re in
the nursery overhead. It was not, she argued, as if he ever cared to talk
to Arthur. Nobody ever cared to talk to Arthur long, nor did he care to
talk to anybody.

So, when the clock struck seven (the doctor's dinner-hour), and the
dining-room door never opened, Aggie's anxiety became terror, and she
stole down-stairs. She had meant to go boldly in, and not stand there
listening; but she caught one emphatic word that arrested her, and held
her there, intent, afraid of her own terror.

"Never!"

She could hear Arthur's weak voice sharpened to a falsetto, as if he, too,
were terrified.

"No, never. Never any more!"

There was a note almost of judgment in the doctor's voice; but Aggie could
not hear that, for the wild cry that went up in her heart. "Oh, never
what? Is Willie--my Willie--never to be well any more!"

Then she listened without a scruple, justified by her motherhood. They
were keeping things from her, as they had kept them before. As they had
kept them when little Barbara sickened.

[Illustration: "She listened without a scruple, justified by her
motherhood"]

"And if--if--" Arthur's voice was weaker this time; it had a sort of moral
powerlessness in it; but Aggie's straining ears caught the "if."

"There mustn't be any 'ifs.'"

Aggie's heart struggled in the clutches of her fright.

"That's not what I mean. I mean--is there any danger now?"

"From what I can gather so far, I should say--none."

Aggie's heart gave a great bound of recovery.

"But if," the doctor went on, "as you say--"

"I know" cried Arthur, "you needn't say it. You won't answer for the
consequences?"

"I won't. For the consequences, a woman--in the weak state your wife is
in--may answer herself--with her life."

Aggie was immensely relieved. So they were only talking about her all the
time!

That night her husband told her that her release had come. It had been
ordained that she was to rest for two years. And she was to have help.
They must have a girl.

"Arthur," she said, firmly, "I won't have a girl. They're worse than
charwomen. They eat more; and we can't afford it."

"We _must_ afford it. And oh, another thing--Have you ever thought of the
children's education?"

Thought of it? She had thought of nothing else, lying awake at night,
waiting for the baby's cry; sitting in the daytime, stitching at the small
garments that were always just too small.

"Of course," she said, submis