"I've been waiting there all the
afternoon--she's been suffering--My God!... It got on my nerves.... She's
so young--they oughtn't to hurt her like that." He covered his face with
his hands.
"I know. I felt like that when my first child came. It's terrible, awful.
And then it's over--all the pain--and it's magnificent, glorious--and
then--later--it's so commonplace that you cannot believe that it was ever
either awful or magnificent. Fix your mind on the glorious part of it,
Westcott. Think of this time to-morrow when your wife will be so proud, so
happy--you'll both be so proud, so happy, that you'll never know anything
in life like it."
"Yes, yes, I know--of course it's sure to be all right--but I suppose this
waiting's got on my nerves. There was a fellow in the Park just broken his
wife's head in--and then everything was so quiet. I could almost hear her
crying, right away in her room."
He stopped a moment and then went on. "It's what I've always wanted--always
to have a boy. And, by Jove, he'll be wonderful! I tell you he shall
be--We'll be such pals!" He broke off suddenly--"You haven't a boy?"
"No, mine are both girls. Getting on now--they'll soon be coming out. I
should like to have had a boy--" Maradick sighed.
"Are they an awful lot to you?"
"No--I don't suppose they are. I should have understood a boy better,--but
they're good girls.
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