nt?"

"Yes."

"To think of the poor young girls who'll never have husbands! I'm sure I
think it's dreadful."

"Yes," said Fort; "it's dreadful--" And then a voice from the doorway
said:

"Did you want Doctor and Mrs. Laird, sir? East Bungalow their address
is; it's a little way out on the North Road. Anyone will tell you."

With a sigh of relief Fort looked gratefully at the old lady who had
called Noel as pretty as life. "Good afternoon, ma'am."

"Good afternoon." The needles clicked, and little movements occurred at
the corners of her mouth. Fort went out. He could not find a vehicle,
and was a long time walking. The Bungalow was ugly, of yellow brick
pointed with red. It lay about two-thirds up between the main road and
cliffs, and had a rock-garden and a glaring, brand-new look, in the
afternoon sunlight. He opened the gate, uttering one of those prayers
which come so glibly from unbelievers when they want anything. A baby's
crying answered it, and he thought with ecstasy: 'Heaven, she is here!'
Passing the rock-garden he could see a lawn at the back of the house and
a perambulator out there under a holm-oak tree, and Noel--surely Noel
herself! Hardening his heart, he went forward. In a lilac sunbonnet she
was bending over the perambulator. He trod softly on the grass, and was
quite close before she heard him. He had prepared no words, but just
held out his hand. The baby, interested in the shadow failing across its
pram, ceased crying. Noel took his hand. Under the sunbonnet, which hid
her hair, she seemed older and paler, as if she felt the heat. He had no
feeling that she was glad to see him.

"How do you do? Have you seen Gratian; she ought to be in."

"I didn't come to see her; I came to see you."

Noel turned to the baby.

"Here he is."

Fort stood at the end of the perambulator, and looked at that other
fellow's baby. In the shade of the hood, with the frilly clothes, it
seemed to him lying with its head downhill. It had scratched its snub
nose and bumpy forehead, and it stared up at its mother with blue eyes,
which seemed to have no underlids so fat were its cheeks.

"I wonder what they think about," he said.

Noel put her finger into the baby's fist.

"They only think when they want some thing."

"That's a deep saying: but his eyes are awfully interested in you."

Noel smiled; and very slowly the baby's curly mouth unclosed, and
discovered his toothlessness.

"He's a darling," she said