"Oh, Bertram, it _is_, it is the best work you have ever done." Billy was looking at the baby. Always she had ignored herself as part of the picture. "And won"t it be fine for the Exhibition!"
Bertram"s hand tightened on the chair-back in front of him. For a moment he could not speak. Then, a bit huskily, he asked:
"Would you dare--risk it?"
"Risk it! Why, Bertram Henshaw, I"ve meant that picture for the Exhibition from the very first--only I never dreamed you could get it so perfectly lovely. _Now_ what do you say about Baby being nicer than any old "Face of a Girl" that you ever did?" she triumphed.
And Bertram, who, even to himself, had not dared whisper the word exhibition, gave a tremulous laugh that was almost a sob, so overwhelming was his sudden realization of what faith and confidence had meant to Billy, his wife.
If there was still a lingering doubt in Bertram"s mind, it must have been dispelled in less than an hour after the Bohemian Ten Club Exhibition flung open its doors on its opening night. Once again Bertram found his picture the cynosure of all admiring eyes, and himself the center of an enthusiastic group of friends and fellow-artists who vied with each other in hearty words of congratulation. And when, later, the feared critics, whose names and opinions counted for so much in his world, had their say in the daily press and weekly reviews, Bertram knew how surely indeed he had won. And when he read that "Henshaw"s work shows now a peculiar strength, a sort of reserve power, as it were, which, beautiful as was his former work, it never showed before," he smiled grimly, and said to Billy:
"I suppose, now, that was the fighting I did with my good left hand, eh, dear?"
But there was yet one more drop that was to make Bertram"s cup of joy brim to overflowing. It came just one month after the Exhibition in the shape of a terse dozen words from the doctor. Bertram fairly flew home that day. He had no consciousness of any means of locomotion. He thought he was going to tell his wife at once his great good news; but when he saw her, speech suddenly fled, and all that he could do was to draw her closely to him with his left arm and hide his face.
"Why, Bertram, dearest, what--what is it?" stammered the thoroughly frightened Billy. "Has anything-happened?"
"No, no--yes--yes, everything has happened. I mean, it"s going to happen," choked the man. "Billy, that old chap says that I"m going to have my arm again. Think of it--my good right arm that I"ve lost so long!"
"_Oh, Bertram!_" breathed Billy. And she, too, fell to sobbing.
Later, when speech was more coherent, she faltered:
"Well, anyway, it doesn"t make any difference _how_ many beautiful pictures you p-paint, after this, Bertram, I _can"t_ be prouder of any than I am of the one your l--left hand did."
"Oh, but I have you to thank for all that, dear."
"No, you haven"t," disputed Billy, blinking teary eyes; "but--" she paused, then went on spiritedly, "but, anyhow, I--I don"t believe any one--not even Kate--can say _now_ that--that I"ve been a hindrance to you in your c-career!"
"Hindrance!" scoffed Bertram, in a tone that left no room for doubt, and with a kiss that left even less, if possible.
Billy, for still another minute, was silent; then, with a wistfulness that was half playful, half serious, she sighed:
"Bertram, I believe being married is something like clocks, you know, "specially at the first."
"Clocks, dear?"
"Yes. I was out to Aunt Hannah"s to-day. She was fussing with her clock--the one that strikes half an hour ahead--and I saw all those quant.i.ties of wheels, little and big, that have to go just so, with all the little cogs fitting into all the other little cogs just exactly right. Well, that"s like marriage. See? There"s such a lot of little cogs in everyday life that have to be fitted so they"ll run smoothly--that have to be adjusted, "specially at the first."
"Oh, Billy, what an idea!"
"But it"s so, really, Bertram. Anyhow, I know my cogs were always getting out of place at the first," laughed Billy. "And I was like Aunt Hannah"s clock, too, always going off half an hour ahead of time. And maybe I shall be so again, sometimes. But, Bertram,"--her voice shook a little--"if you"ll just look at my face you"ll see that I tell the right time there, just as Aunt Hannah"s clock does. I"m sure, always, I"ll tell the right time there, even if I do go off half an hour ahead!"
"As if I didn"t know that," answered Bertram, very low and tenderly.
"Besides, I reckon I have some cogs of my own that need adjusting!"