"Just how did it happen?" she queried.
"It began with Mrs. Blondon's violent opposition to children; when she
knew a child was coming she practically moved in with us, and spent hours
pitying her daughter, sending for a doctor at each inevitable consequence,
keeping up an exciting rush of friends coming when the girl should have
had quiet and rest, treating me with contempt, and daily holding me up as
the monster responsible for all these things. The result was nervousness
and discontent bred by such a course at such a time, until it amounted to
actual pain, and lastly unlimited money with which to indulge every fancy.
"In such circumstances delivery became the horror they made of it,
although several of the doctors told me privately not to have the
slightest alarm; it was simply the method of rich selfish women to make
such a bugbear of childbirth a wife might well be excused for refusing to
endure it. Sifted to the bottom that was _exactly what it was_. I didn't
know until the birth of James that they had neglected to follow the
instructions of their doctors and made no preparation for nursing the
child; as a result, when I insisted that it must be done, shrieks of pain,
painful enough as I could see, resulted in a nervous chill for the mother,
more inhumanity in me, and the boy was turned over to a hired woman with
his first breath and to begin unnatural life.
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