which must take place between the two.
Nolan Doyle was not at home, but in the room where they were shown to
Norah was a cradle. Norah was rocking it with one foot while, standing
by the table, she busied herself with sewing.

The introduction was of the briefest. "Monsieur Barbille wishes a
word with you, Mrs. Doyle," said the Young Doctor. "It's a matter that
doesn't need me. Monsieur has been in my care, as you know.... Well,
there, I hope Nolan is all right. Tell him I'd like to see him to-morrow
about the bay stallion and the roans. I've had an offer for them.
Good-bye--good-bye, Mrs. Doyle"--he was at the door--"I hope you
and Monsieur Barbille will decide what's best for the child without
difficulty."

The door opened quickly and shut again, and Jean Jacques was alone with
the woman and the child. "What's best for the child!"

That was what the Young Doctor had said. Norah stopped rocking the
cradle and stared at the closed door. What had this man before her, this
tramp habitant of whom she had heard, of course, to do with little
Zoe in the cradle--her little Zoe who had come just when she was most
needed; who had brought her man and herself close together again after
an estrangement which neither had seemed able to prevent.

"What's best for the child!" How did the child in the cradle concern
this man? Then suddenly his name almost shrieked in her brain.
Barbille--that was the name on the letter found on the body of the woman
who died and left Zoe behind--M. Jean Jacques Barbille.

Yes, that was the name. What was going to happen? Did the man intend to
try and take Zoe from her?

"What is your name--all of it?" she asked sharply. She had a very fine
set of teeth, as Jean Jacques saw mechanically; and subconsciously
he said to himself that they seemed cruel, they were so white and
regular--and cruel. The cruelty was evident to him as she bit in two
the thread for the waistcoat she was mending, and then plied her needle
again. Also the needle in her fingers might have been intended to sew
up his shroud, so angry did it appear at the moment. But her teeth had
something almost savage about them. If he had seen them when she was
smiling, he would have thought them merely beautiful and rare, atoning
for her plain face and flat breast--not so flat as it had been; for
since the child had come into her life, her figure, strangely enough,
had rounded out, and lines never before seen in her contour appeared.

He b