Annie cried out.
Baxter withdrew instantly, feeling somewhat guilty. Then he tried again.
Annie screamed.
Rolanda came down the hall, paused at his door and said, "What do you suppose is the matter with her tonight? She always drops off."
Without waiting for an answer, she passed down the hall to the nursery and comforted Annie to sleep. Baxter tried no more that night.
It was the same each time he tried thereafter. Abruptly, Annie had become irritable, intolerant of his probing. How she could understand what was happening mystified Baxter, but he was determined to retain contact. He kept pushing, gently but firmly, and although it brought on some furious yells, he succeeded in making at least one daily survey of his infant daughter's mind.
For a week Rolanda became increasingly hostile for no apparent reason. Baxter felt that the tension that grew between them was in some way connected with Annie, but his wife never spoke of it. Never a particularly demonstrative woman, she became even colder, and often he caught her regarding him with an enigmatical look of suspicion.
As a long-sufferer to her moods, Baxter had no fear that an open break might develop. His life was insured for $75,000, and Rolanda was much too hard-headed to consider divorcing such a solid "producer" of bread and luxuries as she and her female brood had learned to enjoy.
Meanwhile, Annie's mind was becoming an even more fascinating field for exploration. In spite of her resistance, Baxter's shallow penetration revealed the amazing network of learning that daily increased her web of knowledge, experience and stimulus-response conditioning. Often Baxter pondered what a psychologist would give for such an opportunity as this.