eral, is in the
highest degree exasperating, no matter how well your vanity is under
control.

Perhaps I should not have been able to play my part and deceive my
deceiver had I been steadily at headquarters. As it was, I went there
little and then gave no orders, apparently contenting myself with the
credit for what other men were doing in my name. In fact, so obvious did
I make my neglect as chairman that the party press commented on it and
covertly criticized me. Dunkirk mildly reproached me for lack of
interest. He did not know--indeed, he never knew--that his chief
lieutenant, Thurston, in charge at headquarters, had gone over to "the
enemy," and was Woodruff's right-hand man. And it is not necessary for
me to say where Woodruff got the orders he transmitted to Thurston.

My excuse for keeping aloof was that I was about to be transformed into
a man of family. As I was fond of children I had looked forward to this
with more eagerness than I ventured to show to my wife. She might not
have liked it, eager though she was also. As soon as she knew that her
longings were to be satisfied, she entered upon a course of preparation
so elaborate that I was secretly much amused, though I thoroughly
approved and encouraged her. Every moment of her days was laid out in
some duty imposed upon her by the regimen she had arranged after a study
of all that science says on the subject.

As perfect tranquillity was a fundamental of the _regime_, she permitted
nothing to ruffle her. But Ed more than made up for her calm. Two weeks
before the event, she forbade him to enter her presence--"or any part of
the grounds where I'm likely to see you," said she. "The very sight of
you, looking so flustered, unnerves me."

While he and I were waiting in the sitting-room for the news, he turned
his heart inside out.

"I want to tell you, Harvey," said he, "that the--boy or girl--whichever
it is--is to be my heir."

"I shan't hold you to that," I replied with a laugh.

"No,--I'll never marry," he went on. "There was an--an angel. You know
the Shaker settlement?--well, out there."

I looked at him in wonder. If ever there was a man who seemed
unromantic, it was he, heavy and prosaic and so shy that he was visibly
agitated even in bowing to a woman acquaintance.

"I met her," he was saying, "when I was driving that way,--the horse
ran, I was thrown out, and her parents had to take me in and let her
nurse me. You've seen her face,--or faces