essed her handsome face close to the little,
elfish, even evil face of the child, and kissed it. Then the baby
smiled a fatuous, toothless smile, and he also was transformed; his
little glory of infancy seemed to illuminate the face marked with the
labors and sins and degradation of his progenitors. The other
Hungarian woman, who had with her one child, older than the baby,
very large and heavy, caught it up and kissed it with fervor, and the
child stared at her in return with a sort of patient wonder. Then the
two women exchanged smiles of confidence. Carroll watched,
remembering Amy with their children. She had been very charming with
the children, and, after all, there was not such a difference as
might appear at first. The thought flashed into Carroll's mind that
here was a little, universal well-spring of human nature which was
good to see, but the deadly pessimism and despair of his own mood
made him straightway corrupt the spring with his own dark conclusions.

"What is it all for?" he asked himself, bitterly. "Look at the
handsome alien creature there, with four young around her, and the
other with that unresponsive little brat. Any one of those children,
from the looks of their faces, is capable, if left to its own
unguided proclivities, of murdering the very parent who is now
caressing him; any one of them is hardly capable of doing anything in
life for his own good or happiness, or the good and happiness of the
world, if left to himself, as he will be. What does either of those
women know about training a child with those features, a child
distorted from birth?"

Beyond Carroll, on the same seat, sat two quite pretty young girls
with smart hats, and protuberant pompadours over pink-and-white
faces. They had loosened their coats, revealing coquettish neckwear.
They sat with feet crossed, displaying embroidered petticoats, at
which now and then the Hungarian women glanced with the hopeless
admiration with which one might view crown jewels. The two girls
covertly now and then reached forward their pretty heads and regarded
Carroll with half-bold, half-innocent coquettishness, but he did not
notice it. One whispered to the other how handsome he was, and did
she know who he was.

A rumble and jar became audible, and the New Sanderson car came up at
right angles on the track on the other road. The two cars connected.
Then passengers alighted from the New Sanderson car and entered the
waiting one. There was a di