ly condition, and as you can't
separate mind from body" (he shrugged his shoulders), "well--there you
are. I won't say don't let her work; it's better for her to use her
brain than to let it rust. But let her use it in moderation.
Moder--ation. Not those tremendous books that take it out of her."

"Are you sure they do take it out of her? Tanqueray says she'll be ill
if she doesn't write 'em."

"Tanqueray? What does he know about it?"

"More than we do, I suspect. He says the normal, healthy thing for her
is to write, to write tremendous books, and she'll suffer if we thwart
her. He says we don't understand her."

"Does he suggest that _you_ don't understand her?" asked Sophy.

Brodrick smiled. "I think he was referring more particularly to Henry."

Henry tried to smile. "He's not a very good instance of his own theory.
Look at his wife."

"That only proves that Tanqueray's books aren't good for his wife. Not
that they aren't good for Tanqueray. Besides, Prothero says the same
thing."

"Prothero!"

"He ought to know. He's a doctor."

Henry dismissed Prothero with a gesture.

"Look here, Hugh. It simply comes to this. Either there must be no more
books or there must be no more children. You can't have both."

"There shall be no more children."

"As you like it. I don't advise it. Those books take it out of her
more."

He lowered his voice.

"I consider her last book responsible for that child's delicacy."

Brodrick flinched visibly at that.

"I don't care," the Doctor went on, "what Prothero and Tanqueray say.
They can't know. They don't see her. No more do you. You're out all day.
I shouldn't know myself if Gertrude Collett hadn't told me."

"Oh--Gertrude Collett."

"Nobody more likely to know. She's on the spot, watching her from hour
to hour."

"What did she tell you?"

"Why--that she works up-stairs, in her room--for hours--when she's
supposed to be lying down. She's doing it now probably."

"Gertrude knows that for a fact?"

"A fact. And she knows it was done last year too, before the baby was
born."

"And _I_ know," said Brodrick fiercely, "it was not."

"Have her in," said Sophy, "and ask her."

Brodrick had her in and asked her. Gertrude gave her evidence with a
gentle air of surprise that there could be any doubt as to what Mrs.
Brodrick had been up to--this year, at any rate. She flushed when
Brodrick confronted her with his certainty as to last year. She could
not, in the fa