“Well,” sniffed Mrs. Vining, “I supposed you had sense enough of your own not to marry outside of it.”
“But—”
“And now that you did, take your medicine. You’re crying because you want to be with your man and your children. But when you had them you cried just the same. All the women I know on the stage and off, married and single, childless or not, are always crying about something. Good Lord! it’s time women learned to get along without tears. Men used to cry and faint, and they outgrew it. Women don’t faint any more. Why can’t they quit crying? The whole kit and caboodle of you make me sick.”
“Thank you!” said Sheila, and walked away. But she was mad enough to rehearse her big scene more vigorously than ever. Without a slip of memory she delivered her long tirade so fiercely that the company and Vickery and Batterson broke into applause. From the auditorium Reben shouted, “Bully!”
As Sheila walked aside, Mrs. Vining threw her arms around her and called her an angel and proved that even she had not lost the gift of tears.
Bret was not without his own torments. The village people drove him frantic with their questions and their rapturous horror and the gossip they bandied about.
His mother, who hurried to the “rescue” of his home and his “abandoned children,” strengthened him more by her bitterness against Sheila than she could have done by any praise of her. A man always discounts a woman’s criticism of another woman. It always outrages his male sense of fairness and good sportsmanship.
Besides, Bret was driven by every reason of loyalty to defend his wife. He told his mother and his neighbors that he would see her oftener than a soldier or a sailor sees his wife. He would keep close to her. His business would permit him to make occasional journeys to her. Their summers would be honeymoons together.
He made good use of the argumentum ad feminam by telling his mother how well the children would profit by their grandmother’s wisdom, and he promised them the fascinating privilege of traveling with their mother at times.