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027 - The Mother - The Wife · Miss Billy Married

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven of Miss Billy Married. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil schinevera Miss Billy Married by Eleanor H. Porter,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty seven. The mother the wife. Bertram made up
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  Speaker 1: his mind at once that for the present, at least,
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  Speaker 1: he would tell no one what the surgeon had said
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  Speaker 1: to him. He had placed himself under the man's care,
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  Speaker 1: and there was nothing to do but to take the
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  Speaker 1: prescribed treatment and await results as patiently as he could. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: there was no need to worry Billy or William or
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  Speaker 1: anybody else with the matter. Billy was so busy with
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  Speaker 1: her holiday plans that she was only vaguely aware of
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  Speaker 1: what seemed to be an increase of restlessness on the
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  Speaker 1: part of her husband during those days just before Christmas.
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  Speaker 1: Poor dear, is the arm feeling hard to day? She
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  Speaker 1: asked one morning, when the gloom on her husband's face
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  Speaker 1: was deeper than usual. Bertram frowned and did not answer directly.
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  Speaker 1: Lots of good I am these days, he exclaimed, his
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  Speaker 1: moody eyes on the armful of many shaped, many sized
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  Speaker 1: packages she carried. What are those for the tree? Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's going to be so pretty, Bertram exalted Billy. And
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  Speaker 1: do you know baby positively acts as if he suspected things?
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  Speaker 1: Little as he is, she went on eagerly, he's as
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  Speaker 1: nervous as a witch. I can't keep him still a minute.
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  Speaker 1: How about his mother, hinted Bertram with a faint smile.
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  Speaker 1: Billy laughed, Well, I'm afraid she isn't exactly calm herself,
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  Speaker 1: she confessed, as she hurried out the room with her parcels.
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  Speaker 1: Bertram looked after her longingly, despondently. I wonder what she
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  Speaker 1: say if she knew, he muttered. But she shan't know
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  Speaker 1: till she just has to, he vowed, suddenly under his breath,
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  Speaker 1: striding into the hall for his hat and coat. Never
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  Speaker 1: had this strata known such a Christmas as this was
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  Speaker 1: planned to be. Cyril, Marie and the twins were to
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  Speaker 1: be there, also Kate, her husband and three children, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: Egbert and Little Kate from the West. On Christmas Day,
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  Speaker 1: there was to be a big family dinner with Aunt
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  Speaker 1: Hannah down from the Nnex. Then in concession to the
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  Speaker 1: extreme youth of the young host and his twin cousins.
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  Speaker 1: There was to be an afternoon tree. The shades were
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  Speaker 1: to be drawn and the candles lighted, however, so that
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  Speaker 1: there might be no loss of effect. In the evening.
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  Speaker 1: The tree was to be once more loaded with fascinating
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  Speaker 1: packages and candy bags, and this time the Gregory's, Tommy
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  Speaker 1: Dunn and all the rest from the annex were to
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  Speaker 1: have the fun all over again. From Garrett to basement,
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  Speaker 1: the strata was a flame with houlling and a glitter
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  Speaker 1: with tinsel. Nowhere did there seem to be a spot
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  Speaker 1: that did not have its bit of tissue paper, or
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  Speaker 1: its trail of red ribbon. And every everything holly, ribbon,
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  Speaker 1: tissue and tinsel led to the mysteriously closed doors of
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  Speaker 1: the great front drawing Room, past which none but Billy
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  Speaker 1: and her accredited messengers might venture. No wonder indeed, that
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  Speaker 1: even Baby scented excitement, and that baby's mother was not
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  Speaker 1: exactly calm. No wonder too, that Bertram, with his helpless
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  Speaker 1: right arm and his heavy heart, felt peculiarly forlorn and
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  Speaker 1: out of it. No wonder also that he took himself
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  Speaker 1: literally out of it, with growing frequency, Mister and Missus
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  Speaker 1: Hartwell and little Kate were to stay at the strata.
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  Speaker 1: The boys Paul and Egbert were to go to Cyril's
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  Speaker 1: promptly at the appointed time. Two days before Christmas they arrived,
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  Speaker 1: and from that hour until two days after Christmas, when
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  Speaker 1: the last bit of holly ribbon, tissue and tinsel disappeared
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  Speaker 1: from the floor, Billy moved in a whirl of anxious
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  Speaker 1: responsibility that was yet filled with fun, frolic and laughter.
