ontaneous growth of a father's love? What claim had
devilish cruelty and treachery to any share in their result--a result
that, after all, was the only compensation possible to their victim?

We do not make this endeavour to describe Rosalind's frame of mind
with a view to either endorsing or disclaiming her opinions. We merely
record them as those of a woman whose life-story was an uncommon one;
but not without a certain sympathy for the new definition of paternity
their philosophy involves, backed by a feeling that its truth is
to some extent acknowledged in the existing marriage-law of several
countries. As a set-off against this, no woman can have a child
entirely her own except by incurring what are called "social
disadvantages." The hare that breaks covert incurs social
disadvantages. A happy turn of events had shielded Rosalind from
the hounds, or they had found better sport elsewhere. And her child
was her own.

But even as the thought was registered in her mind, that child lay
lifeless; and her husband, stunned and dumb in his despair, dared not
even long that she, too, should know, to share his burden.

"Those people are taking their time," said she. Not that she was
pressingly anxious for them to come home. It was early still, and the
more Gerry lived in the present the better. Sally and her lover were
far and away the best foreground for the panorama of his mind just
now, and she herself would be quite happy in the middle distance.
There would be time and enough hereafter, when the storm had subsided,
for a revelation of all those vanished chapters of his life in Canada
and elsewhere.

It was restful to her, after the tension and trial of the night, to
feel that he was happy with Sally and poor Prosy. What did it really
matter how long they dawdled? She could hear in anticipation their
voices and the laughter that would tell her of their coming. In a very
little while it would be a reality, and, after all, the pleasure of a
good symposium over Sally's betrothal was still to come. She and Gerry
and the two principals had not spoken of it together yet. That would
be a real happiness. How seldom it was that an engagement to marry
gave such complete satisfaction to bystanders! And, after all, _they_
are the ones to be consulted; not the insignificant bride and
bridegroom elect. Perhaps, though, she was premature in this case.
Was there not the Octopus? But then she remembered with pleasure
that Conrad had r