d
pal, Nicholas Long, and his wife, who are manifestly not going to church.
I can discern on Nick's face, as we pass, an expression which is half
sardonic, half pitiful. Evidently he has not forgotten my quondam
oft-repeated vow that no child of mine should be taught the orthodox
fairy tales in unlearning which I had spent some of the best years of my
life. And now I am a recreant, and he who aided and abetted me in my
asseverations of independence remains faithful. Yes, but Nick, poor
fellow, has no children. His grin seems to say, "See what you are
missing, poor old patriarch; Dorothy and I are off for a ten-mile tramp
in the country."

Yet, despite his apparent jubilation of spirit, I detect a longing
expression in Dorothy's eyes and I notice that she steals a second glance
over her tailor-made shoulder at little Winona, our youngest, who is an
uncommonly pretty child, if I do say it.

"There go a light-hearted, honest couple with the courage of their
convictions," I remark to Josephine, tentatively. "Before the sermon has
begun they will be on the river and they will come home delightfully
tired just in time for dinner."

"Light-hearted? I believe, Fred, that they are both perfectly
miserable," she exclaimed, with a sweeping glance of pride at her
progeny. "I was thinking just before you spoke how much I pitied that
woman."

I can remember as if it were yesterday Nick Long telling me with bubbling
ecstasy, shortly after he was engaged, that his lady-love had a clear,
analytical mind, almost like a man's. "No nonsense about her," he said.
"She sees things just as they are." I rather got the impression at the
time that he intended thereby to insinuate gently but plainly that he was
a far luckier dog than I who had married a woman with a mind
conspicuously feminine. I should like very much to know whether, if
Dorothy were to be blessed with children after all, Nick would have to go
to church.

Not only have I lost moral courage in the matter of some of my deepest
convictions, but I notice also with consternation that my physical
bravery is ebbing away as my years increase. I have drawn the line, for
example, squarely and tautly on burglars. One night not very long since
I was awakened by noise and, after listening, I came to the conclusion
that it proceeded from housebreakers. I slipped out of bed stealthily
and put my ear to the bolted chamber door in order to confirm my
conviction. My movements a