Part 2 (2/2)
”So it's all day with Philadelphia, is it?” I asked
”It's a sha a hell of a tied conscience, I tell you”
I heard little s at this time, a whole casket full, like a Hindu prince, and he toldher her choice of them
Suddenly he announced that it was ”all off” and that he was going to marry the eiven her down a sewer! At first he would confess nothing as to the reason or the details, but being so close to me it eventually came out Apparently, to the others as to myself, he had talked ood citizen idea He had talked it to his new love also, and she had syreed
Yet one day, after he had endowed her with the engageolf club, caht” She had been, mayhap was even then, ”intimate” with other h, as she insisted afterward, and willing to undertake the life he suggested, but she had not broken with the old atmosphere completely, or if she had it was still not believed that she had There were those who could not only charge, but prove A co note of some kind sent to some one was involved, turned over to Peter
”Dreiser,” he growled as he related the case to ht to know better I know the kind of woood wallop, and I deserve it I uessed that she wasn't suited to me She was really too free--a life-loverme because she liked h”
”But you loved her, I thought?”
”I did, or thought I did Still, I used to wonder too There wereabout this home and family idea, but I'm not It suits me, however flat it looks to you
I want to do that, live that way, go through the nor to do it”
”But how did you break it off with her so swiftly?” I asked curiously
”Well, when I heard this I went direct to her and put it up to her If you'll believe me she never even denied it Said it was all true, but that she was in love with e and be all that I wanted her to be”
”Well, that's fair enough,” I said, ”if she loves you You're no saint yourself, you know If you'd encourage her, ood”
”Well,his head ”She likes ht, now that she's had this other She'd mean to maybe, but she wouldn't I feel it about her And anyhow I don't want to take any chances I like her--I' to marry little Dutchy if she'll have me, and cut out this old-line stuff You'll have to stand up with ement was consummated and little Dutchy--or Zuleika, as he subsequently naht to Newark and installed, at first in a char aparthborhood, later in a small house with a ”yard,” lawn front and back, in one of the hohborhoods in Newark It was positively entertaining to observe Peter not only atte the role of the conventional husband, and exactly nine months after he had been married, to the hour, a father in this humble and yet, in so far as his particular home was concerned, comfortable world I have no space here for more than the barest outline I have already indicated his views, most emphatically expressed and forecasted He fulfilled them all to the letter, up to the day of his death In so far as I could make out, he made about as satisfactory a husband and father and citizen as I have ever seen He did it deliberately, in cold reason, and yet with a warmth and flare which puzzled ht Ito believe that it would work out, and yet if ever a hoenuinely ”happy” atmosphere, it was Peter's
”Here she is,” he observed the day he married her, ”me _frau_--Zuleika
Isn't she a peach? Ever see any nicer hair than that? And these here, now, pink cheeks? What? Look at 'em! And her little Dutchy nose! Isn't it cute? Oh, Dutchy! And right here in olden band ith I aht there on her finger is e of prospective serfdom” Then, in a loud aside toher Coh with this You have to swear to be my slave”
And so they were married
And in the home afterward he was as busy and helpful and noisy as any man about the house could ever hope to be He was always fussing about after hours ”putting up” so Zuleika wash and dry the dishes, or showing her how to cook so to the store or bringing hos from the don market Months before the first child was born he was declaring most shaoing to have our first calf The bones roll for a boy, but you never can tell I' up prayers and oblations--both of us are I ht And say, when it co it to sleep nights perht
I've worked out all the rules No trashy baby-foods Good old specially brewed Culmbacher for the mother, and the kid afterwards if it wants it
This is one faood old 'dichtig, wichtig' law and order”
I used to chuckle the while I verbally denounced him for his coarse, plebeian point of view and tastes
In a little while the child came, and to his immense satisfaction it was a boy I never saw a man ”carry on” so, make over it, take such a whole-souled interest in all those little things which supposedlyFor the first feeeks he still talked of not having it petted or spoiled, but at the sa, and by the end of that ti, almost ridiculously fond papa that I ever saays the child must be in his lap at the most unseemly hours, when his ould perh they kept aby hi better than to sit and hold it close, rocking in a rocking-chair A intolike a woolen ball At night if it stirred or whi And the baby-clothes!--and the cradle!--and the toys!--colored rubber balls and soldiers the first or second or third week!
”What about that stern discipline that was to be put in force here--no rocking, no getting up at night to coddle a weeping infant?”
”Yes, I know That's all good stuff before you get one I've got one of ht on this Say, Dreiser, take h the routine Don't try to escape Have a kid or two or three There's a psychic punch to it you can't get any other way
It's nature's way It's a great scheirl and your kid”
As he talked he rocked, holding the baby boy to his breast It onderful