“Then you must mind where you put your hand,” said her father.

Anna was rather indignant that they took the tragedy of her young married life with such equanimity.

“You love the man right enough,” said her father, wrinkling his forehead in distress. “That's all as counts.”

“I do love him, more shame to him,” she cried.

“I want to tell him — I've been waiting for four days now to tell him — — ” her face began to quiver, the tears came. Her parents watched her in silence. She did not go on.

“Tell him what?” said her father.

“That we're going to have an infant,”