Rose about
it; even before Frederica. And about the first thing she said was:

"Which do you want--a boy or a girl?"

Rose looked puzzled, then surprised. "Why," she said at last, "I don't
believe I know."

"It's funny about that," said Jane. "The one thing I was frightened
about--the first time, you know--was that it might be a girl. I think
Barry really wanted a girl, too. He does now, and we're going to try to
have one, though we can't rightly afford it. But I'm just primitive
enough--I'm a cave person, really--to have felt that having a girl, at
least before you had a boy, would be a sort of disgrace. Like the Hindoo
women in Kipling. But don't you really care?"

"Why, the queer thing is," said Rose, who had been in a daze ever since
Jane's first question, "that I hadn't thought of it as anything at all
but--It. Hardly that, really. I've known how miserable I've been, and
that there were things I must be careful not to do,--and, of course,
what was going to happen. But that when it was all over there'd be a
baby left,--a--a son or a daughter, why, that's ..."

Her surprise had carried her into a confidence that her budding
friendship for Jane was hardly ripe for, and she pulled up rather
suddenly. "I didn't know you had any children," she concluded, by way of
avoiding a further discussion of the marvel just then. "Are they here
with you now?"

Jane explained why they were not. They weren't babies any more, two
husky little boys of five and three, and they were rejoicing in the care
of a grandmother and a highly competent nurse. "One of those terribly
infallible people, you know. Oh, I don't like it. I get a night letter
every morning, and, of course, if one of them got the sniffles I'd be
off home like a shot. I'd like to be a regular domestic mother; not let
another soul but me touch them (Jane really believed this) but you see
we can't well afford it. Barry pays me five dollars a day for working
for him. I scout around and dig up material and interview people for
him--I used to be a reporter, you know. He'd have to hire somebody, and
it might better be me and keep the money in the family. Because the
nurse who takes my place doesn't cost near so much as that. All the
same, as I say, I don't half like it. You can preach the new stuff till
you're black in the face, but there's no job for a woman like taking
care of her own children."

Rose listened to all this, as well as to Jane's subsequent remarks, with