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times were going to spread to Europe. Did Lanny think so? Lanny said he surely did, and told

how he had argued the matter with his father. Maybe the money values which had been wiped out

in Wall Street were just paper, as so many declared; but it was paper that you had been able to

spend for anything you wanted, including steamship tickets and traveler's checks. Now you

didn't have it, so you didn't spend it. Lanny and his wife could have named a score of people

who had braved the snow and sleet of New York the past winter and were glad if they had the

price of meal tickets.

Jerry said he'd been hard up more than once, and could stand it again. He'd have to let his

office force go, and he and Cerise would do the work. Fortunately they had their meal tickets,

for they still lived in the Pension Flavin, owned and run by the wife's mother and aunt. "You'll

have to take me fishing some more and let me carry home the fish," said the ex-tutor; and

Lanny replied: "Just as soon as I know Irma's all right, we'll make a date." The moment he said

this his heart gave a jump. Was he ever going to know that Irma was all right? Suppose her heart

was failing at this moment, and the nurses were frantically trying to restore it!

VIII

The surgeon arrived at last: a middle-aged Englishman, smooth-shaven, alert, and precise; his

cheeks were rosy from a "workout" in the sunshine followed by a showerbath. He had talked

with the head nurse over the telephone; everything was going excellently. Lanny could

understand that a surgeon has to take his job serenely; he cannot suffer with all his patients;

whatever others may do, he has to accept la nature and her ways. He said he would see Mrs.

Budd and report.

Lanny and his friend resumed their discussion of depressions and their cause. Lanny had a

head full of theories, derived from the Red and Pink papers he took. Jerry's reading was

confined mostly to the Saturday Evening Post and the Paris edition of the New York Tribune;

therefore he was puzzled, and couldn't figure out what had become of all the money that people

had had early in October 1929, and where it had gone by the end of that month. Lanny explained

the credit structure: one of those toy balloons, shining brightly in the sunshine, dancing merrily

in the breeze, until someone sticks a pin into it. Jerry said: "By heck, I ought to study up on

those things!"

The surgeon reappeared, as offensively cheerful as ever. Mrs. Budd was a patient to be

proud of; she was just the way a young woman ought to keep herself. The "bearing-down

pains," as they were called, might continue for some little time yet. Meanwhile there was

nothing to be done. Lanny was dismayed, but knew there was no use exhibiting his feelings; he too

must maintain the professional manner. "I'll be within call," said the surgeon. "You might as

well get it off your mind for a while." Lanny thanked him.

After the surgeon had gone, Jerry said: "When do we eat?" Lanny wanted to say that he

couldn't eat, but he knew that Jerry was there for the purpose of making him change his mind. It

was dinner-hour at the Pension Flavin, and Jerry recited a jingle to the effect that he knew a

boarding-house not far away where they had ham and eggs three times a day. "Oh, how those

boarders yell when they hear the dinner-bell!"—and so on. This was the sporting way to deal

with the fact that your mother-in-law runs a medium-priced pension in the most fashionable of

Riviera towns. Lanny knew also that he hadn't visited the Pendleton family for some time, and

that, having won the biggest matrimonial sweepstakes, it was up to him to show that he didn't

mean to "high-hat" his poor friends.

"All right," he said; "but I'll be glum company."

' The boarders know all about it," responded Jerry.

Indeed they did! Wherever the boarders came from and whatever they were, they knew about

the Budd family and felt themselves members of it. For sixteen years Jerry Pendleton had

been going fishing with Lanny Budd, and the boarders had eaten the fish. At the outset Jerry

had been a boarder like themselves, but after he had driven the Boches out of France he had

married the daughter of the pension. And then had come the time when another of the

boarders had married Lanny's mother; from that time on, the boarders had all regarded

themselves as Budds, and entitled to every scrap of gossip concerning the family.

IX

Driving back to the hospital, Lanny took the precaution to stop and purchase several

magazines, French, English, and American. He would equip himself for a siege, and if one

subject failed to hold his attention he would try others. Arriving at the reception-room, he

found that he was no longer alone; in one of the chairs sat a French gentleman, stoutish and

prosperous, betraying in aspect and manner those symptoms which Lanny recognized.

The stranger's misery loved company, and he introduced himself as an avocat from a near-by

town. It was his wife's first accouchement, and he was in a terrible state of fidgets and could

hardly keep his seat; he wanted to bother the nurses with questions every time one entered the

room. He seemed to Lanny absurdly naive; he actually didn't know about the "bearing-down

pains," that they were according' to the arrangements of la nature, and that women didn't very

often die of them. Speaking as a veteran of some ten hours, Lanny explained about the

stretching of tissues, and comforted the stranger as best he could. Later on, seeing that his

advice was without effect, Lanny became bored, and buried himself in the latest issue of the

New Statesman.

