"It shan’t be much longer, Mrs. Mallory. I gaze upon his head now." This was the first birth for Mrs. Mallory, and Hermione had been helping the woman for  hours  . It wasn’t that she had anything against helping women birth their babes. In fact, at only sixteen years of age , Hermione had helped her Aunt Lindsay deliver over three hundred babes. But Mr. Mallory was intolerably rude.  May she rest in His arms , Hermione thought as she always did when she remembered her late aunt.