Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/142

140 "Oh, a thousand reasons. First, I might lose my figure. Then think of the frightful bother of it all—babies do upset a house so. Then, I should be afraid—terribly afraid. To think what women go through! I don't see how they can do it, unless they want a child most awfully, and I know some do. But I don't. Aren't you afraid, Teresa?"

"I don't think about it," said Teresa dreamily.

"But how can you help it? And you know you can't get away from it, and it comes nearer every day"

"The sooner it will be over. It's all in the day's work."

"But one needn't, you know, unless one likes. And I could never make up my mind to it. Think of the responsibility! To call another human being into this world by our own will, perhaps to suffer"

Teresa looked at Alice's pretty, empty face and large, inquisitive, stupid eyes.

"Perhaps it isn't by our own will—perhaps it's something bigger," she said, as though to herself.

"Oh, Teresa, you are not religious!"

"No, but—the world is vast and—mysterious. It has been going on such a long time, think, and always in the same way! Who is any one of us, after all, to set herself against the cur-