Page:The Eleventh Virgin.pdf/32

to dust and wash dishes. I hate the new baby too. It only means that we’ll be tied down all afternoon so that we can’t run away together for picnics as we used to. Do you remember how all day long the Weiss girls had to take care of their baby brother?

“And mother’ll be more cranky and particular about things and there’ll be more work around the house with a kid. Oh, Damn!” She bit her lips to keep from crying.

“Well,” she said at last with a resignation which seemed very sweet to June—“well, there’s one comfort You and I’ll get noble, just like ‘Beulah,’ wheeling a carriage up and down the street and walking the floor with him and taking care of him while he's sick. Do you mind awfully having this baby come?”

“No!” June snapped at her, more from the intensity of emotion than from actual ill-temper. “That’s just one little worry.”

“Everything.” And June began to run wildly through the short grass till she was completely out of breath and Adele gasped as she caught up.

Arriving at the lake front, they clambered out on the breakwater which jutted like a pointed finger in the deadly calm water. Far out, on the very end, they sat among the rocks and listened to the water sobbing softly around the rotten wood. In a tiny