Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/128

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116
SHEILA AND OTHERS

are times when the "monetary consideration" seems to me sufficiently ample without any sense of obligation thrown in.

Mrs. Willkit intimated that while there was no real necessity for it, a little extra pin-money never came amiss, and she could pick it up between times (referring to the sewing), whereat I perceived that Mr. Willkit was not to be apprised of this little excursion into the realms of commerce, and that his gentle wife was vicariously relieving whatever conscience-pricks she felt, by telling me. After all, there is something to be said for the confessional. When we commit our sense of guilt to words we give it wings with which to fly away.

Mrs. Willkit came quite often. She undertook to do some of the necessary shopping. She said she enjoyed getting out a little and I encouraged this view. Sometimes she was accompanied by a small daughter, the youngest of her four, who sat abnormally still, listening to our plans for cutting out blouses and decorating the same, with an apparent comprehension in her unblinking countenance that made me positively uneasy.

With the advent of Christmas, I naturally sent a trifling remembrance to this little girl