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  Speaker 1: It was a great success the whole affair. Everybody seemed
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  Speaker 1: pleased and happy. That is everybody but Bertram, and he
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  Speaker 1: very plainly tried to seem pleased and happy. Even Cyril
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  Speaker 1: unbent to the extent of not appearing to mind the
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  Speaker 1: noise one bit. And sister Kate, Bertram said, found only
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  Speaker 1: the extraordinary small number of four details to change in
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  Speaker 1: the arrangements. Baby obligingly let his teeth getting go for
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  Speaker 1: the occasion, and he and the twins Franz and Felix
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  Speaker 1: were the admiration and delight of all. Little Kate, to
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  Speaker 1: be sure, was a trifle disconcerting once or twice, but
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  Speaker 1: everybody was too absorbed to pay much attention to her.
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  Speaker 1: Billy did, however, remember her opening remarks, Well, little Kate,
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  Speaker 1: do you remember me, Billy had greeted her pleasantly. Oh, yes,
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  Speaker 1: little Kate had answered, with a winning smile. You're my
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  Speaker 1: aunt Billy. What married my uncle Bertram instead of Uncle
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  Speaker 1: William as you say you would? First? Everybody laughed and
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  Speaker 1: Billy colored, of course, but little Kate went on eagerly.
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  Speaker 1: And I've been wanting just awfully to see you, she announced,
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  Speaker 1: Have you I'm glad, I'm sure I feel highly flattered,
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  Speaker 1: smiled Billy. Well, I have you see? I wanted to
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  Speaker 1: ask you something. Have you ever wished that you had
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  Speaker 1: married Uncle William instead of Uncle Bertram, or that you'd
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  Speaker 1: tried for Uncle Cyril before Auntie Marie got him. Kate
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  Speaker 1: gasped her horrified mother, I told you, you see, she
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  Speaker 1: broke off, turning to Billy despairingly. She's been pestering me
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  Speaker 1: with questions like that ever since she knew she was coming.
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  Speaker 1: She never has forgotten the way you changed from one
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  Speaker 1: uncle to the other. You may remember it made a
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  Speaker 1: great impression on her at the time. Yes, I remember,
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  Speaker 1: stammered Billy, trying to laugh off her embarrassment. But you
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  Speaker 1: haven't told me yet whether you did wish you'd married
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  Speaker 1: Uncle William or Uncle Cyril, interposed Little Kate persistently. No, no,
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  Speaker 1: of course not, exclaimed Billy, with a vivid blush, casting
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  Speaker 1: her eyes about for a door of escape, and rejoicing
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  Speaker 1: greatly when she spied Delia with the baby coming toward them. There, look,
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  Speaker 1: my dear, here's your new cousin, little Bertram, she exclaimed.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you want to see him? Little Kate turned dutifully,
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  Speaker 1: yes'm aunt Billy, but I'd rather see the twins. Mother
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  Speaker 1: says they're real pretty and cunning. Uer, Yes they are,
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  Speaker 1: murmured Billy, on whom the emphasis of the there had
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  Speaker 1: not been lost naturally, as may be supposed. Therefore, Billy
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  Speaker 1: had not forgotten Little Kate's opening remarks. Immediately after Christmas,
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  Speaker 1: mister Hartwell and the boys went back to their western home,
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  Speaker 1: leaving Missus Hartwell and her daughter to make a round
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  Speaker 1: of visits to friends in the east. For almost a
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  Speaker 1: week after Christmas, there remained at the Strata, and it
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  Speaker 1: was on the lane day of their stay that Little
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  Speaker 1: Kate asked the question that proved so momentous in results.
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  Speaker 1: Billy almost unconsciously had avoided tete a tetes with her
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  Speaker 1: small guest, but today they were alone together. Aunt Billy
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  Speaker 1: began the little girl, after a meditative gaze into the
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  Speaker 1: other's face. You are married to Uncle Bertram, aren't you?
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  Speaker 1: I certainly am, my dear, smiled Billy, trying to speak unconcernedly. Well, then,
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  Speaker 1: what makes you forget it? What makes me forget? Why? Child?
