CHAPTER XII
Mrs. Caldwell had grown very fragile that autumn; not as if she were ill, but rather as if she were gradually and gently relaxing her hold on life. As yet no one but Peter had realized the change in her, but to him it was sadly evident, and he visited her oftener than ever, taking all he could of a friendship that would soon be his no longer. He had stopped to see her on his way home from the seminary, the day after his walk with Sheila, and it was upon Sheila that their talk finally turned.
"I had a stroll with her yesterday afternoon," Peter remarked. "It's rare luck for me to get any of her time nowadays. Marriage swallows women terribly, doesn't it?"
"Sheila's marriage has certainly swallowed her," admitted Mrs. Caldwell. "I'm fond of Ted—really very fond of him, in fact—but I've always expected marriage to swallow his wife. He's that sort of man."
"You think he demands so much of her then? I'd felt that it was the boy who stood between Sheila and all her old life—her old self."
"Ah, but isn't that just the way Ted has her so utterly—through the boy?"
Peter shook his head: "There's something I don't understand. I understand her—to the soul! But there's something in her life I don't understand. I'm sure Ted's good to her. I'm sure they love each other. But she's not satisfied, Mrs. Caldwell. The trouble is that she wants to write—and she doesn't. I can't understand why she doesn't. When Eric was a baby, it was natural enough that she should give up everything for him; but now it's unreasonable, it's absurd, that she doesn't take up her work again. And I can't tell her so—well as I know the value of the gift she's wasting. She isn't frank with me. I can only talk to her about the matter in metaphors."
"She isn't frank with me either, Peter. But I'm a little more informed about the situation than you are. Sheila was writing a story when Eric's nurse, taking advantage of not being overlooked, exposed him to scarlet fever. That, I'm confident, is somehow responsible for Sheila's giving up her work."
Peter's face flushed darkly: "Do you think Ted reproached her for that? Do you think he blamed her?"