“There, there.” He stroked the convulsed forehead with cool fingers. “Things can’t be as bad as all that. Tell me about it. That’s what I’m here for, you know.”
The cyclonic sobs increased. He cradled the small tortured body within his arms and rocked it to and fro like a baby.
“I wish I were dead. I ought never to have been born!”
The man was frightened. If this were to last much longer, there was no telling what would happen. When he spoke his voice was purposely abrupt.
“This must stop at once. Do you want to kill your child?”
“It would be better for him if he never were born.” But his tone of command had calmed her. The sobs died down into a whimper.
He followed up his advantage sternly. “You must not say such things nor think them.”
She stirred in his arms and he laid her back upon the pillow.
“But it is true. Nobody wants either of us. Nobody ever has wanted us.”
“That is because you don’t give them a chance. You are so shy. You always run away. Nobody could help loving you if they really knew you.”