Part 21 (2/2)
”An' that is that we didn't get married quick enough. Just think. I've lost a whole week of this.”
Her eyes shone with grat.i.tude and happiness, and in her heart she solemnly pledged herself that never in all their married life would it be otherwise.
Supper finished, she cleared the table and began was.h.i.+ng the dishes at the sink. When he evinced the intention of wiping them, she caught him by the lapels of the coat and backed him into a chair.
”You'll sit right there, if you know what's good for you. Now be good and mind what I say. Also, you will smoke a cigarette.--No; you're not going to watch me. There's the morning paper beside you. And if you don't hurry to read it, I'll be through these dishes before you've started.”
As he smoked and read, she continually glanced across at him from her work. One thing more, she thought--slippers; and then the picture of comfort and content would be complete.
Several minutes later Billy put the paper aside with a sigh.
”It's no use,” he complained. ”I can't read.”
”What's the matter?” she teased. ”Eyes weak?”
”Nope. They're sore, and there's only one thing to do 'em any good, an'
that's lookin' at you.”
”All right, then, baby Billy; I'll be through in a jiffy.”
When she had washed the dish towel and scalded out the sink, she took off her kitchen ap.r.o.n, came to him, and kissed first one eye and then the other.
”How are they now. Cured?”
”They feel some better already.”
She repeated the treatment.
”And now?”
”Still better.”
”And now?”
”Almost well.”
After he had adjudged them well, he ouched and informed her that there was still some hurt in the right eye.
In the course of treating it, she cried out as in pain. Billy was all alarm.
”What is it? What hurt you?”
”My eyes. They're hurting like sixty.”
And Billy became physician for a while and she the patient. When the cure was accomplished, she led him into the parlor, where, by the open window, they succeeded in occupying the same Morris chair. It was the most expensive comfort in the house. It had cost seven dollars and a half, and, though it was grander than anything she had dreamed of possessing, the extravagance of it had worried her in a half-guilty way all day.
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