Page:The Blacker the Berry - Thurman - 1929.djvu/233

 For a while, Alva had been content. He really loved Geraldine, or so he thought. To him she seemed eminently desirable in every respect, and now that she was about to bear him a child, well he didn’t yet know what they would do with it, but everything would work out as it should. He didn’t even mind having to return to work, nor, for the moment, mind having to give less attention to the rest of his harem.

Of course, Geraldine’s attachment of herself to him ruled Emma Lou out more definitely than it did any of his other “paying off” people. He had been thoroughly disgusted with her and had intended to relent only after she had been forced to chase him for a considerable length of time. But Geraldine’s coming had changed things altogether. Alva knew when not to attempt something, and he knew very well that he could not toy with Emma Lou and live with Geraldine at the same time. Some of the others were different. He could explain Geraldine to them, and they would help him keep themselves secreted from her. But Emma Lou, never! She would be certain to take it all wrong.

The months passed; the baby was born. Both of the parents were bitterly disappointed by this sickly, little “ball of tainted suet,” as Alva called it. It had a shrunken left arm and a deformed left foot. The