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  Speaker 1: What a question? What do you mean? I don't forget it?
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  Speaker 1: Exclaimed Billy indignantly. Then what did mother mean? I heard
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  Speaker 1: her tell Uncle William myself she didn't know. I heard though,
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  Speaker 1: that she did. Wish you'd remember you were Uncle Bertram's wife,
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  Speaker 1: as well as cousin Bertram's mother. Billy flush scarlet, then
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  Speaker 1: grew very white. At that moment, Missus Hartwell came into
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  Speaker 1: the room, Little Kate turned triumphantly. There she hasn't forgotten,
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  Speaker 1: and I knew she hadn't. Mother, I asked her just now,
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  Speaker 1: and she said she hadn't. Hadn't what, questioned Missus Hartwell,
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  Speaker 1: looking a little apprehensively at her sister in law's white
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  Speaker 1: face and angry eyes, hadn't forgotten that she was Uncle
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  Speaker 1: Bertram's wife? Kate interposed, Billy, steadily meeting her sister in
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  Speaker 1: law's gaze. Will you be good enough to tell me
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  Speaker 1: what this child is talking about? Missus Hartwell sighed and
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  Speaker 1: gave an impatient gesture. Kate, I've a mind to take
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  Speaker 1: you home on the next train, she said to her daughter.
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  Speaker 1: Run away, now downstairs, your aunt Billy and I want
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  Speaker 1: to talk. Come, come hurry. I mean what I say,
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  Speaker 1: she added warningly, as she saw unmistakable signs of rebellion
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  Speaker 1: on the small young face. I wish, pouted little Kate,
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  Speaker 1: rising reluctantly and moving toward the door. That you didn't
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  Speaker 1: always send me away just when I wanted most to
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  Speaker 1: stay well, Kate prompted Billy, as the door closed behind
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  Speaker 1: the little girl. Yes, I suppose I'll have to say
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  Speaker 1: it now, as long as that child has put a
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  Speaker 1: finger in the pie. But I hadn't intended to speak
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  Speaker 1: no matter what I saw, I promised myself I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: before I came. I know, of course, how Bertram and
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  Speaker 1: Cyril and William too say that I'm always interfering in
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  Speaker 1: affairs that don't concern me, though, for that matter, if
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  Speaker 1: my own brother's affairs don't concern me. I don't know
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  Speaker 1: who should. But as I said, I wasn't going to
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  Speaker 1: speak this time, no matter what I saw, and I
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  Speaker 1: haven't except to William and Cyril and Aunt Hannah. But
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  Speaker 1: I suppose somewhere little Kate got hold of it. It's
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  Speaker 1: simply this, Billy. It seems to me high time you
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  Speaker 1: begin to realize that you're Bertram's wife as well as
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  Speaker 1: the baby's mother. That I am. I don't think I
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  Speaker 1: quite understand, said Billy, unsteadily. No, I suppose you don't,
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  Speaker 1: sighed Kate. Though where your eyes are I don't see,
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  Speaker 1: or rather I do see. You're on the baby always.
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  Speaker 1: It's all very well and lovely, Billy, to be a
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  Speaker 1: devoted mother, and you certainly are that. I'll say that
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  Speaker 1: much for you, and I'll admit I never thought you
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  Speaker 1: would be. But can't you see what you're doing to Bertram?
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  Speaker 1: Doing to Bertram by being a devoted mother to his son, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: doing to Bertram. Can't you see what a change there
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  Speaker 1: is in the boy. He doesn't act like himself at all.
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  Speaker 1: He's restless and gloomy and entirely out of sorts. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I know, but that's his arm pleaded Billy, poor boy,
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  Speaker 1: he's so tired of it. Kate shook her head decisively.
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  Speaker 1: It's more than his arm, Billy, you'd see it yourself
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  Speaker 1: if you weren't blinded by your absorption in that baby?
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  Speaker 1: Where is Bertram every evening? Where is he daytimes? Do
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  Speaker 1: you realize that he's been at home scarcely one evening
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  Speaker 1: since I came? And as for the days, he's almost
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  Speaker 1: never here. But Kate, he can't paint now you know, so,
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  Speaker 1: of course he doesn't need to stay so closely at home, defended, Billy,
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  Speaker 1: He goes out to find distraction from himself. Yes, distraction indeed, sniffed, Kate.
