until dawn, when the night's watch
was over and she stood alone beside her window, that she said to herself
with all the courage she could summon:

"And it's over for me, too. Everything is over for me, too. Oh, poor,
poor mother!"

Love, which had seemed to her last night the supreme spirit in the
universe, had surrendered its authority to the diviner image of Duty.

CHAPTER IV

HER CHILDREN

"Poor Aunt Belinda was paralyzed last night, Oliver," said Virginia the
next morning at breakfast. "Miss Willy Whitlow just brought me a message
from Susan. She spent the night there and was on her way this morning to
ask mother to go."

Oliver had come downstairs in one of his absent-minded moods, but by the
time Virginia had repeated her news he was able to take it in, and to
show a proper solicitude for his aunt.

"Are you going there?" he asked. "I am obliged to do a little work on my
play while I have the idea, but tell Susan I'll come immediately after
dinner."

"I'll stop to inquire on my way back from market, but I won't be able to
stay, because I've got all my unpacking to do. Can you take the children
out this afternoon so Marthy can help me?"

"I'm sorry, but I simply can't. I've got to get on with this idea while
I have control of it, and if I go out with the children I shan't be able
to readjust my thoughts for twenty-fours hours."

"I'd like to go out with papa," said Lucy, who sat carefully drinking
her cambric tea, so that she might not spill a drop on the mahogany
table.

"I want to go with papa," remarked Harry obstreperously, while he began
to drum with his spoon on the red tin tray which protected the table
from his assaults.

"Papa can't go with you, darling, but if mamma finishes her unpacking in
time, she'll come out into the park and play with you a little while. Be
careful, Harry, you are spilling your milk. Let mamma take your spoon
out for you."

Her coffee, which she had poured out a quarter of an hour ago, stood
untasted and tepid beside her plate, but from long habit she had grown
to prefer it in that condition. When the waffles were handed to her, she
had absent-mindedly helped herself to one, while she watched Harry's
reckless efforts to cut up his bacon, and it had grown sodden before she
remembered that it ought to be buttered. She wore the black skirt and
blue blouse in which she had travelled, for she had neglected to unpack
her own clothes in her eagerness to get out