Then, the birth of the boy, and Kitty's passionate, ungovernable recoil
from the deformity that showed itself almost immediately after his
birth--a form of infantile paralysis involving a slight but incurable
lameness. Lady Tranmore could recall weeks of remorseful fondling,
alternating with weeks of neglect; continued illness and depression on
Kitty's part, settling after a while into a petulant melancholy for
which the baby's defect seemed but an inadequate cause; Ashe's tender
anxiety, his willingness to throw up Parliament, office, everything,
that Kitty might travel and recover; and those huge efforts by which she
and his best friends in the House had held him back--when Kitty, it
seemed, cared little or nothing whether he sacrificed his future or not.
Finally, she herself, with the assistance of a new friend of Kitty's,
had become Kitty's nurse, had taken her abroad when Ashe could not be
spared, had watched over her, and humored her, and at last brought her
back--so the doctors said--restored.
Was it really recovery? At any rate, Lady Tranmore was often inclined to
think that since the return to London--now about a twelvemonth
since--both she and William had had to do with a different Kitty.
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