She was
so small and dainty that the ruggedness which had once been his pride
seemed to him, when he thought of her, an insuperable defect. The
conviction that he was a roughneck deepened in him and tied his tongue.
The defection of Mrs. Porter was a gradual affair. From a very early
period in the new regime she had been dissatisfied. Accustomed to rule,
she found herself in an unexpectedly minor position. She had definite
views on the hygienic upbringing of children, and these she imparted to
Ruth, who listened pleasantly, smiled, and ignored them.
Mrs. Porter was not used to such treatment. She found Ruth considerably
less malleable than she had been before marriage, and she resented the
change.
Kirk, coming in one afternoon, found Ruth laughing.
"It's only Aunt Lora," she said. "She will come in and lecture me on
how to raise babies. She's crazy about microbes. It's the new idea.
Sterilization, and all that. She thinks that everything a child touches
ought to be sterilized first to kill the germs. Bill's running awful
risks being allowed to play about the studio like this."
Kirk looked at his son and heir, who was submitting at that moment to
be bathed. He was standing up. It was a peculiarity of his that he
refused to sit down in a bath, being apparently under the impression,
when asked to do so, that there was a conspiracy afoot to drown him.
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