Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/157

Rh organised, he was nervously anxious about the baby, which encountered the usual difficulties in adapting itself to a new environment, and signalised its displeasure by fairly continuous screaming; and Teresa's rebellion was the final straw.

"You see I was right," Teresa said weakly, "and you were wrong. You're always so cocksure with your theories! You were sure I should love the baby, and I don't believe you even like it yourself." "I wish you'd keep quiet," growled Basil. "I think you're very silly. Why don't you make the best of things?"

"I won't. I never will make the best of things. It's a horrid confession of weakness. I insist on seeing them as they are. You're afraid to. You know we were perfectly happy before"

She stopped, and two tears grew in her eyes and wandered down her cheeks. In spite of her physical uneasiness, she had the strange new beauty that women buy with the birth-pangs. Her white skin glowed with freshness, her lips were fuller and redder, and the two thick dark braids of hair lying across her shoulders framed an oval of cheeks and chin, exquisitely youthful and tender.

The baby, which was being carried about in the next room, a pathetic bundle of flannel over