Alice Adams

rd of his protests added something to his hatred of her. Every evening he told her that anybody with ordinary gumption ought to re

le yes, nor well people, either! 'Keep out of the night air, no matter how well you feel.' That's what my mother

ther told her the same th

he did. My g

ss the truth must been the swamp mosquitoes bit people and gave 'em malaria, especially before they began to put screens in their windows. Well, we

he said.

what the human frame WILL survive," he admitted on the last evening of that month. "But you and the doctor ought to

To-morrow it'll be May night air, and I expect that'll be a lot better for you, don

ned to her cot, where, after a still interval, she snored faintly. Upon this, his

CERTAINLY,

t lay all round about, in the damp cover of its night cloud of smoke, and tried to keep quiet for a few hours after midnight, but was too powerful a growing thing ever to lie altogether still. Even while it strove to sleep it muttered with digestions of the day before, and these already merged with rumblings of the morrow. "Owl" cars, bringing in last passengers over distan

an illness he might have taken some pride in them as proof of his citizenship in a "live town"; but at fifty-five he merely hated

hope it'll sour on 'em before breakfast. Delivered the Andersons'. Now he's getting out ours. Listen to the darn brute! What's HE care who wants to sleep!" His complaint was of the horse, who casually shifted weight with a clink of steel shoes on the worn brick pavement of the street, and then heartily shook

g likely no

ess of sleepers than the milkman's horse had been; then a group of coloured workmen came by, and although it was impossible to be sure whether they were homeward bound from nigh

reminded him of something unpleasant, though he could not discover just what the unpleasant thing was. Here was a puzzle that irritated him the more because he could not solve it, yet always seemed just on the point of a solution. However, he may have lost nothing cheerful by remaining in the dark upon the ma

exhibited to him a face mismodelled by sleep, and set like a clay face left on its cheek in a hot and dry studio. She was still only in part awake, however, and by the time she had extinguished

etorted, though not until af

n. He hoped she would come in to see him soon, for she was the one thing that didn't press on his nerves, he f

le from beneath the handkerchief she had worn upon her head for the night and s

soon as I look at you," she said. "Miss Perry

urably of Miss Perry, and then, in order to be more cert

a good sign to be cross; it means you'

I am,

Virgil-all except getting your strength back, of course, and that isn't goi

I w

ew moments occupied herself with similar futilities, having taken on the air of a person who makes things neat, though she produced no such actual effect upon them. "Of course you will," she repeated, abs

e final word. And she still kept up the affectation of being helpfully preoccupied with the table, and did not look at her husband-perhaps because they had been married so many years that without looking she knew just what his

said. "That's what

urprised and indulgent. "Why, I'

mething good to get into?'" he asked,

to the bedside and would have taken his h

ut of course when you get well there's only one thin

ite of his weakness, anger made his voice strident,

t, Virgil. It's not fair to an

me what I kn

g her urgency to plaintive entreaty. "V

e to me!" he said. "Call

n't do what we all want you to, and what you know in your heart you ought to! And if you HAVE got into one of your stubborn

she had concluded her appeal-for that time-and instead of making any more words in the

it. "Fine!" he repeated, with husky indignation. "Fine way to cure a sick man! Fine!" Then, after a silence,

added, meaning that his wife's l