"I have been good to your daughter; a husband to the best of my ability."
"But you—you—should not have blundered." Again he was reminded of what it meant to displease or give her husband any excuse.
"I did not agree in this room a year ago to be regardful of the opinion of others," he defended. "I agreed to the word of the law and of God. I have tried to fulfill that word. I did not intend to be absent when the child came." She shifted again uneasily, and her mind went back to the day Orlean was born and that her husband, too, had been away....
"If I can see Orlean that will be sufficient," he said.
"She went to walk."
"Mother?"
She regarded him again, and then turned her eyes away for she could not stand to look long into his. The truth there would upset her and she knew it.
"Why must this be so?" She shifted uneasily again. Oh, if she could only be brave. If she could only dare—but she was not brave, Orlean was not brave. They had lived their lives too long subservient to the will of others to attempt bravery now. She rested her eyes on some sewing she pretended to do and waited. It could only be for a little while. Ethel must learn sooner or later of his presence, and then—! There would be a scene or he must go.
"It's a shame," said the other.
"You should have been careful," she returned meaningly. But in her mind was still the dream. If she could be brave....