Clare Heywood was scared.
“Good gracious!” she said, in a kind of whisper.
“It’s a psychological fact,” said Madge. “I work it out in this way. In the first and second years a wife is absorbed in the experiment of marriage and in the sentimental phase of love. In the third and fourth years she begins to study her husband and to find him out. In the fifth and sixth years, having found him out completely, she makes a working compromise with life and tries to make the best of it. In the seventh and eighth years she begins to find out herself, and then——”
“And then?” asked Clare, very anxiously.
Clare Heywood was profoundly disturbed.
“Well, then,” said Madge, “there is the devil to pay!”
“Dear God!” she cried.
“You see, it’s like this. If a woman has no child she gets bored... . She can’t help getting bored, poor soul. Her husband is so devoted to her that he provides her with every opportunity for getting bored—extra servants, extra little luxuries, and what he calls a beautiful little home. Ugh!” She stared round the room and made a face.
“He is so intent on this that he nearly works himself to death. Comes home with business thoughts in his head. Doesn’t notice his wife’s wistful eyes, and probably dozes off to sleep after supper. Isn’t that so?”
“Yes,” said Clare. “Horribly so.”