becca went on. 'It was nothing at all, you know. I thought he was a
man. There was me sitting in the tramcar with Rosa on my lap, three or
four years old, and he comes in by-and-bye and sits down opposite. And
Rosetta--you know how little girls will take a fancy to a
gentleman--Rosetta holds out her hands and smiles at him like a little
angel. He was leaning his hands on his stick and she reached out and
took hold of it and says 'la-la!' And I says 'see the nice gentleman's
stick,' and she gurgles 'la-la!' again. Cunning! What a bird she was!
And you'd think any human-made man 'ud give the duck a penny and say how
pretty she was. Not he. He sat there like a stone until I caught his eye
and bowed to him.'

"'Fancy that!' said Mr. Hank in some contempt. 'Because I told her he
was the doctor of the ship when Rosa was born, she thinks he's the
father and goes up to the Hotel Robinson and wants money. Clever woman!'

"'Well,' said Rebecca, 'you didn't have any more luck with your Mrs.
James. You got a flea in your ear there, didn't you? You had a great
idea _she_ was Rosa's mother.'

"'If you'd listened to what I told you, you'd never have run away with
the idea there was any money in the doctor for you. There was some sense
in what I did, because it would have cut both ways. But you would
interfere. You look surprised, Mister,' he said to me, chuckling.

"Of course, I was surprised. I sat there open-mouthed. It is
extraordinary how a man may become suddenly aware of unsuspected heights
and depths in human life. It may be that I have always been less
sophisticated than most. I am continually overlooking the shabbiness and
rascality of the world, I find, in spite of the early apprenticeship
which I served among business friends. I have often envied men this
alertness of mind, this ever-present consciousness of the obliquity of
human nature. And yet, I am not certain it is an enviable quality. I
have a suspicion that those who have it envy us who lack it. They seem
to have for us a half-contemptuous, half-respectful liking. So with
Rebecca. She patted my arm and said to her husband:

"'Let him alone. He's all right, is Rosa's sweetheart.'

"At that moment Rosa came in dressed to go out with me. She had a white
boa, I remember, and a white felt hat with a broad brim. She looked from
one to the other and then back at me. 'What's the matter?' she said.

"'Nothing; only saying we ought to think about getting settled soon,' I