Chapter 13

[_Time, eight o'clock A.M. In the background nurse making bed, etc.; Girl of Two amusing herself surreptitiously with pins, buttons, scissors, etc.; Girl of Eight practising piano in adjoining room; Mrs. A. in foreground performing toilet of infant. Having lain awake half the preceding night wrestling with the plot of a new novel for which rival publishers are waiting with outstretched hands (full of checks), Mrs. A. believes she has hit upon an effective scene, and burns to commit it to paper. Washes infant with feverish haste._]

_Mrs. A._ (_soliloquizing_). Let me see! How was it? Oh! "Olga raised her eyes with a sweetly serious expression. Harold gazed moodily at her calm face. It was not the expression that he longed to see there. He would have preferred to see--" Good gracious, Maria! That child's mouth is full of buttons! "He would have preferred--preferred--" (_Loudly._) Leonora! That F's to be sharped! There, there, mother's sonny boy! Did mamma drop the soap into his mouth instead of the wash-bowl? There, there! (_Sings._) "There's a land that is fairer than this," etc.

[_Infant quiet._

_Mrs. A._ (_resuming_). "He would have preferred--preferred--" Maria, don't you see that child has got the scissors? "He would have--" There now, let mamma put on its little socks. Now it's all dressed so nice and clean. Don'ty ky! No, don'ty! Leonora! Put more accent on the first beat. "Harold gazed moodily into--" His bottle, Maria! Quick! He'll scream himself into fits!

[_Exit nurse. Baby having got both fists into his mouth beguiles himself into quiet._

_Mrs. A._ Let me see! How was it? Oh! "Harold gazed moodily into her calm, sweet face. It was not the expression he would have liked to find there. He would have preferred--" (_Shriek from girl of two._) Oh, dear me! She has shut her darling fingers in the drawer! Come to mamma, precious love, and sit on mamma's lap, and we'll sing about little pussy.

_Enter nurse with bottle. Curtain falls._