yance, and the well-meaning lady had to
apologise, to admit the absence of 'luxuries', the homeliness of their
diet, the unmistakable atmosphere of plain living and high thinking.

She remained for nearly a month, greatly enjoying herself. Late in
autumn, Alma begged her to come again, and this time the visit lasted
longer; for in the first week of December the house received a new
inhabitant, whose arrival made much commotion. Alma did not give birth
to her son without grave peril. Day after day Harvey strode about the
wintry shore under a cloud of dread. However it had been with him a
year ago, he was now drawn to Alma by something other than the lures of
passion; the manifold faults he had discerned in her did not seriously
conflict with her peculiar and many-sided charm; and the birth of her
child inspired him with a new tenderness, an emotion different in kind
from any that he had yet conceived. That first wail of feeblest
humanity, faint-sounding through the silent night, made a revolution in
his thoughts, taught him on the moment more than he had learnt from all
his reading and cogitation.

It seemed to be taken as a matter of course that Alma would not nurse
the baby; only to Harvey did this appear a subject for regret, and he
never ventured to speak of it. The little mortal was not vigorous; his
nourishment gave a great deal of trouble; but with the coming of spring
he took a firmer hold on life, and less persistently bewailed his lot.
The names given to him were Hugh Basil. When apprised of this, the
strong man out in Australia wrote a heart-warming letter, and sent with
it a little lump of Queensland gold, to be made into something, or kept
intact, as the parents saw fit. Basil Morton followed the old
tradition, and gave a silver tankard with name and date of the new
world-citizen engraved upon it.

Upon her recovery, Harvey took his wife to Madeira, where they spent
three weeks. Alma's health needed nothing more than this voyage; she
returned full of vitality. During her absence Mrs. Frothingham
superintended the household, the baby being in charge of a competent
nurse. It occurred to Harvey that this separation from her child was
borne by Alma with singular philosophy; it did not affect in the least
her enjoyment of travel. But she reached home again in joyous
excitement, and for a few days kept the baby much in view. Mrs
Frothingham having departed, new visitors succeeded each other: Dora
and Gerda Leac