The Happiest Time of Their Lives

ssip. She was aware of being tired after two nights rendered almost sleepless by her awareness of joy. She went to her room and shut the door. Her bed was piled high with extra covers, soft, light bla

noticed that the houses opposite had lost courage and showed only cracks. She stood a second looking up at the stars, twinkling with tiny blue rays through the clear air. By turning her head to the west she could look down on the park, with its

the way, and, jumping into bed, hastily sandwiched her small bo

ng the cold rails, or rhythmically bounding down hill on a flat wheel. Once some distance away came the long, continuous complaint of the siren of a fire-engine and

to any one else, she every morning carried up breakfast, was stealing down with a candle in her hand. Her senses were alert, for a friend of hers had been

see a fine crack of light coming from under it. She paused, wondering if she was going to be caught, and if she had better run back and take to the back stairs despite Pringle's well-earned rest; and as she hesitated she heard a sob, then another-wild, h

hole eternity had passed and that another was

front of his fire, that she suspected anything, but that it was so unfriendly: it deprived one of so much legitimate amusement if one's own family practised that kind of reserve. Her just anger kept her from observing Farron very closely. As she talked she laid her brush on the mantelpiece, and as

etter in her hand, suddenly and illogically broke down his resolution of silence. It wa

delaide, that letter. No, don't read it." He took it from her and laid

been someth

letter tells me the worst is true. Well, my dear, we did not

at the bitterness of death was any less to him than to any other human c

r life couldn't go on without his; she did not curb her desire to know every detail on which his opinion and his doctor's had been founded; she clung to him and wept, refusing to let him discuss business arrange

hese nights been to him? The night when she had found his light burning so late, and other nights when he had probably denied himself the consolation of reading for fear of rousing

nged, the light still burning, her satin slippers stepping on each other just as she had left them. She looked

dly changed places with her husband. She had much more courage to die than to watch him die-to watch Vincent die, to see him day by day grow weak and piti

was not to be disturbed, that the house was to be kept quiet. Strange, she thought, that he could sleep like an exhausted child, while she, awake, was a mass of pain. Her heart ached, her eye

!" she smiled at her with unusual gentleness. Later, when Mathilde came down at her accustomed hour, and lying across the foot of her mother's bed, began to read her scraps of the morning paper, Adelaide felt a rush of tenderness

t, in his dressing-gown, came in. He had evidently had his bath, for

g up, "I thought Mr. Farron

ept," said

swered, and she knew he looked at

turned to her and said simultaneously, "No, no; stay." They k

ice shook a little on the question; she was so eager that

se," he

er, yet their look said

tly he

ll go and shave if you'll order it; and don't l

ng knots in the window-shade's cord. It was a trick Adelaide had always objec

n't tie knots

er as one whose mind was

being strong, and he's so clever. He knows just what you're thinking all the time. Isn't it nice that he likes Pete? Did he say an

ack fully dressed and sa

was a spirit of re

her blankly. Adelaide knew that he had quite forgotten the phrase, but he concealed

that Mrs. Wayne was an elderly wood-nymph; but I was wro

ady identified herself so much with the Waynes that she

napkin, stood up, pull

nt and kissed his wife. Both ha

er hands, feeling it solid

be up-to

a busy

fo

is moment of all moments. Some men, she thought, would have hidden thei

with the utmost frankness, talking meantime to Mathilde and the maid. She swept her whole face with a white lotion, rouged lightly, but to her very eyelids, touched a red pencil to her lips, all with discretion. The result was sa

er at some tension. She thought rather crossly that she could not sit through

had all been, or had wanted to go, to an auction sale of objets d'art that had taken place the night before. They

"we were just wondering what you p

e in th

e with the

de was distinctly languid,-"

eny it's true; only, you know, Adelaide, whenever you do want to throw a veil

raised he

sn't anything so very conspicuou

so well and favorably known for my

noisseur in tapestri

in pigs, the d

he best sense, I mean, should betray no consciousness

st artificial, assumed becaus

er some natural tale

r secret mind

fair. Vulgar is

lked she had suddenly seen clearly that she must herself speak to Vincent's doctor without an inst

I should say," said one of the men, raisin

en straying from the

g. I could tell

afraid her looks

office. He had given up his sacred lunch-hour in response to h

ecognized the unreason of such an attitude, he was aware that her great bea

him was, "Good Heavens! another man to be emotionally calmed before I can get at the truth!" She had to be tactful, to let him see that she was not going to make a scene. S

clear as she could wish. She questioned him on the chances of an operation. He could not reduce his ju

thing is being done." He added, "That will be y

had their part to play, but A

ther go through it

agreed, without getting t

stoo

if it could only

nced a

eached that point

the face of death without a quiver. Instead, he had been presented to her as a patient, just one of the long procession that passed through that office. The doctor had said nothing to contradict the heroic picture, but he had said nothing to contribute to it. And surely, if Farron had stood out in his calmness and courage a

ey stood a moment on the steps talking and smiling. Then he drew his friend

that I've been looking at offices in this build

n them again until Vincent had got in beside

, cherishing tone, and she, leaning back, with her head against the point of his shoulder, felt that