ep waters of love.
It was the least of these feelings that found expression.

"How did he take it?"

"Rushed away. The only thing I feel sure of is that he won't divorce
me."

"No, by George; I don't suppose even he would have that impudence!" And
Winton was silent, trying to penetrate the future. "Well," he said
suddenly, "it's on the knees of the gods then. But be careful, Gyp."

About noon, Betty returned from the sea, with a solemn, dark-eyed, cooing
little Gyp, brown as a roasted coffee-berry. When she had been given all
that she could wisely eat after the journey, Gyp carried her off to her
own room, undressed her for sheer delight of kissing her from head to
foot, and admiring her plump brown legs, then cuddled her up in a shawl
and lay down with her on the bed. A few sleepy coos and strokings, and
little Gyp had left for the land of Nod, while her mother lay gazing at
her black lashes with a kind of passion. She was not a child-lover by
nature; but this child of her own, with her dark softness, plump
delicacy, giving disposition, her cooing voice, and constant adjurations
to "dear mum," was adorable. There was something about her insidiously
seductive. She had developed so quickly, with the graceful roundness of
a little animal, the perfection of a flower. The Italian blood of her
great-great-grandmother was evidently prepotent in her as yet; and,
though she was not yet two years old, her hair, which had lost its baby
darkness, was already curving round her neck and waving on her forehead.
One of her tiny brown hands had escaped the shawl and grasped its edge
with determined softness. And while Gyp gazed at the pinkish nails and
their absurdly wee half-moons, at the sleeping tranquillity stirred by
breathing no more than a rose-leaf on a windless day, her lips grew
fuller, trembled, reached toward the dark lashes, till she had to rein
her neck back with a jerk to stop such self-indulgence. Soothed,
hypnotized, almost in a dream, she lay there beside her baby.

That evening, at dinner, Winton said calmly:

"Well, I've been to see Fiorsen, and warned him off. Found him at that
fellow Rosek's." Gyp received the news with a vague sensation of alarm.
"And I met that girl, the dancer, coming out of the house as I was going
in--made it plain I'd seen her, so I don't think he'll trouble you."

An irresistible impulse made her ask:

"How was she looking, Dad?"

Winton smiled grimly. How to convey h