"
"Why did you make yourself so ill? Tell me that."
"Such a preposterous question!" she replied, but she was startled and
frightened by it and more so by the anger in John's face and voice. In a
moment the truth flashed upon her consciousness and it roused just as
quickly an intense contradiction and a willful determination not only to
stand her ground but to justify her position.
"If this is your catechism, John, I have not yet learned it."
"Sit down, Jane. You must tell me the truth if it takes all the day. You
had better sit down."
Then she threw herself into the large easy chair he pushed towards her;
for she felt strangely weak and trembling and John's sorrowful, angry
manner terrified her.
"Jane," he said, "I have heard to my great grief and shame that it is
your fault we have no more children."
"I think Martha is one too many." At the moment she uttered these words
she was sorry. She did not mean them. She had only intended to annoy
John.
And John cried out, "Good God, Jane.
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