of hands than
her own slender ones, or if the supply from Endbury intelligence offices
had been a whit less unreliable and uncertain, she would not have felt
justified in retaining the burly, uncouth Celt, in spite of her own
affection, so intensely did Paul dislike her. As it was, she felt guilty
for her presence and miserably responsible for her homeliness of
conduct. 'Stashie was a constant point of friction between husband and
wife, and Lydia was trying with desperate ingenuity to avoid points of
friction by some other method than the usual Endbury one of divided
interests. Many times she lay awake at night, convinced that her duty
was to dismiss Anastasia; only to rise in the morning equally convinced
that things without her would be in the long run even harder and more
disagreeable for Paul than they were now. The upshot of the matter was
that she herself was a very incompetent person, she was remorsefully
sure of that; although her mother and Marietta and Paul's aunt all told
her that she need expect nothing during the first year of a baby's life
but one wretched round of domestic confusion.

Lydia did not find it so. She was immensely occupied, it is true, for
though Ariadne was a strong, healthy child, who spent most of her time,
her grandmother complained, in sleeping, to Lydia's more intimate
contact with the situation there seemed to be more things to be done for
the baby, in addition to the usual cares of housekeeping, than could
possibly be crowded into twenty-four hours. And yet she was happier
during those six months than ever before in her life; happier than she
had ever dreamed anyone could be. She stepped about incessantly from one
task to another and was very tired at night, but there was no nervous
strain on her, and she had no moments of blasting skepticism as to the
value of her labors.

Everything she did, even the most menial tasks connected with the baby,
was dignified, to her mind, by its usefulness; and she so systematized
and organized her busy days that she was always ahead of her work. Paul
was obliged to alter his judgment of her as impractical and
incapable--although of course the dearest and sweetest of little
wives--for nothing could have been more competent than the way she
managed her baby and her simple housekeeping. Indeed, there came to the
young husband's mind not infrequently, and always with a slight aroma of
bitterness, the conviction that Lydia was perfectly able to do whate