hered it, had I
attempted before," continued Barbara, still laughing. "I have been here
long enough, and am quite rested. Talking about smothering children,
what accounts have we in the registrar-general's weekly returns of
health! So many children 'overlaid in bed,' so many children 'suffocated
in bed.' One week there were nearly twenty; and often there are as
many as eight or ten. Mr. Carlyle says he knows they are smothered on
purpose."

"Oh, Mrs. Carlyle!"

"I exclaimed, just as you do, when he said it, and laid my hand over his
lips. He laughed, and told me I did not know half the wickedness of the
world. Thank you," again repeated Mrs. Carlyle, taking her child from
Lady Isabel. "Is she not a pretty baby? Do you like the name--Anne?"

"It is a simple name," replied Lady Isabel; "and simple names are always
the most attractive."

"That is just what Archibald thinks. But he wanted this child's to be
Barbara. I would not have had it Barbara for the world. I remember
his once saying, a long, long while ago that he did not like elaborate
names; they were mouthfuls; and he instanced mine and his sister's, and
his own. I recalled his words to him, and he said he may not have liked
the name of Barbara then, but he loved it now. So we entered into a
compromise; Miss Baby was named Anne Barbara, with an understanding that
the first name is to be for use, and the last for the registers."

"It is not christened?" said Lady Isabel.

"Only baptized. We should have had it christened before now, but for
William's death. Not that we give christening dinners; but I waited for
the trial at Lynneborough to be over, that my dear brother Richard might
stand to the child."

"Mr. Carlyle does not like christenings made into festivals," Lady
Isabel dreamily observed, her thoughts buried in the past.

"How do you know that?" exclaimed Barbara, opening her eyes.

And poor Madame Vine, her pale face flushing, had to stammer forth some
confused words that she had "heard so somewhere."

"It is quite true," said Barbara. "He has never given a
christening-dinner for any of his children, and gets out of attending
if invited to one. He cannot understand the analogy between a solemn
religious rite and the meeting together afterward to eat and drink and
make merry, according to the fashion of this world."

As Lady Isabel quitted the room, young Vane was careering through the
corridor, throwing his head in all directions, and calling out