Baird's were the wives and mothers in their equally distracting homes.

Which were more tense, the husbands or wives?
And, good Lord, what was it all about, this feverish strain of getting and spending?
What were they spending?
Their very life's blood.

And what were they getting?
Happiness?
What did most of them know of real happiness?
How little they knew, how blind they were, and yet how they laughed and chattered along, how engrossed in their little games.

What children, oh, what children! "And am I any better than the rest?
Do I know what I'm after--what I'm about ?" He left them soon, for he felt very tired.

He went to his daughter to say good-night.