Starting Married Life

The final Friday evening of the month, she stopped at the post
office and carried away with her the bill for her Leghorn hat,
mailed with nicely conceived estimate as to when her first check
would be due. Kate visited the Trustee, and smiled grimly as she
slipped the amount in an envelope and gave it to the hack driver
to carry to Hartley on his trip the following day. She had
intended all fall to go with him and select a winter headpiece
that would be no discredit to her summer choice, but a sort of
numbness was in her bones; so she decided to wait until the coming
week before going. She declined George's pressing invitation to
go along to Aunt Ollie's and help load and bring home a part of
his share of their summer's crops, on the ground that she had some
work to prepare for the coming week.

Then Kate went to her room feeling faint and heavy. She lay there
most of the day, becoming sorrier for herself, and heavier every
passing hour. By morning she was violently ill; when she tried to
leave her bed, dizzy and faint. All day she could not stand.
Toward evening, she appealed to George either to do something for
her himself, or to send for the village doctor. He asked her a
few questions and then, laughing coarsely, told her that a doctor
would do her no good, and that it was very probable that she would
feel far worse before she felt better. Kate stared at him in dumb
wonder.