band quits altogether--if he
turns out to be a bad lot. Most of them don't, of course; they are loyal
and faithful. But if they do, then a woman has the children, and that's
a world for any one."

"It makes it all the worse--if she has to support them without a man's
help."

"I wonder! It's the incentive that makes work effective, isn't it?"

They crossed the vivid stream of the boulevard, the child between them,
and mounted the hill towards the Pantheon.

"You know the time is coming when the woman will again be the
responsible head of the family in form as she is in fact to-day, and
then she will tolerate the man about her house just so long as she
thinks him a fit father, and take another if she prefers him as the
father of her children."

These anarchistic doctrines had a quaint absurdity on the lips of this
mild, little New England woman. Milly, not having lived in circles where
the fundamental relations of life were discussed with such philosophical
frankness, was puzzled. The Reddons must be "queer" people, she thought.

"So I tell Sam when he gets fussy that if he isn't careful, I'll
_flanquer la porte_ to him and run the shop myself."

"My!"

"I could, too, and he knows it--which is very salutary for him when he
gets uppish and dictatorial, as all men will at times."

"How could you?"

"You see I'm an expert taxidermist. I learned the thing vacations to
help an uncle out, who was a collector. I could always make a living at
it, and one for the kiddies too. That's the nub of the whole matter, as
we used to say in the country."

(Later, Milly remembered this talk in its every bearing, and had reason
to appreciate the profound truth of the last statement.)

"But you love your husband," Milly remarked as if to reassure herself.

"Of course I do, or I shouldn't be living with him and bearing his
children. But he needs me and the children rather more than I need
him--which is the better way."

* * * * *

The Reddons lived on the fourth floor back of an old lantern-jawed
building that tilted uphill behind Ste. Genevieve. Milly found the
stairs steep and dark and the odor of the old building anything but
pleasant. Marion assured her cheerfully that the smell was not
unhealthy, and as they kept their windows open most of the time they did
not mind it. The three little rooms of the _apartement meublee_ were
dingy, to say the least, but they looked out over the clock tower