ogitations as to what the
probable effect of a child would be. Eugene needed something of this
sort to balance him. His position in the world was too tenuous, his
temperament too variable. A child--a little girl, she hoped, for he
always liked little girls and made much of them--would quiet him. If she
could only have a little girl now!

Some two months before her illness, while Eugene was becoming, all
unsuspected by her, so frenzied about Suzanne, she had relaxed, or
rather abandoned, her old-time precautions entirely, and had recently
begun to suspect that her fears, or hopes, or both, were about to be
realized. Owing to her subsequent illness and its effect on her heart,
she was not very happy now. She was naturally very uncertain as to the
outcome as well as to how Eugene would take it. He had never expressed a
desire for a child, but she had no thought of telling him as yet, for
she wanted to be absolutely sure. If she were not correct in her
suspicions, and got well, he would attempt to dissuade her for the
future. If she were, he could not help himself. Like all women in that
condition, she was beginning to long for sympathy and consideration and
to note more keenly the drift of Eugene's mind toward a world which did
not very much concern her. His interest in Suzanne had puzzled her a
little, though she was not greatly troubled about her because Mrs. Dale
appeared to be so thoughtful about her daughter. Times were changing.
Eugene had been going out much alone. A child would help. It was high
time it came.

When Suzanne had started coming with her mother, Angela thought nothing
of it; but on the several occasions when Suzanne called during her
illness, and Eugene had been present, she felt as though there might
easily spring up something between them. Suzanne was so charming. Once
as she lay thinking after Suzanne had left the room to go into the
studio for a few moments, she heard Eugene jesting with her and laughing
keenly. Suzanne's laugh, or gurgling giggle, was most infectious. It was
so easy, too, for Eugene to make her laugh, for his type of jesting was
to her the essence of fun. It seemed to her that there was something
almost overgay in the way they carried on. On each occasion when she was
present, Eugene proposed that he take Suzanne home in his car, and this
set her thinking.

There came a time when, Angela being well enough from her rheumatic
attack, Eugene invited a famous singer, a tenor, who h