The Mother

AND NOW SHE WAS ALONE. It came over her in a daze that he was truly gone. Here she was with the three children and the old woman, and he gone! At first she was angry, but in the dark night, in the silence of the closed room, her anger went out of her and she was afraid. If he did not come back what would she do, a lone woman and young? The bed was enormous, empty, and suddenly there fell upon her the hottest longing for that man of hers.