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Soundings up. I didn't know it until you'd gone to France, and then I found that my ego did n't exist any more, You had already become an inseparable part of it, like color and shading in a picture. And when the baby was born, it seemed to me that all the gaps had been filled up, that the essential trinity of life was complete,—or would be when you came back!"

Bob's arms were still round her. "You've gone farther than I have," he said; "I have n't got the idea of a child at all. I've been thinking entirely in terms of us two. It's a funny thing to say, perhaps, but I don't believe I'm ready for this kid yet."

"Wait till you've seen her and touched her!" said Nancy.

Bob caught her to him, "Go easy on it, Nancy darling; don't expect too much of me. I'll try hard, but it's you I want, and no one but you."

Nancy smiled up at him. "You're not afraid of yourself, are you, or of me?"

“No," said Bob. "But I—I don't want you to change."

"But of course I'm changed!" said Nancy. "And you're going to be too, my dear, so fundamentally that you'll hardly recognize yourself! Come and let me prove it to you."

She released herself from his arms, took his hand and led him into the cottage. 320