So, then Mrs. Adams knew. Well, he didn’t care if the whole world knew. “Helen, you must not let go like this. You will hurt yourself,” he said with a note of authority.
Her ears heard him; her eyes caught him. For one moment she lay still and sobless. Then she sat up, hair streaming over her shoulders, cheeks reddening. “You too!” she cried. “Oh, you have all had the same thought in your minds. And it isn’t so,” she informed him.
“Well, if nothing is the matter, what is the matter?” he demanded after a pause in the voice of a man sliding from the top of a climax.
“That is,” covering her face with her hands. “Your mother, my mother, you, too, all of you have been expecting something that may never happen. And I did not know, did not realize until this day the meaning of these hints, these questions, this solicitude. It was not for me. I do not deserve it, you understand. I am not that way.” Oh! her Heavenly Father, she knew what was before her now if she never had a child. She would not be the same to him!
“Of course you will, you silly darling,” he laughed, gathering her in his arms. “The fact is, I am immensely relieved.”
In this wise they took a new lease on their happiness. Helen’s skies cleared. It was good to be free and well and just a girl “a while longer,” as George put it. Still this was a form of probation. That phrase, “a while longer,” was the involuntary admission he made of his ultimate expectations. For his own part, he declared it was much better for him to make some headway in the bank before they could really afford the expensive luxury of having children. Still he felt a bit let down at the contemplation for the first time of the bare possibility of his wife not bearing these children for him.
Thus the first year of their married life ended and the next one began. In the main you can see that every sign for the future was propitious. These two young people had the right mind toward each other; no modern decadence, no desire to sidestep Nature or fail in their duty. Their instincts were normal, their hopes honorable.
How is it then that, with all good intentions, they both missed their cue? It is not for me to say. My task is to tell this story and leave each reader to judge for himself where the blame lay. No doubt there will be many decisions. I have often wondered if even three judges who passed on the same case without knowing each other’s decision, would not each of them render a different judgment. But in regard to this matter, I may be permitted to remark in passing that most of us miss our cue in the business of living, whether we are escorted by the best intentions or a few valorous vices. And my theory is that if we live long enough, we shall hear the Prompter in time to make a good ending. If we do not, there is a considerable stretch of eternity before us where no doubt adjustments may be made with a wider mind.