He seemed not to want to stay at home at all; and Billy knew now for a certainty that he was spending more and more time with Bob Seaver and "the boys." Poor Billy! Nowhere could she look these days and see happiness.

Even the adored baby seemed, at times, almost to give an added pang.

Had he not become, according to the "Talk to Young Wives" that awful thing, a _Wedge_?
The Annex, too, carried its sting; for where was the need of an overflow house for happiness now, when there was no happiness to overflow?
Even the little jade idol on Billy's mantel Billy could not bear to see these days, for its once bland smile had become a hideous grin, demanding, "Where, now, is your heap plenty velly good luckee ?" But, before Bertram, Billy still carried a bravely smiling face, and to him still she talked earnestly and enthusiastically of his work--which last, as it happened, was the worst course she could have pursued; for the one thing poor Bertram wished to forget, just now, was--his work..