And as for her being soft and spoiled!  Never was there a more tireless and hard-working creature.  From early morning till late at night she was never idle.  She was a perfect human dynamo of force and energy.  The cooking and washing for the ‘family’ which, now that Nora was here, consisted of six persons, four of whom were men with the appetites which naturally come with a long day’s work in the open air, in itself was no light task.  But, by way of recreation, after the supper dishes had been washed up, Gertie darned socks, mended shirts, patched trousers for the men folk or sewed on some garment for herself.  Nora longed to see her sit with folded hands just once.

That she was as devoted to her husband as he to her there could be no doubt.  All other men were a matter of complete indifference to her.  Were they good workers or shirkers?  That was the only thing about them of any interest.  But she was not the sort of woman to show tenderness or affection.

Eddie had apparently the greatest respect for her judgment in all matters pertaining to the running of the farm.  Frequently in the evenings they sat together in the far corner of the living room, Eddie talking in a low voice, while Gertie, always at her eternal sewing, listened with close attention, often nodding her head in approval, but occasionally shaking it vehemently when any project failed to meet with her approbation.  Occasionally her sharp bird-like glance flashed over the other occupants of the room:  at the three men yarning lazily by the big stove or playing cards at the dining table and at Nora making a pretense of reading a six-months-old magazine, or writing, her portfolio on her knee.  Always, when Nora encountered that glance, she understood its exultant message.

“Look, you,” it said as plainly as if it had been couched in actual words, “look at me ruling over my little court, advising, as a queen might, with her prime minister.  You think yourself my superior, you with your fine-lady’s airs and graces!  A pretty pass your education and accomplishments have brought you to.  Of what use are you to anyone?”

There was no blinking the fact:  the antagonism between the two women was too instinctive, too deep ever to be more than superficially covered over.  They each recognized it.  And yet neither was wholly to blame.  It had its roots in conditions that were far more significant than mere personal feeling.

Nora, for her part, had come to her brother’s house with the sincere intention of doing everything in her power to win her sister-in-law’s good will if not affection.  She had believed that their common fondness for Eddie would be a sure foundation on which to build.  But from the first, without being at all conscious of it, her manner breathed patronage and disapproval of a mode of life so foreign to all her experience.  She had made the resolution to remember nothing of Gertie’s humble origin, to treat her in every way with the deference due her brother’s wife.