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Bliss and Other Stories

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Nurse sat at a low table giving Little B her supper after her bath. The baby had on a white flannel gown and a blue woollen jacket, and "her dark, fine hair was brushed up into a funny little peak. She looked up when she saw her mother and began to jump.

" Now, my lovey, eat it up like a good girl," said Nurse, setting her lips in a way that Bertha knew, and that meant she had come into the nursery at another wrong moment.

" Has she been good, Nanny ? "

" She's been a little sweet all the afternoon," page 119 whispered Nanny. " We went to the park and I sat down on a chair and took her out of the pram and a big dog came along and put its head on my knee and she clutched its ear, tugged it. Oh, you should have seen her."

Bertha wanted to ask if it wasn't rather dangerous to let her clutch at a strange dog's ear. But she did not dare to. She stood watching them, her hands by her side, like the poor little girl in front of the rich little girl with the doll.

The baby looked up at her again, stared, and then smiled so charmingly that Bertha couldn't help crying:

" Oh, Nanny, do let me finish giving her her supper while you put the bath things away."

" Well, M'm, she oughtn't to be changed hands while she's eating," said Nanny, still whispering. " It unsettles her ; it's very likely to upset her."

How absurd it was. Why have a baby if it has to be kept—not in a case like a rare, rare fiddle— but in another woman's arms ?

" Oh, I must! " said she.

Very offended, Nanny handed her over.

" Now, don't excite her after her supper. You know you do, M'm. And I have such a time with her after ! "

Thank heaven ! Nanny went out of the room with the bath towels.

" Now I've got you to myself, my little precious," said Bertha, as the baby leaned against her.

page 120

She ate delightfully, holding up her lips for the spoon and then waving her hands. Sometimes she wouldn't let the spoon go ; and sometimes, just as Bertha had filled it, she waved it away to the four winds.

When the soup was finished Bertha turned round to the fire.

" You're nice—you're very nice ! " said she, kissing her warm baby. " I'm fond of you. I like you."

And, indeed, she loved Little B so much—her neck as she bent forward, her exquisite toes as they shone transparent in the firelight—that all her feeling of bliss came back again, and again she didn't know how to express it—what to do with it.

" You're wanted on the telephone," said Nanny, coming back in triumph and seizing her Little B.