, Grand Hotel. They demonstrate well that, if you haven’t stayed—waited—you won’t have managed any affiliative interaction.