ed, in quite a piteous
voice; "he is always with me now, and so good and quiet, only you
startled him so."

"Nonsense," he returned, decidedly; "your illness has made you
fanciful; surely I must know best what is good for my wife. Nurse, why
do you allow Lady Redmond to wear herself out with a crying child? it
can not be right in her weak state."

Fay gave up her baby without a word; she was too gentle to
remonstrate, but if he could have read her thoughts. "He does not care
for his child at all," she was saying bitterly to herself; and then
she was very quiet, and shielded her face with one hand. Sir Hugh was
rather uncomfortable; he knew he had been out of temper, and that he
was disappointing Fay, but he never guessed the stab that he had
inflicted when he had refused to take their boy in his arms.

"Well, Fay," he said, in rather a deprecating manner, "I meant to have
had a little talk with you, now that noisy fellow is gone; but you
seem sleepy, dear; shall I leave you to rest now, and come up again
after dinner?"

Fay uncovered her eyes and looked at him rather oddly, he thought, but
she made no answer. Hugh rose and looked at his watch, and repeated
his question.

"No," she said, very slowly; "do not trouble to come up again, Hugh. I
can not talk to you to-night; I shall be better quiet."

"There, I told you so," he cried, triumphantly. "I knew that little
rascal had tired you."

"My baby never tires me," she answered, wearily, and closed her eyes.
Oh, if she could only close them forever! But then she remembered how
terrible death had seemed to her in her illness--a pit of infinite
pain.

Hugh looked at her a little puzzled; his Wee Wifie was very much
altered, he thought; and then he kissed her two or three times with
some affection, and went to his dressing-room.

But when she heard him go down-stairs she rang for the nurse to bring
back her baby directly. The woman did not like her excited look, or
the fierce way she almost snatched him to her bosom.

"You had much better try and get a little sleep, my lady," she said,
kindly; but Fay only shook her head. It was not bed-time yet, she
said, but she would like to be quiet with her baby for a little. And
when nurse had gone to have a chat with Janet, she tottered from the
couch, and knelt down beside it, and laid her helpless arms about her
baby's neck, and wetted the white robe with her tears.

"It is all over, baby," she moaned; "he does not car