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  Speaker 1: And where do you suppose he finds it? Do you
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  Speaker 1: know where he finds it? I tell you, Billy, Bertram
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  Speaker 1: Henshaw is not the sort of man that should find
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  Speaker 1: too much distraction outside his home. His tastes and his
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  Speaker 1: temperament are all together too bohemian, and Billy interrupted with
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  Speaker 1: a peremptory upraised hand. Please remember, Kate, you are speaking
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  Speaker 1: of my husband to his wife, and his wife has
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  Speaker 1: perfect confidence in him and is just a little particular
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  Speaker 1: as to what you say. Yes, well, I'm speaking of
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  Speaker 1: my brother too. Whom I know very well, shrugged Kate.
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  Speaker 1: All is, you may remember sometime that I warn you
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  Speaker 1: that's all this trusting business is all very pretty, and
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  Speaker 1: I think twould be a lot prettier and a vast
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  Speaker 1: deal more sensible if you'd give him a little attention
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  Speaker 1: as well as trust, and see if you can't keep
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  Speaker 1: him at home a bit more, at least you'll oh
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  Speaker 1: whom he's with. Then, Cyril says he saw him last
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  Speaker 1: week with Bob. Sever with Bob sever faltered, Billy changing color. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I see you remember him, smile Kate, not quite agreeably.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps now you'll take some stock in what I've said
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  Speaker 1: and remember it. I'll remember it, certainly, retorted Billy, a
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  Speaker 1: little proudly. You said a good many things to me
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  Speaker 1: in the past, Missus Hartwell, and I remember them all,
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  Speaker 1: every one. It was Kate's turn to flush, and she
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  Speaker 1: did it. Yes, I know, and I presume very likely.
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  Speaker 1: Sometimes there hasn't been much foundation for what I've said.
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  Speaker 1: I think, this time, however, you'll find there is. She
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  Speaker 1: finished with an air of hurt dignity. Billy made no reply,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps because Delia at that moment brought in the baby.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Hartwell and little Kate left the strata the next morning.
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  Speaker 1: Until then Billy contrived to keep before them a countenance, serene,
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  Speaker 1: any manner free from unrest. Even when after dinner that
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  Speaker 1: evening Bertram put on his hat and coat and went out,
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  Speaker 1: Billy refused to meet her sister in law's meaning gaze.
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  Speaker 1: But in the morning, after they had left the house,
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  Speaker 1: Billy did not attempt to deceive herself. Determinedly, then she
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  Speaker 1: set herself to going over in her mind the past
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  Speaker 1: month since the baby came, and she was appalled at
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  Speaker 1: what she found. Ever in her ears too was that
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  Speaker 1: feared name Bob Sever. And ever before her eyes was
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  Speaker 1: that night years ago, when, as an eighteen year old girl,
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  Speaker 1: she had followed Bertram and Bob Sever into a glittering
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  Speaker 1: cafe at eleven o'clock at night because Bertram had been
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  Speaker 1: drinking and was not himself. She remembered Bertram's face when
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  Speaker 1: he had seen her, and what he had said when
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  Speaker 1: she begged him to come home. She remembered too what
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  Speaker 1: the family had said afterward. But she remembered also that
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: years later Bertram had told her what that escapade of
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  Speaker 1: hers had really done for him, and that he believed
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  Speaker 1: he had actually loved her from that moment. After that night,
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  Speaker 1: at all events, he had had little to do with
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  Speaker 1: Bob Sever And now Sever was back again, it seemed,
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  Speaker 1: and with Bertram they had been seen together. And if
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  Speaker 1: they had, what could she do? Surely she could hardly
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  Speaker 1: now follow them into a public cafe and demand that
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  Speaker 1: Sever let her husband come home, but she could keep
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  Speaker 1: him at home, perhaps. Billy quite brightened at this thought.
