Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
"Well, and mine are boys. Blue for me and pink for you. But we'll come
to that in a moment.--The thing that really strikes me as extraordinary
is that in all these ages, with all the countless babies that have been
born, we don't know _yet_ which it's going to be!... And I don't think
we ever shall. Now just think what that means--not just to a Royal
House, with a whole succession depending on it, and crowns and dynasties
and things--but to _every_ woman! You see the _tremendous_ interest they
take in it at once!--But I don't know whether a man can ever understand
that----"
She paused.
"Go on, Mrs. Stan--I want the feminine point of voo," said Mr.
Miller.--"The man ain't broken Post Toasties yet that has more reverence
for motherhood than what I have----"
"I know," said Dorothy bashfully. "But it isn't the same--being a
father. It's--it's different. It's not the same. I doubt whether _any_
man knows what it means to us as we wait and wonder--and wait and
wonder--day after day--day after day----"
Here she dropped her eyes. Here also Mr. Miller dropped his head.
"It isn't the same--being a father--it's different," Dorothy was heard
to murmur.
Mr. Miller breathed something about the holiest spot on oith.
"So you see," Dorothy resumed presently, hoping that Mr. Miller did not
see. "It's the nearest subject of all to us. The very first question we
ask one another is, 'Do you hope it's a little boy or a little girl?'
And as it's impossible to tell, it's impossible for us to make our
preparations. Lady Upshire doesn't know one bit more about it than the
poorest woman in the streets. And this in an age that boasts of its
Science!"
"Well," said Mr. Miller, giving it consideration, "that's ver-ry true. I
ain't a knocker; I don't want to get knocking our men of science; but
it's a fact they cann't tell. I recollect Mrs. Miller saying to me----"
"Yes--look at it from Mrs. Miller's point of view----"
"I remember Mrs. Miller using the ver-ry woids you've just used, Mrs.
Stan. (I hope this don't jolt Miss Deedes too much; it's ver-ry
interessting). And that's one sure thing, that it ain't a cinch for Mrs.
Bradley Martin any more than what it is for any poor lady stenographer
at so many dallars per. But--if you'll pardon me putting the question in
that form--where's the _point_, Mrs. Stan? What's the reel prapasition?"
This being precisely what Dorothy was rather carefully avoiding, again
she smiled bashfully and dropped her head, as if once more calling on
those profound reserves of Mr. Miller's veneration for motherhood. These
even profounder reserves, of Mr. Miller's veneration for dallars, were
too much to the point altogether.
"I was afraid you wouldn't understand," she sighed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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