The Coolidge examiner., 1937-08-26

some WOFh LOT lne DIlDO, OF LOT
the city's orphanage.
But the blind and the orphanage
had had no opportunity to expert
ence her kindly charity. For from
the Sunday night when she and
Quentin had ended their thirty-hour
honeymoon with a sleepy, slow trip
TO the city, and had found tempo
rary quarters in large hotel, there
had seemed to be no moment in
which Vic, to use her own words,
had had time to sit down for five
minutes to ask herself whether or
not she was happy, whether or not
she was glad that she had married
as she had.
So the first year had flown, and
at the end of it Vic had awakened
Quentin in the early dawn Of a
spring morning, and had given him
charge Of her waiting suitcase and
her somewhat silent, frightened
self. There had been a hospital
then: bright, clean rooms, flat
clean beds. everyone telling her that
she was behaving splendidly, every
one sure of it except herself. And
after a while the realness of all
these things. and the city. and
Gwen. and the big house and even
Quentin had all disappeared into
hot, hurtful fog. and still later.
ashamed and bewildered and apollo
getic, Vic had gratefully slipped
away into nothing-just nothing
Just blackness and oblivion and re-
lief from the task that was too
hard.
Then there had been Kenty. and
Vic had lain staring at him thought
fully. thinking not Of him but of her
mother My mother-she was so
beautiful and young; she must have
been so frightened, and she went
through all that for mel"
After the long struggle she had
said to Quentin: Il don't want an
other baby. This ones darling; /
want him. But never anotherl" But
the unexpected ecstasy Of having
one child. after all, had made the
possibility of having another seem
nothing less than miracle. Susan
ma Hardisty had swiftly followed her
brother, and on Susan's second
birthday, the crowded Hard sty
nursery had been enriched by the
arrival of Richard and Robert to-
gether. Even the mother of what
she sometimes described as the
Light Infantry" had been tempo
rarily left breathless and startled
by this promptitude. Vic lived now
in a world of small beds. small
stamping footsteps, small shrili
voices. Kenty and Sue. Dick and
Bobs had filled her life to overflow
ing; she adored them even while she
toiled herself into a daily state Of
exhaustion for their sakes.
Quentin meanwhile was busily
building up for himself the most
important surgical practice in the
city.
They rarely went to dinner par
ties. Sometimes after their late
dinner at home they would slip
downtown for some music. for
the last acts of a play or the final
run of a good film. But almost al
ways they were at home in the eve
ming. Quentin glad to smoke his
pipe, TO go early to bed; Vic happi-
lest when she was within reach of
any call from the nursery. Other
women laughed at her, perhaps pit
led her a little. She never pitied
herself; she was supremely content.
I'VE like each other" she told
him on certain Sunday morning
when they had been six years man
and wife. and when an unusual lull
in domestic and professional inter
ruptions had by chance afforded
them lazy hour together.
Victoria looked enviously at the
comfortable peninsula nomes they
were passing. for by this time the
day had somehow rushed about to
one o'clock. and Quentin was driv-
ing her and the three older children
down to Menlo Park. There was a
skull fracture to be diagnosed at the
hospital. and after that the Har-
distys would go to lunch with the
Gannetts. Mrs. Gannett, whose own
doctor husband had summoned
Quentin to this emergency case. had
Hospitality insisted upon the lunch.
1t needn't be until two o'clock; she
had beds upon which the small fry
could take their maps; please,
please. please come; they never
saw the Hardistys any more!
They were at the hospital. Vic
and the children walked about on
the grass while Quentin was inside.
Then he came down again, and DR..
Gannett came down, and the Har'
distys were to follow the Gannett
car.
Their way wound up into the hills
near Woodside; they were presently
being welcomed by Mrs. Gannett or
a porch; everything went just as
such days always went, doctor talk
nursery talk, spring Sunday talk
Vic was alternately proud of heI
children and anxiously eXasperated
about them; a nurse walked them
away with little Betsey Gannett