The Happy Years Author:Inez Haynes Gillmore Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III SYLVIA'S SISSIES IN some form or other, it was happening so often now, that Ernest Martin wondered why his wife did not get it. It was, he reflec... more »ted, a part of the angel quality in Sylvia's kindness that she never suspected others of unkindness. But Ernest, who had watched the situation grow, was becoming more and more sensitive to it—the more as he did not yet see what he could do. Sylvia's condition was in his opinion still serious. It circumscribed all his conversation with her. At this moment, for instance, he wondered if he dared tell her what had just happened. Coming into the train late, Ernest caught sight of his cousin Lora talking with Nella Todd. He started in their direction. Some people changing seats back of them held him an instant. It was then that he got it—from Lora, almost shouted to overcome the reverberation of the train shed. " Sylvia's sissies! " Lora said. " Well, I suppose that would be what some people would call them. But it seems to me they could find something better to do than to criticize such a sweet woman as Sylvia." Ernest retreated swiftly to the smoking-car without having greeted the ladies. " Sylvia's sissies! " The phrase still rang in his ear. He gazed fixedly out at the landscape so that he would not have to talk; a landscape rapidly retreating from the express in sliding, gliding, spirals of speed; a landscape so familiar that he did not even see it. " Sylvia's sissies ! " Ernest Martin was very proud of the boy twins that were Sylvia's contribution to their marriage. Husky babies—and blackly brunette—from the beginning, they had grown into sturdy dark-browed little lads, whose coloring contrasted amazingly with their mother's fairness. Mentally, he ran down the length of their short lives. Sylvia had taken...« less