to analyze his motives. He could not put into words his
feeling that to do for the welfare of this orphaned and unwelcome little
creature all that they would have done for their own was in some sort a
memorial to him, and brought them nearer to him--that she might find in
it a satisfaction, an occupation--that it might serve to fill her empty
life, her empty arms.

But no! She thought, and the neighbors thought, and after a time Tyler
Sudley came to think also, that he had failed in the essential duty
to the dead--that of affectionate remembrance; that he was recreant,
strangely callous. They all said that he had seemed to esteem one baby
as good as another, and that he was surprised that his wife was not
consoled for the loss of her own child because he took it into his head
to go and toll off the Yerby baby from his father's half-brothers "ez
war movin' away an' war glad enough ter get rid o' one head o' human
stock ter kerry, though, _bein human_, they oughter been ashamed ter gin
him away like a puppy-dog, or an extry cat, all hands consarned."

From the standpoint she had taken Laurelia had never wavered. It was
an added and a continual reproach to her husband that all the labor and
care of the ill-advised acquisition fell to her share. She it was who
must feed and clothe and tend the gaunt little usurper; he needs must
be accorded all the infantile prerogatives, and he exacted much time and
attention. Despite the grudging spirit in which her care was given she
failed in no essential, and presently the interloper was no longer gaunt
or pallid or apprehensive, but grew pink and cherubic of build, and
arrogant of mind. He had no sensitive sub-current of suspicion as to his
welcome; he filled the house with his gay babbling, and if no maternal
chirpings encouraged the development of his ideas and his powers of
speech, his cheerful spirits seemed strong enough to thrive on their own
stalwart endowments. His hair began to curl, and a neighbor, remarking
on it to Laurelia, and forgetting for the moment his parentage, said,
in admiring glee, twining the soft tendrils over her finger, that Mrs.
Sudley had never before had a child so well-favored as this one. From
this time forth was infused a certain rancor into his foster-mother's
spirit toward him. Her sense of martyrdom was complete when another
infant was born and died, leaving her bereaved once more to watch this
stranger grow up in her house, strong and hearty, and