The Three Sisters

old masters, or once in a while perhaps in flesh and blood, transfiguring the face of some commonplace vulgar woman whom,

e you looked for the illuminating triumphant glory of motherhood, you find, as Tyson found, a woman with a pit

adonna of Botticelli's, I think) in a beautiful frame, as a present for his wife. Poor little soul! I believe she thought he had gone up on purpose to get it (it was so lovely that

pointed out their beauty, pointed out, too, the paradox of the divine hands pressing the human breasts for the milk of life, she revived so far as to take, or seem to take, an in

his time; his skin was very red; his eyes were very small, but even they looked too large for his ridiculous face; his fingers were fine, like lit

nna, properly painted and framed, was not beautiful-to him-in Mrs. Nevill Tyson. He had the sentiment of the thing, as I said, but the thing itself, the flesh and blood of it, was altogether too much for his fastidious nerves. And yet once or twice he had seen her turn away from him, clutching hastily at the open bodice of her gown; once she had started up and left the room when he came into it; and, curious contra

hat had been wanting before. It had still the trick of fluctuating, vanishing, as if it had caught something of her soul's caprice; but while it was there Mrs. Nevill Ty

he called his son. There had been a sound of singing, but it ceased as he came in. The child's shawl was lying on the f

matter with

er hair, a trick of Mrs. Nevill Tyson's when she was u

e. You've had about enough

t! W

ength, ruins your figure-it has ruined your com

't hel

east, but she was not looking at him; she was looking away through the window, rocking her bo

Of course you can help it. Other wo

"Oh, Nevill,

ant to loo

i-i-ny. Whatev

as other women

't. He'

hat's all he'll do. Do him good too-teach him that he can't get everything he wants

rificed. I d

enough. I hate the little beast

come. I ca

w of yourself before your time, it's not my busines

upstairs screaming and laid him on her bed. When the nurse came she found him writhing a

," sobbed Mrs.

said th

u. I won't-I can't nurse

went off into a

evill Tyson, Esquire, of Thorneytoft, and his wife had been somewhere very near death's door. People who would have died rather th

iled as he greeted her. He was polite; he was charming; for as a matter of fact he had been rather hard

Batchelor," said he. "I hope y

ayed nervously wi

i-would Mrs. Tyso

"I think I can

the first and last time Miss Batchelo

tipathy, she felt that Miss Batchelor had not come to see her. So she smiled at her husband, and the smile was gall and wormwood to the clever woman; it had the effect, too, of bringing back to her

mulant and a resource. She prattled to Miss Batchelor about her new side-saddle, and her "friend

in the saddle; she assured Mrs. Nevill Tyson that Drayton Parva had

o, for Tyson, who had continued to be charmin

mp, and a little rat. He is rather like a little rat-a baby rat, when it's all pink and squirmy, you know, and its eyes just opened-they've got such pretty bright eyes. But I'm afraid baby's eyes are more l

woman was impossible, and such a hopeless fool!) Miss Batchelor's habi

small. Just feel

ds for the child, and in another moment he wa

ingers. He had made a great many futile experiments of the kind in the last two days. Of those three worlds that were his, the world of light, the world of sleep, and the world of his mother's breast, they had taken away the one that he liked best-the warm living world of which he had been lord a

on, "he can't help it. He's being weaned.

the corduroy, but Miss Batch

nurse him?"

d Mrs. Ne

can't nurse their children-it all runs to brains. But these little animals! If ever there was a woman born to suckle fo

aid aloud, and Mrs.

back in her attitude of indifference, watching her son, and

ess knows what went on in the heart of that extraordinary wo

said she to Mr

tle thing. And yet-she isn't the kind that abominates babies, as such. Therefore i

k. Having convinced herself that her argument was a chain of adamant, she caught herself leaning on it for support, with the surprising

t on loving the same man, the despised one is naturally skeptical as to the strength and purity and eternity of the other's feelings. "She n

ught poorly of his intelligence, and the nurse shook her head and said it was a "bad sign when they took no notice." Gradually, very gradually, his features settled into an expression of disill

joy of motherhood, she too grew pale and thin; she too was indiffer

n Drayton for the space of five months; and coupling this fact with Mrs. Nevill