Page:Temple Bailey--The Gay cockade.djvu/296

 man who married a woman whom the world called beautiful and brilliant, and whom—whom princes wanted to marry And he was a very plain man, except that he had a lot of money—millions and millions—and after he married the woman whom he had said that he worshiped, he wanted to make just an every-day wife of her. He wanted her to stay at home and look after his house. He told her one night that it would be a great happiness for him if he could come in and find her warming—his slippers. And he said that his ideal of a woman was one who—who—held a child in her arms"

I looked down at her. "Well, right in the beginning," I said, "I should like to know if the woman loved the man"

She stared at me and then she stood up. "If she did, what then? She had not married to be—his slave"

I pointed to the mother robin on the branch below. "I wonder if she calls it slavery! You see—she is so busy—building her nest she hasn't time to think whether Cock Robin is singing fewer love songs than he sang early in the spring."

She laughed and was down on her knees beside me again. "Oh, you funny little practical thing! But it wasn't because I missed the love songs. He 290