And how would it affect Joe?
He would have his business; he would absorb himself in that. If he did marry again he would choose some sensible woman, able to look after his house and his child. She could not bear the horrid thought that a second wife might be prettier than the first, that her Joe might forget her kisses upon the lips of another woman. She murmured to herself, "Joe can't do without me. I shall not be taken this time."
She went back to the Dream Cottage, unlocked her desk, opened her letter, and added these words to the postscript:
"Marry a nice sensible woman, not quite so pretty as I am, one who will be kind to my baby."
She stared at this for some time, pursing up her lips. Then she carefully erased the possessive pronoun, and wrote "your" instead of "my."
She was smiling when she locked the desk.
IV
Ten days afterwards the child was born. Quinney was summoned at four in the afternoon by the breathless Maria, who gasped out that he was wanted. Somehow Quinney leapt to the conclusion that all was over.
"Is the baby born?" asked Quinney.
"No, nor likely to be till after midnight."