our baby will do that readily enough."

On another occasion he laughed suddenly to himself and explained his
amusement to Sabina, who sat by him.

"Eunominus, the heretic, boasted that he knew the nature of God;
whereupon St. Basil instantly puzzled him with twenty-one questions
about the body of the ant!"

Estelle also tried to make Mr. Churchouse discuss Abel Dinnett. She told
him of an interesting fact.

"I have got Ray to promise a big thing," she said. "He hesitated, but he
loved me too well to deny me. Besides, feeling as I do, I couldn't take
any denial. You see Nature is so much greater than all else to me, and
contrasted with her, our little man-made laws, often so mean and hateful
in their cowardly caution and cruel injustice, look pitiful and beneath
contempt. And I don't want to come between Raymond and his eldest son. I
won't--I won't do it. Abel is his first-born, and it may be cold-blooded
of me--Ray said it was at first--but I insist on that. I've made him
see, and I've made father see. I feel so much about it, that I wouldn't
marry him if he didn't recognize Abel first and treat him as the
first-born ought to be treated."

"Abel--Abel Dinnett," said the other, who had not followed her speech.
"A good-looking boy, but lawless. He wants the world to bend to him; and
yet, if you'll believe me, there is a vein of fine sentiment in his
nature. With tears in his eyes he once told me that he had seen a fellow
pupil at school cruelly killing insects with a burning glass; and he had
beaten the cruel lad and broken his glass. That is all to the good. The
difficulty for him is that he was born out of wedlock. This great
disability could have been surmounted in America, Scotland, Ireland,
Germany, or, in fact, anywhere but in England. The law of the natural
child in this country would bring a blush to the cheek of a gorilla.
But neither Church nor State will lift a finger to right the infamy."

"We are always wanting to pluck the mote out of our neighbour's eyes,
and never see the beam in our own," she answered. "Women will alter that
some day--and the disgusting divorce laws, too. Perhaps these are the
first things they will alter, when they have the power."

"Who is going into Parliament?" he asked. "Somebody told me, but I
forget. He was a friend of mine. I remember that much."

"Ray hopes to get in. I am going to help him, if I can."

"It is a great responsibility. Tell him, if he is elected, to fight