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222 disarming Basil's impatience at her persistent negation by her extreme gentleness. She ceased to talk about the dead baby to him, because she saw he thought her morbid. Sometimes she thought that Gerald Dallas would have understood her, but there was no one else. Everyone else tried to amuse her. Fairfax came a few times to see her, but the great change in her, and her evident lack of interest in him, discouraged his visits. There was only Major Ransome whom she was really willing to see. The Major's whole-souled acceptance of woman, as a weak creature who must be coddled and indulged in her unreasonableness—rather amusing, in view of the two strong-willed women who had married him—somewhat comforted Teresa. But after all the Major bored her. She did not want him or anyone else, not even for the tiny Ronald, whose extreme vitality made him a too exact copy of Basil. Basil was not too cheerful at this time, but he tried to be. His intensely positive nature made him unwilling to accept grief as Teresa did. He wanted to forget their misfortune, to find again their joy in life, and to supply it meantime by interests which seemed to Teresa factitious and feverish. He was working hard himself, and as a last resort he tried to get Teresa to think of her work again. But her first essay with the clay discouraged him. She modelled in secret, only showing it to him when