ften condescends to do for my clumsy soothing!
The father skulked away with an immensely relieved look, soon after I
sat down, and the mother grew quite confidential. She told me of the
perfidious nurse's behavior, of the friend's heroic offer, and that they
had not had a wink of sleep the night before at the hotel, for nursing
the baby had made the friend so ill that they had had to send her back
to London that morning. She didn't know but it would have been better if
she and baby had turned back with the overdone friend; but it was her
husband's holiday--six weeks he had--and he worked so hard the rest of
the year--her husband was an author, a journalist (at sight I had
guessed him a literary cus--tomer!--hair parted in the middle, crease--y
clothes, spectacles, a sparse, pointed beard, and narrow, sloping
shoulders, with a stoop in 'em)--and she thought his vacation oughtn't
to be spoiled or deferred by the child; and as he would enjoy it all a
great deal more with her than alone, she had "trusted to luck," and was
going off up the Rhine with him to make a long excursion, before
proceeding to some quiet little town on the Moselle, where another nurse
was in waiting for her. It was their first baby--yes; they had not been
married much over a year. She was fond of it, poor baby! but it was such
a pity it had come! They had not wanted children--children would utterly
interfere with their plan of life. Both its father and herself were busy
people. Oh, there was so much work to be done! and they had married to
help each other in toil for the world, and babies were a sad hindrance.

I suggested that the work of moulding an immortal soul, fashioning the
character and destinies of a little human creature, seemed to me labor
mighty enough for any one's energies and ambition. But she answered me a
little sharply, that there were souls enough in the world already; she
wanted to be responsible for no more mistakes and wretchedness. However,
she fortunately was well and strong, and if she got a good nurse, she
would be able to devote herself to work, and to help her husband as she
had done before the child came. Was I interested in the woman question?
I answered somewhat tamely, that I was very much interested in whatever
made women better; that I believed in women, and that this rather
wearisome planet wouldn't even be worth condemning without them.

Ah! Then she supposed I had attended the suffrage meetings in London?
Her marri