{{betlep098.png}}


Betty laughed but asserted that they "ought
to sometimes." "It's their business to take care
of their wives and if their wives are -- mistaken
-- to prove it to them. My father would say,
'Now, dear, this is all a mistake. You come
right along home with me and I'll explain it
to you!'"

"What if she wouldn't go?"

"Then he'd tell her that they must think of
the children first and that two people who
wanted to do the right thing ought to get along
somehow, even if they didn't love each other.
I've heard them both say that, about other
people."

"You asked me if I couldn't talk to my uncle.
I would only that Mother did when we first came
and told him all the cutting things my father
had said. Uncle just raved and was for a
legal separation right away, but my mother saw
she had gone too far and told him that they
would wait. My uncle called him a fortune
hunter; and he thought that about him anyway,
before they were married. They talked about
it that time in Milan."

Betty could imagine what sharp things must
have been said. She was quiet, thinking over
what Lucia had told her and Lucia stopped to
wipe her eyes again.


 [[98]]