The impression lasted until he went into his house that night and then he felt suddenly absurd. Upstairs he could hear the sounds of the babies being put to bed. Around him everything was orderly and still, waiting for him. It was comfortable and quiet and the sense of possession which so often came over him as he entered his home quite destroyed that vague feeling that he and Cecily weren’t quite getting all they might be getting out of things. And a sense of shame at even this slight disloyalty to all she had done to make him happy put extra devotion into his greeting of her. She came down the stairs a little abstractedly. In two years she seemed, like Fliss, to have changed little--very pretty, very young still--only where the magnetism of Fliss had increased, Cecily’s had perhaps somewhat diminished. The constant day by day responsibility of caring for her babies had weighted her manner. Her mind was on the business of being a mother and a housekeeper--not on Dick, even when she kissed him. “They are all quiet now,” she said. “If you must go up, don’t disturb them, will you?” “No,” he promised. “Did the new housemaid come?” “Yes, she’s here. I don’t think she’s going to be very good, though.” “Don’t be critical, if she’s just here.” Dick went past the nursery door, looking in to call to the two older children, then to Cecily’s room to see the new baby, so pink and well-cared for in its bassinet. Finally he went to his own room. He felt a little lonesome and would have been amazed if he had analyzed his feelings far enough to know what it was that he felt. But that was it. He wanted to be singled out for attention, and all he was getting was general care. Cecily and Ellen were in quiet conference when he went down. They were talking in the hall about the merits of the new housemaid. He gathered that they were very disparaging and felt that their standards were over-high. “I had lunch with Fliss Horton to-day--Fliss Allenby, I mean,” he told Cecily when she faced him as usual over the pleasant table. “Lunch with Fliss? How did that happen?” “I ran into her at the Lennox Restaurant. The Club was crowded and I went there at noon. She was kicking about not seeing more of us. Rattled off a bunch of talk about this and that engagement she had for this week. Are we asked to the things that go on--the Harris’s reception and this big dance Leonard Pollen is pulling off?” “Of course we are. I don’t bother to show you the cards because we decided that we couldn’t do that sort of thing now.” “Fliss said that she thought we were getting too domestic.” “Fliss would think so.” “Did you and Fliss ever quarrel?” “Why, no, Dick. Why?” “I just wondered, after she called it to my attention, why we hadn’t seen them in a long while. Not that I wanted to especially,” he added unnecessarily.