he quoted, and added with a hoarse laugh, "you ought to know your Othello."
"Then why on earth didn't you marry her?" I could not help marveling.
"Too late," he murmured, with a whimsical smiling twitch to his head, that is very engaging. "She was already married to somebody else when I first saw her. Too late," he repeated with ruminative sadness. "But don't let us talk about that," he broke off abruptly. "Have the kids begun to go to school yet?"
"What is the use?" I answered him gloomily. "I haven't formed any plans for them yet."
"Plans? What do you mean?" he inquired, puzzled. Like the girl Alicia he seemed to think there was nothing to do that required any thought. And I wondered if the simple souls in life are only the improvident or the very young.
"Do you see this place," I demanded irritably, "as a home for a family with three children, to say nothing of a fourth in attendance upon them?"
"Have to have a larger place—farther out—of course," he answered glibly, puffing at his pipe.
"And am I a person to take care of and bring up three or four children?"
"Why the devil not?" he demanded.
"Why the devil yes?" I retorted fiercely. "What do I know about children? What experience have I had? Do you see me as a wet nurse to a lot of babies?"