Her husband had been only too
eager to give her anything she desired. Consideration of the cost of
things had seemed to her beneath her notice, and as the concern of the
providing man rather than the thoughtful American wife and mother. After
she had been divorced the difficulty in supplying herself readily with
money had been a dismaying incident of her single life. Dismaying
because it had seemed to her a limitation unworthy of her aspirations
and abilities. She had married Littleton because she believed him her
ideal of what a man should be, but she had been glad that he would be
able to support her and exempt her from the necessity of asking what
things cost.
By the end of their first year and a half of marriage, Selma realized
that this necessity still stood, almost like a wolf at the door, between
her and the free development of her desires and aspirations. New York
prices were appalling; the demands of life in New York still more so.
They had started house-keeping on a more elaborate scale than she had
been used to in Benham. As Mrs. Babcock she had kept one hired girl; but
in her new kitchen there were two servants, in deference to the desire
of Littleton, who did not wish her to perform the manual work of the
establishment.
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