She was ignorant of the simplest things a mother needs to know, and never imagined her abstinence could hurt her baby.

So long as she went on nursing him, it was all the same, she thought.

He cried so much, that Tom made it a reason with himself, and indeed gave it as one to Letty, for not coming home at night: the child would not let him sleep; and how was he to do his work if he had not his night's rest?
It mattered little with semi-mechanical professions like medicine or the law, but how was a man to write articles such as he wrote, not to mention poetry, except he had the repose necessary to the redintegration of his exhausted brain?
The baby went on crying, and the mother's heart was torn.

The woman of the house said he must be already cutting his teeth, and recommended some devilish sirup.

Letty bought a bottle with the next money she got, and thought it did him good-because, lessening his appetite, it lessened his crying, and also made him sleep more than he ought.
At last one night Tom came home very much the worse of drink, and in maudlin affection insisted on taking the baby from its cradle.