just to realize what life meant, and what she could do to make it
nearer her dreams.

So the first five years of their marriage slipped by, but toward the
end with a perceptible brightening of the prospect in every
direction. Not in one day, nor in one week, did the change come; it
was just that things went well for Jim at the office, that the
children were daily growing less helpless and more enchanting, that
Anne was beginning to take an interest in the theatre again, and was
charming in a new suit and a really extravagant hat. The Warriners
began to spend their Sunday afternoons with real estate agents in
Berkeley--not this year, perhaps, but certainly next, they told each
other, they could CONSIDER that lovely one, with the two baths, and
such a view, or the smaller one, nearer the station, don't you
remember, Jim? where there was a sleeping-porch, and the garden all
laid out? They would bring the children up in the open air and
sunshine, and find neighbors, and strike roots, in the lovely
college town.

Then suddenly, there were hard times again. Anne's health became
poor, she was fitful and depressed, quite unlike her usual sunshiny
self. Sometimes Jim found her in tears,--"It's nothing, dearest!
Only I'm so MISERABLE all the time!" Sometimes she--Anne, the
hopeful!--was filled with forebodings for herself and the child that
was to come. No unnecessary expense could be incurred now, with this
fresh, inevitable expense approaching. Especial concessions must be
made to Helma, should Helma really stay; the whole little household
was like a ship that shortens sail, and makes all snug against a
storm. As a further complication, business matters began to go badly
for Jim. Salaries were cut, new rules made, and an unpopular manager