Maternity was sacred; being a wife on the other hand was “forever climbing up the climbing wave,” there was nothing final about it as there was in being able to say, “I am the mother of your child!”
Her wistful blue eyes expanded. She saw her own way spreading out before her like a promised land. “I can’t,” she said touchingly, “decide all this in a minute.”
He could stay on for two years at the War Office, and Estelle meant him to stay without inconvenience to herself. He tried bargaining with her; but her idea of a bargain was one-sided.
“I sometimes feel as if you kept me out of everything,” she said at last.
Estelle was feeling her way; she thought she might collect a few extras to add to her side of the bargain.
Apparently she was right. Winn was all eagerness to meet her. “How do you mean?” he asked anxiously.
“Oh,” she said contemplatively, “such heaps of things! One thing, I don’t expect you’ve ever noticed that you never ask your friends to stay here. I’ve had all mine; you’ve never even asked your mother! It’s as if you were ashamed of me.”
“I’ll ask her like a shot if you like,” he said eagerly. Estelle was not anxious for a visit from Lady Staines, but she thought it sounded better to begin with her. She let her pass.
“It’s not only your relations,” she went on; “it’s your friends. What must they think of a wife they are never allowed to see?”
“But they’re such a bachelor crew,” he objected. “It never occurred to me you’d care for them — just ordinary soldier chaps like me, not a bit clever or amusing.”