"Then what did you think marriage was for?"
She stopped before him. "I thought it was for love," she said; and, crumpling at his feet, put her face upon his knees.
He bent over her, stroking her hair, calling her by the names that they had invented for each other, waiting for the natural law to assert itself again and trying, meanwhile, to alleviate her apprehensions.
"Perhaps, after all, you are mistaken."
This was the burden of his consolation.
Nevertheless, she was not mistaken, and the succeeding days proved it. Nor was the natural law swift in asserting itself.
"Don't you think," he once tried to urge the law, "that it would be beautiful if we should have a little baby?"
"I sha'n't be beautiful!" she wailed. "I shall lose my looks. I——"
"Muriel!"
"Yes, I shall. I know. I have seen it—on the street—lots of places. I shall grow—I shall——And all my lovely clothes!—Oh!"—She broke off and hid her eyes—"I shall grow vulgar looking and horrid!"