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  Speaker 1: Kate had said that she was so absorbed in baby
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  Speaker 1: that her husband received no attention at all. Billy did
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  Speaker 1: not believe this was true. But if it were true,
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  Speaker 1: she could at least rectify that mistake. If it were
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  Speaker 1: attention that he wanted, he should want no more. Poor
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  Speaker 1: Bertram no wonder that he had sought distraction outside when
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  Speaker 1: one had a hard broken arm that would not let
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  Speaker 1: one do anything, What else could one do? Just here?
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  Speaker 1: Billy suddenly remembered the book A Talk to Young Wives.
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  Speaker 1: If she recollected rightly, there was a chapter that covered
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  Speaker 1: the very claim Kate had been making. Billy had not
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  Speaker 1: thought of the book for months, but she went at
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  Speaker 1: once to get it. Now. There might, be, after all,
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  Speaker 1: something in it that would help her the coming of
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  Speaker 1: the first baby. Billy found the chapter without difficulty and
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  Speaker 1: settled herself to read, her countenance alight with interest. In
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  Speaker 1: a surprisingly short time, however, a new expression came to
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  Speaker 1: her face, and at last a little gasp of dismay
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  Speaker 1: fell from her lips. She looked up thin with a
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  Speaker 1: startled gaze. Had her walls possessed eyes and ears all
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  Speaker 1: these past months, only to give instructions to an unseen
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: hand that it might write with the eyes and ears
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  Speaker 1: had learned. For it was such sentences as these that
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: the conscience smitten Billy read. Maternity is apt to work
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  Speaker 1: a miracle in a woman's life, but sometimes it spells disaster.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: So far as domestic bliss is concerned. The young mother,
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: wrapped up in the delights and duties of motherhood, utterly
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: forgets that she has a husband. She lives and moves,
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  Speaker 1: and has her being in the nursery. She thinks baby talks,
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  Speaker 1: baby knows only baby. She refuses to dress up because
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: it is easier to take care of baby and a
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: frowsy wrapper. She will not go out with her husband
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  Speaker 1: for fear something might happen to the baby. She gives
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: up her music because baby won't let her practice in vain.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Her husband tries to interest her in his own affairs.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: She has neither eyes nor ears for him, only for baby. Now.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: No man enjoys having his nose put out of joint,
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  Speaker 1: even by his own child. He loves his child devotedly
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  Speaker 1: and is proud of him, of course, but that does
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  Speaker 1: not keep him from wanting the society of his wife occasionally,
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  Speaker 1: nor from longing for her old time love and sympathetic interest.
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  Speaker 1: It is an admirable thing, certainly, for a woman to
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: be a devoted mother, but maternal affection can be carried
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  Speaker 1: too far. Husbands have some rights as well as offspring,
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  Speaker 1: and the wife who neglects her husband for her babies
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  Speaker 1: does so at her peril. Home with the wife eternally
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  Speaker 1: in the nursery is apt to be a dull and
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  Speaker 1: lonely thing to the average husband, So he starts out
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  Speaker 1: to find amusement for himself, and he finds it. Then
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: is the time when the new little life that is
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: so precious, and that should have bound the two more
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  Speaker 1: closely together, becomes the wedge that drives them apart. Billy
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: did not read any more with a little sobbing cry,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: She flung the book back into her desk and began
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to pull off her wrapper. Her fingers shook. Already she
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: saw herself a monster, a wicked destroyer of domestic bliss,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: with her thoughtless absorption in Baby until he had become
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: that awful thing, a wedge. And Bertram, poor Bertram, with
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  Speaker 1: his broken arm. She had not play to him, nor
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  Speaker 1: sung to him, nor gone out with him. And when
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: had they had one of their good long talks about
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  Speaker 1: Bertram's work and plans. But it should all be changed now.
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  Speaker 1: She would play and sing and go out with him.
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  Speaker 1: She would dress up too. He would see no more rappers.
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  Speaker 1: She would ask about his work and seem interested. She
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: was interested. She remembered now that just before he was hurt,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: he had told her of a new portrait and of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: a new face of a girl that he had planned
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  Speaker 1: to do. Lately, he had said nothing about these. He
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: had seemed discouraged and no wonder with his broken arm.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: But she would change all that he would see and forthwith.
