The Road to UnderstandingPorter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
General
The Road to Understanding
Porter, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Hodgman)
Marriage -- Fiction; Married people -- Fiction
She began to cry a little wildly.
Burke was going away. He _wanted_ to go. He said they--they got on each
other's nerves. He said they needed a vacation from each other. _Needed_
one! As if they did! It wasn't that. It was his father's idea. _She_
knew. It was all his fault! But he was going--Burke was. He said he was.
There would not be any chance now to show him the daintily gowned wife
welcoming her husband home to a well-kept house. There would not be any
chance to show how she had changed. There would not be--
But there would be--after he came back.
Helen stopped sobbing, and caught her breath with a new hope in her
eyes. Dorothy Elizabeth began to cry, and Helen picked her up and
commenced to rock her.
Of course there _would_ be time after he came back. And, after all,
might it not be the wisest thing, to be away from each other for a time?
Why, even this little while--a single night of Burke's being gone--had
shown her where she stood!--had shown her where it was all leading to!
Of course it was the best way, and Burke had seen it. It was right that
he should go. And had they not provided for her? She was to go-- There
was a check somewhere--
Burrowing in her lap under Dorothy Elizabeth's warm little body, Helen
dragged forth an oblong bit of crumpled paper. Carefully she spread it
flat. The next moment her eyes flew wide open.
One thousand dollars! No, _ten_ thousand! It couldn't be! But it was.
Ten thousand dollars! And she had been scolding and blaming them, when
all the time they had been so generous! And it really _was_ the best
way, too, that they should be apart for a while. It would give her a
chance to adjust herself and practice--and it would need some practice
if she were really going to be that daintily gowned young wife welcoming
her husband to a well-kept home! And with ten thousand dollars! What
couldn't they get with ten thousand dollars?
Dorothy Elizabeth, at that moment, emitted a sharp, frightened cry. For
how was Dorothy Elizabeth to know that the spasmodic pressure that so
hurt her was really only a ten-thousand-dollar hug of joy?
In less than half an hour, Helen, leaving the baby with Bridget, had
sought Mrs. Cobb. She could keep her good news no longer.
"I came to tell you. I'm going away--Baby and I," she announced
joyously. "We're going next week."
"Jiminy! You don't say so! But you don't mean you're goin' away ter
_live_?"
"Oh, no. Just for a visit to my old home town where I was born--only
'twill be a good long one. You see, we need a rest and a change so
much--Baby and I do." There was a shade of importance in voice and
manner.
"That you do!" exclaimed Mrs. Cobb, with emphasis. "And I'm glad you're
goin'. But, sakes alive, I'm goin' ter miss ye, child!"
"I shall miss you, too," beamed Helen cordially.
"How long you goin' ter be gone?"
"I don't know, exactly. It'll depend, some, on Burke--I mean Mr.
Denby--when he wants me to come back."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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