He agreed that it would not.
CHAPTER XLIV
The most thrilling first night of Sheila’s life was her debut as a mother. The doctor and the stork had a nip-and-tuck race. The young gentleman weighed more than ten pounds.
According to all the formulas of tradition, this epochal event should have made a different woman of Sheila. The child should have filled her life. According to actual history, Sheila was still Sheila, and her son, while he brought great joys and great anxieties, rather added new ambitions than satisfied the old.
Bret senior did not change his business interests or give up his office hours because of the child. Indeed, he was spurred on to greater effort that he might leave his heir a larger fortune.
The trained nurse, who received twenty-five dollars a week, and the regular nurse, who received twenty-five dollars a month, knew infinitely more about babies than Sheila.
The elder Mrs. Winfield, with the best intention and the worst tact, thought to make Sheila happy by telling her how happy she ought to be. This is an ancient practice that has never been discarded, though it has never yet succeeded.
The elder Mrs. Winfield said, “It’s a splendid thing for baby that you’ve given up the stage.”
Sheila felt an implied attack on her own family, and she bristled gently: “It’s fine for me, but I don’t think the baby would notice the difference if I acted every night. My mother didn’t leave the stage, and her mother and my father’s mother were hard-working actresses. And their children certainly prospered. Besides, if I were out of the way, the baby would have the advantage of its grandmother uninterrupted.”
The new grandmother accepted the last statement as an obvious truth and attacked the first. “You’re still thinking of going back, then?”