And back of that again was the woman who had not wanted
children. There were many men to-day who were feeling the
selfishness of a woman at home, men who had lost, somehow, their
pride, their feeling of being a part of great things. Men who went
home at night to comfortable dwellings, with no vacant chair at
the table, and dined in a peace they had not earned.
Natalie had at least given him a son.
He took that thought home with him in the evening. He stopped at
a florist's and bought a great box of flowers for her, and sent them
into her room with a little note,
"Won't you let me come in and try to comfort you?"
But Madeleine brought the box out again, and there was pity in her
eyes.
"Mrs. Spencer can not have them in the room, sir. She says the
odor of flowers makes her ill."
He knew Madeleine had invented the excuse, that Natalie had simply
rejected his offering. He went down-stairs, and made a pretense
of dining alone in the great room.
It was there that Audrey's daily cable found him.
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