Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction
At first Nan was rather awed--she did not know what to do with it.
Many of the rooms remained unfurnished. That was to be done slowly, by
picking up old and rare articles--pictures and tapestries as they could
afford them, a piece here and a piece there: this was to be their hobby.
She was frightened by so much emptiness, and clung to her husband,
puzzled and proud. Then, gradually, she began to understand: they were
planning for the future greatness which they were to share. She was no
longer frightened; she was glad.
There was one room in which they often sat. Sometimes they would visit
it separately and surprise one another. When they entered, they became
strangely bashful and childlike--it was holy ground. They left all their
cruder ambitions on the threshold. They stopped talking or conversed in
whispers, holding hands. It was on a halfstory, between the first
floor and the second, and looked into the garden. Up the wall outside
a magnolia clambered; against its window a laburnum tapped and shed
its golden tassels. Everything was waiting for someone who was some day
coming. A high guard stood about the hearth to prevent someone, when he
began to toddle, from falling into the fire and getting burnt. A little
bed was ready--a bed so tiny that you could lift it with one hand. On
the floor toys lay scattered. Everything had been thought out for his
reception long before he warned them of his coming. To bring home new
toys and leave them there for Nan to discover was one of Barrington's
absurd ways of telling her how much he loved her.
It was in that room that they kissed after their first quarrel. It was
there she told him that the little hands were being fashioned that were
to be held so fast in theirs.
And he came one bright February morning, when crocuses were standing
bravely above the turf and a warm spring wind was blowing. Nan hugged
him to her breast, smiling and crying--she was so glad he was a man.
They called him Peter--after the house his father said, because the
house was Peterish and old-fashioned. William was sure to be contracted
to Bill or Billy; one Billy was enough in any family-----
It was shortly after the birth of Peter that Jehane caught her man.
It was said that she married him on the rebound, for she never ceased
loving Barrington. She did it more to get off the raft, and to show that
she could do it, than for anything.
Captain Bobbie Spashett had seen her portrait in a friend's house. He
was under orders to sail for India. He had six weeks in which to make
her acquaintance, do his courting and get over the wedding. He proved
himself a man of energy, managing the business with a soldier's dash.
Then he sailed for India, promising to send for her when he was settled.
Unfortunately, before the year was out, he died in action.
In February, almost on the anniversary of Peter's birth, his
daughter came into the world. Jehane named her Glory, because of the
distinguished nature of her father's death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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