COMMUTER'S WIFE 65 



by Karen's asking him to have a new front door put 

 to their apartments, because in going in the present 

 door the kitchen was seen in reaching the parlour. 



Aunt Lot always insisted that father was to blame 

 for yielding the point, but that is neither here nor 

 there. 



Callers began to drop in at the Schmidts' at all 

 times of day, wash days and all, in direct defiance 

 of country custom, and we often noticed that Peter, 

 instead of sitting down to a hot meal, carried his 

 dinner outside and ate it alone in one of the sheds, 

 or, in warm weather, under a tree. 



Next I discovered that the callers were people for 

 whom Karen was doing cheap dressmaking in order 

 to obtain more money to "live like Americans." 

 Lace curtains appeared in the windows in due course, 

 and before long a parlour organ was bought and 

 squeezed in at the new front door, though not one 

 of the family could as much as whistle a tune. 



Peter worked steadily on, growing more silent day 

 by day, and clinging closer to the companionship of 

 the little boy, who was merry as ever. Once father 

 asked Peter the cause of the change in his home life 

 and if he was content. But he only looked from 

 right to left like a dumb animal in pain, and did not 

 answer. One October night, shortly after this, as 