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  Speaker 1: Billy hurried to her closet to pick out her prettiest
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: house frock. Long before dinner, Billy was ready waiting in
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  Speaker 1: the dining room. She had on a pretty little blue
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: silk gown that she knew Bertram liked, and she watched
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: very anxiously for Bertram to come up the steps. She
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: remembered now with a pang, that he had long since
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: given up his peculiar ring, but she meant to meet
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: him at the door just the same. Bertram, however, did
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: not come. At a quarter before six. He telephoned that
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: he had met some friends and would dine at the club.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: My my, how pretty we are, exclaimed Uncle William when
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: he came down to dinner together New Frock. Why no,
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Uncle William, laughed Billy a little tremulously. You've seen it
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: dozens of times, have I murmured the man. I don't
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: seem to remember it. Too bad. Bertram isn't here to
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: see you. Somehow, you look unusually pretty tonight, and Billy's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: heart ached anew. Billy spent the evening, practicing softly to
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: be sure so as not to wake Baby, but practicing.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: As the days passed, Billy discovered that it was much
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: easier to say she would change things than it was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: really to change them. She changed herself. It is true,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: her clothes, her habits, her words, and her thoughts, but
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: it was more difficult to change Bertram in the first place.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: He was there so little. She was dismayed when she
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: saw how very little indeed he was at home, and
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: she did not like to ask him outright to stay.
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: That was not in accordance with her plans. Besides, the
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: talk to young wives said that indirect influence was much
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: to be preferred always to direct persuasion, which last indeed,
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: usually failed to produce results. So Billy dressed up and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: practiced and talked of anything but the baby, and even
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: hinted shamelessly once or twice that she would like to
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: go to the theater, but all to little avail. True
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: Bertram brightened up for a minute when he came home
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: and found her in anew or a favorite dress, and
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: he told her how pretty she looked. He appeared to
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: like to have her play to him, too, even declaring
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: once or twice that it was quite like old times.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: Yes it was, But he never noticed her hints about
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: the theater, and he did not seem to like to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: talk about his work. Even a little Billy laid this
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: last fact to his injured arm. She decided that he
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: had become blue and discouraged and that he needed cheering up,
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: especially about his work, so she determinedly and systematically set
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: herself to doing it. She talked of the fine work
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: he had done, and of the still finer work he
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: would yet do when his arm was well. She told
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: him how proud she was of him, and she let
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: him see how dear his art was to her, and
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: how badly she would feel if she thought he had
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: really lost all his interest in his work and would
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: never paint again. She questioned him about the new portrait
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: he was to begin as soon as his arm would
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: let him, and she tried to arouse his enthusiasm in
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the picture he had planned to show in the March
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: exhibition of the Bohemian Ten, telling him that she was
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: sure his arm would allow him to complete at least
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: one canvas to hang in. None of this, however, did
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: Bertram appear to be the least interested. The one thing, indeed,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: which he seemed not to want to talk about was
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: his work, and he responded to her overtures on the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: subject with only moody silence, or else with all most
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: irritable monosyllables, all of which not only grieved but surprised
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: Billy very much, for according to the Talk to the
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Young Wives, she was doing exactly what the ideal sympathetic,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: interested in her husband's work wife should do. When February came,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: bringing with it no change for the better, Billy was
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: thoroughly frightened. Bertram's arm plainly was not improving. He was
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: more gloomy and restless than ever. He seemed not to
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: want to stay at home at all, and Billy knew
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: now for a certainty, that he was spending more and
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: more time with Bob Seaver and the boys. Poor Billy,
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: nowhere could she look these days and see happiness. Even
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: the adored baby seemed at times almost to give an
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: added pang had he not become, according to the Talk
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: to Young Wives, that awful thing a wedge. The annex
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: too carried its sting, for where was the need of
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: an overflow house for happiness now when there was no
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: happiness to overflow? Even the little jade idle on Billy's mantle.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Billy could not bear to see these days, for its
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: once bland smile had become a hideous grin, demanding where
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: now is your heap? Penny? Very good, lucky. But before Bertram,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: Billy still carried a bravely smiling face. And to him
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: still she talked earnestly and enthusiastically of his work, which, last,
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: as it happened, was the worst course she could have pursued,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: for the one thing poor Bertram wished to forget just
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: now was his work. End of Chapter twenty seven.