"
"Let them point!"
Sophy joined in the conversation. She said she knew that they were not
good enough for his relations; but she didn't mind. Let everybody keep
his own place and be content.
Anyhow, they had friends now, and lived together in harmony, which is
more than could be said of many properly constituted families. The tie
which held them together remained intact, but they were otherwise
unfettered. They continued being lovers without contracting any bad
matrimonial habits, as, for example, the habit of being rude to one
another.
After a year or two their union was blest with a son. The mistress had
thereby risen to the rank of a mother, and everything else was
forgotten. The pangs which she had endured at the birth of the baby,
and her care for the newly born infant, had purged her of her old
selfish claims to all the good things of the earth, including the
monopoly of her husband's love.
In her new role as mother she gave herself superior little airs with
her friend, and showed a little more assurance in her intercourse with
her lover.
One day the latter came home with a great piece of news. He had met
his eldest sister in the street and had found her well informed on all
their private affairs.
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