He would have liked very much to inquire whether there had been any change in the status

of his wife; but the egregious emotionalism of Monsieur Fouchard reminded him that the Budds

were stern Anglo-Saxons and should behave accordingly. He resolutely fixed his attention upon

an article dealing with the final reparations settlement of the World War, now more than

eleven years in the past, and the probable effects of that settlement upon the various nations

involved. This was a subject of interest to a young man who had been born in Switzerland of

American parents and had lived chunks of his life in France, Germany, England, and "the

States." His many friends in these countries belonged to the ruling classes and took political

and economic developments as their personal affairs.

The surgeon was a long time in returning, and Lanny began once more to feel himself a

defrauded client. He forgot that there are telephones, whereby an obstetrician can keep

informed as to his patient while reading the latest medical journal at home or playing a game of

billiards at his club. When the Englishman at last appeared, he informed the anxious husband

that the time for action was approaching, and that Mrs. Budd would soon be taken to the

delivery-room. After that Lanny found it impossible to interest himself in what L'illustration

had to report about the prospects for the spring Salons—important though this subject was to

one who earned his living by buying or selling works of art on commission.

There was no use trying to be Anglo-Saxon any longer. Better give up and admit the

hegemony of mother nature. Lanny put down his magazine and watched Monsieur Fouchard

pacing the floor of the reception-room, and when Monsieur Fouchard sat down and lighted a

cigarette, Lanny got up and did the pacing. Meanwhile they talked. The Frenchman told about

his wife; she was only nineteen, her charms were extraordinary, and Monsieur Fouchard spared

no details in describing them. He wanted to tell the whole story of their courtship and marriage,

and was grateful to a stranger for listening.

Lanny didn't tell so much; nor was it necessary. Monsieur Fouc hard had heard the surgeon

call him by name, and was aware who this elegant young American must be. He had read about

Irma Barnes, and began to talk as if he were an old friend of the family, indeed as if he were about

to take charge of Irma's convalescence and the nursing of her infant. Lanny, who had grown up

in France, knew that it wasn't worth while to take offense; much better to be human. They would

set up a sort of temporary association, a League of Husbands in Labor. Others might be joining

them before the night was over.

X

The accoucheuse of Madame Fouchard arrived, a Frenchwoman; she succeeded in persuading

the husband that it would be a long time before the blessed event could take place, so that

gentleman bade his fellow league-member a sentimental farewell. Lanny answered a call from

his mother and reported on the situation; after pacing the floor some more, he sat down and tried

to put his mind upon an account of a visit to the hanging monasteries of Greece. He had seen

them as a boy, but now wouldn't have cared if all the monks had been hanged along with the

monasteries. He simply couldn't believe that a normal delivery could take so long a time. He

rang the bell and had a session with the night head nurse, only to find that she had learned the

formulas. "Tout va bien, monsieur. Soyez tranquille."

Lanny was really glad when the door opened and a lady was escorted in, obviously in that

condition in which ladies enter such places. With her came a French gentleman with a dark

brown silky beard; Lanny recognized him as a piano-teacher well known in Cannes. The lady

was turned over to the nurse's care, and the gentleman became at once a member of Lanny's

league. Inasmuch as Lanny was a pianist himself, and had a brother-in-law who was a violin

virtuoso, the two might have talked a lot of shop; but no, they preferred to tell each other how

long they had been married, and how old their wives were, and how they felt and how their

wives felt. This confrontation with nature in the raw had reduced them to the lowest common

denominator of humanity. Art, science, and culture no longer existed; only bodies, blood, and

babies.

Lanny would listen for a while, and then he would cease to hear what the bearded Frenchman

was saying. Lanny was walking up and down the floor of the reception-room, with beads of

perspiration standing oat upon his forehead. Oh, God, this surely couldn't be right! Something

dreadful must be happening in that delivery-room, some of those things which the

encyclopedia told about: a failure of the mother's heart, the breaking of the "waters," or one of

those irregular presentations which occur in varying percentages of cases. Manifestly, if the

accoucheur had encountered trouble, he wouldn't come running out to tell the expectant

father; he'd be busy, and so would the nurses. Only when it was all over would anyone break

the tragic news; and then Lanny would never be able to forgive himself.

A serious defect in the practical arrangements of this hospice de la misere! There ought to be

some system, a telephone in the delivery-room, a bulletin board, a set of signals! It is a problem

which calls for collective solution; the opening of a paternity hospital, a place for expectant

fathers, where they may receive proper care! Nurses will have some time for them. Attendants

will consider their feelings, and give them information—perhaps lectures on the subject of