e this man who was the cause of
all her agony, and this child which was killing her. She strained every
muscle in a supreme effort to rid herself of this awful burden, and then
it felt as if her whole inside were pouring away from her, and her
suffering suddenly became less.

The nurse and the doctor bent over her and took something away; and she
heard the choking noise she had heard once before, and then the low cry
of pain, the feeble whine of the new-born child filled her ears and
seemed to enter her poor, exhausted body till it reached her very soul;
and, in an unconsciousness movement she tried to hold out her arms.

With the child was born a new joy, a fresh rapture. In one second she
had been delivered from that terrible pain and made happier than she had
ever been before, and she revived in mind and body as she realized, for
the first time, the pleasure of being a mother.

She wanted to see her child. It had not any hair or nails, for it had
come before its time, but when she saw this human larva move its limbs
and open its mouth, and when she touched its wrinkled little face, her
heart overflowed with happiness, and she knew that she would never feel
weary of life again, for her love for the atom she held in her arms
would be so absorbing that it would make her indifferent to everything
else.

From that time her child was her chief, her only care, and she idolized
it more, perhaps, because she had been so deceived in her love and
disappointed in her hopes. She insisted on having the cot close to her
bed, and, when she could get up, she sat by the window the whole day
rocking the cradle with her foot. She was even jealous of the wet-nurse,
and when the hungry baby held out its arms and mouth towards the big
blue-veined breast, she felt as if she would like to tear her son from
this strong, quiet peasant woman's arms, and strike and scratch the
bosom to which he clung so eagerly.

She embroidered his fine robes herself, putting into them the most
elaborate work; he was always surrounded by a cloud of lace and wore the
handsomest caps. The only thing she could talk about was the baby's
clothes, and she was always interrupting a conversation to hold up a
band, or bib, or some especially pretty ribbon for admiration, for she
took no notice of what was being said around her as she turned and
twisted some tiny garment about in her hands, and held it up to the
light to see better how it looked.

"Don't you think