Herman Wouk: The Winds of War

Victor Henry dropped in a chair, with a blankly startled look.

“Good news, I hope?” Janice asked. “He said you’d understand.”

“ ‘She’s all yours’ ? That’s the whole message?

“That’s it. He said he wouldn’t be in his office till noon, but he thought you’d want to know right away.”

“I see. Well, it’s pretty fair news. Is the coffee on?”

“Yes. Anna May will make you breakfast.”

“No, no, coffee’s all I want, thanks. Look Janice you’ll be passing by Western Union. Can you send Rhoda a cable for me?”

“Sure.”

Victor Henry reached for the memo pad by the telephone and scrawled: LETTER COMING AM FINE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT.

Glancing at the little sheet he handed her, Janice curved her mouth in an indulgent female grin.

“What’s the matter with that?” Pug said.

“How about ‘ Love’?”

“By all means. Thanks, Jan. You add that.”

When she left with the baby, he was on the telephone, trying to reach Commander, Cruisers Pacific. He responded to her farewell wave with a bleak preoccupied smile. Janice thought, closing the door on him, that nothing could be more like her austere, remote father-in-law than the little business of the cable. You had to remind this man that he loved his wife.