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 out a qualm. And worse than all, it was incapacitating her as a wife and mother. By September Roger was seldom absent from her thoughts. All during the grim carrying-out of her day's schedule, the possibility of seeing him, or of hearing from him (sometimes he called her by telephone, sometimes wrote to her, sometimes simply passed her house in his car, blew his horn and waved), kept her in a state of constant waiting and expectation. If several days passed with no sign from him, she became sensitive, raw to every sudden sound of bell or horn, or knock, and was a less cheerful and responsive mother, a less cheerful and responsive wife.

Roger did all he could to save her from unnecessary waiting and uncertainty. But there were times, of course, that in spite of all his care and protection Sheilah must be patient and trust him. She did trust him (their honesty with each other had begotten trust), but trusting him wasn't much help to her during the terrible ten days when she didn't hear from him at all, and finally, sick with anxiety, called up his office (she had never called Roger at his office, an instinctive fastidiousness in such matters preventing her from even running the risk of being the cause of possible embarrassment), and was told briefly that Mr. Dallinger was ill with pneumonia, but no further information could be given to strangers.