He was not only the perfect husband but the son of her old age.
She had lost Ballinger and Geary in her comparative youth, and Tom was
rarely in the house when she visited Rincona. But Mortimer was as devoted
to her in the little ways so appreciated by women of any age as he was to
his wife, and he was noiseless in the house and as prompt as the clock.
During her illness his devotion touched even Mrs. Abbott, although Mrs.
Groome was the only member of the family he ever won over.
VI
Poor Morty. In a way he was a failure, after all. The men of her set did
not seem to care any more for him than they did before her marriage,
although they were always polite and amiable; and the promise of those old
family friends to throw business in his way seemed to be forgotten as time
went on.
No doubt they had thought he was able to stand on his own feet after a
while, but he had often looked depressed during the panic of nineteen-seven
and the long period of business drought that had followed. Still, he had
managed to hold his own, and his constitutional optimism was unshaken. He
_knew_ that when times changed he would soon be a rich man, and Alexina
shared his faith. Not that she had ever cared particularly for great
wealth, but he talked so much about it that he had excited her imagination;
after all money was the thing these days, no doubt of that, and she had
heard "poor talk" all her life and was tired of it.
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