She did not understand his financial abstrusities, and he did not trouble to make them clear.
But love, her pretty body, her lips, her quiet manner--the lure of all these combined, and his two children, when they came--two in four years--held him.

He would dandle Frank, Jr., who was the first to arrive, on his knee, looking at his chubby feet, his kindling eyes, his almost formless yet bud-like mouth, and wonder at the process by which children came into the world.

There was so much to think of in this connection--the spermatozoic beginning, the strange period of gestation in women, the danger of disease and delivery.

He had gone through a real period of strain when Frank, Jr., was born, for Mrs.Cowperwood was frightened.

He feared for the beauty of her body--troubled over the danger of losing her; and he actually endured his first worry when he stood outside the door the day the child came.