ysterics. I snaked
the boy off the lion's back and rapped on him for order. The
matron got busy with the others. In a jiffy it seemed as if they
had all begun to wail an' roar. I trembled when a maid opened the
door an' I saw Mrs. Bill comin' down the staircase. I wouldn't
have been surprised to have seen the bronze lion get up an' run.

[Illustration: Three days later I drove to the villa.]

"'The saints defend us!' exclaimed Mrs. Bill, in the midst of the
uproar.

"'They're not at their best,' I shouted, 'but here they are.'

"'Yes, I knew they were there,' said Mrs. Bill. 'This is the music
of which you were speaking the other day. Take them right around
to the old house, if you please. I'm sorry, but I must ask you to
excuse me this morning.'

"I succeeded in quellin' the tumult, and introduced the matron, who
received a nod an' a look that made a dent in her, an' away we went
around the great house, a melancholy, shuffling troop, now silent
as the grave. It looked dark for my little battalion with which I
had been hoping to conquer this world within the villa gates. They
were of the great army of the friendless.

"I asked Mrs. Hammond, the matron, to see that they did as little
damage as possible, and left them surrounded by every comfort.

"They had a telephone and unlimited credit at the stores, an' Mrs.
Hammond was a motherly soul of much experience with children, an' I
knew that I could trust her.

"I was to dine with the Warburtons later in the week, an' before I
entered the big house that evening I went around to the lodge. The
children were all well an' asleep in their beds, an' the matron
apparently happy an' contented. She said that Mrs. Bill had met
them in the grounds that day, an' she told how the little
three-year-old boy had exerted his charms upon my lady Warburton,
who had spent half an hour leading him through the gardens.

[Illustration: The boy had exerted his charms upon my lady
Warburton.]

"How beautiful he was lying asleep in his bed that evening!--his
face like the old dreams of Eros, with silken, yellow, curly locks
on his brow, an' long dark lashes, soft as the silk of the growing
corn, an' a red mouth, so wonderfully curved, so appealing in its
silence. Beneath it were teeth like carved ivory. Those baby lips
seemed to speak to me and to say: 'O man that was born of a woman,
and like me was helpless, give me your love or look not upon me!'

"But I could not he