🎧 312: When Dr. Stickler ...

Chapter 10

In Which Herb and Lorna’s Daughter Is Born

WHEN DR. STICKLER gave them the news that Lorna was pregnant, Herb and Lorna felt, immediately, that this made everything just perfect — not that either wanted things to remain forever as they were, but each felt that for now, with a baby on the way, everything was perfect. But then Herb began to worry. He worried that Lorna might not want a child now, while they were living with the Mikszaths, while he was trying to make a start at Babbington Studebaker. More than anything else he wanted Lorna to be happy, and he thought that he had to make her happy. And then Lorna began to worry. She worried that Herb might not want a child now, while they were living with the Mikszaths, while she was working to make ends meet. She wanted him to be happy; she thought she had to make him happy.
     “Do you mind?” she asked when they were back at home.
     “Mind?” said Herb. “Mind! I’m overwhelmed! Overwhelmed with joy, I mean.”
     Overwhelmed, she thought. Overwhelmed by the idea of three of us living in this room?
     “Do you — do you mind?” Herb asked. He wondered whether her question was a way of asking whether he agreed that they’d be cramped with a baby.
     “Oh, Herb,” she said, “I love it. Her. I love her already.”
     “Her? You’re sure?”
     “I have a hunch.”
     “You won’t feel cramped here, Lorna?”
     “Not if you won’t.”
     “I won’t if you won’t.”
     “You will, won’t you?”
     “No! Oh, no. Not if you won’t.”
     “Are you being honest with me, Herb?”
     “I am. I am. You’re the one who isn’t.”
     “You want to move, don’t you?”
     “No! I don’t want to move. I think you want to move.”
     “And I think you want to move.”
     “All right, let’s move.”
     “Fine! If that’s what you want, let’s move.”
     “It isn’t what I want! It’s what you want. Why don’t you just admit it?”
     “I will not admit anything of the kind. You’re doing this because you want to move.”
     “Lorna, I’m doing this for you.”
     “I don’t want you to do it for me. I don’t want you to do anything for me. Not like this. I don’t want you giving anything up for me. Or for Ella.”
     “Ella?”
     “Ella.”
     “Ella. Hm. Ella.”
     “Do you like it?”
     “I — ”
     “You don’t like it.”
     “I do. I do like it. Ella Piper. It’s easy to say — that’s important. People remember your name if it’s easy to say, if it’s catchy. Ella Piper. It’s not short for anything, is it?”
     “Cinderella.”
     “You’re not going to call her — ”
     “No, no. Of course not. She’ll never even know. Only you and I will.”
     A pause.
     “You — you do want to move, don’t you?” said Herb.
     “You want to move!”
     “Only if you do.”

In Topical Guide 312, Mark Dorset considers Love: Demonstrations of: Deference, Complaisance, Munificence, Levitation from this episode.

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