And on one thing I was determined -- they should never take my wife from me . No restraint sterner than a husband 's loving hand should ever be put upon her , my pretty , piteous darling . I never spoke of the dream-child to her . The doctor advised against it . It would , he said , only serve to deepen the delusion . When he hinted at an asylum I gave him a look that would have been a fierce word for another man . He never spoke of it again . One night in August there was a dull , murky sunset after a dead , breathless day of heat , with not a wind stirring . The sea was not blue as a sea should be , but pink -- all pink -- a ghastly , staring , painted pink . I lingered on the harbor shore below the house until dark . The evening bells were ringing faintly and mournfully in a church across the harbor . Behind me , in the kitchen , I heard my wife singing . Sometimes now her spirits were fitfully high , and then she would sing the old songs of her girlhood . But even in her singing was something strange , as if a wailing , unearthly cry rang through it . Nothing about her was sadder than that strange singing . When I went back to the house the rain was beginning to fall ; but there was no wind or sound in the air -- only that dismal stillness , as if the world were holding its breath in expectation of a calamity . Josie was standing by the window , looking out and listening . I tried to induce her to go to bed , but she only shook her head . `` I might fall asleep and not hear him when he called , '' she said . `` I am always afraid to sleep now , for fear he should call and his mother fail to hear him . ''
Knowing it was XXXXX no use to entreat , I sat down by the table and tried to read .
against as by for in of on than until with