age and John entered the room. Jinny made him a sign, and John, now
Commissioner of Trade and Customs, advanced as lightly as could be
expected of a heavy, well-grown man.

"Does she sleep?" he asked.

His eyes had flown to the child; only in the second place did they rest
on his wife. At the sight of her free and easy bearing his face
changed, and he said stiffly: "I think, Jane, a little less exposure of
your person, my dear...."

Flushing to her hair-roots, Jinny began as hastily as she dared to
re-arrange her dress.

Mary broke a lance on her behalf. "We were quite alone, John," she
reminded her brother. "Not expecting a visit from you." And added:
"Richard says it is high time Baby was weaned. Jinny is feeling the
strain."

"As long as this rash continues I shall not permit it," answered John,
riding rough-shod over even Richard's opinion. ("I shouldn't agree to
it either, John dear," murmured Jinny.) "And now, Mary, a word with you
about the elder children. I understand that you are prepared to take
Emma back--is that so?"

Yes, Mary was pleased to say Richard had consented to Trotty's return;
but he would not hear of her undertaking Johnny. At eleven years of age
the proper place for a boy, he said, was a Grammar School. With Trotty,
of course, it was different. "I always found her easy to manage, and
should be more than glad to have her"; and Mary meant what she said.
Her heart ached for John's motherless children. Jinny's interest in
them had lasted only so long as she had none of her own; and Mary, who
being childless had kept a large heart for all little ones, marvelled
at the firm determination to get rid of her stepchildren which her
sister-in-law, otherwise so pliable, displayed.

Brother and sister talked things over, intuitively meeting half-way,
understanding each other with a word, as only blood relations can.
Jinny, the chief person concerned, sat meekly by, or chimed in merely
to echo her husband's views.

"By the way, I ran into Richard on Specimen Hill," said John as he
turned to leave the room. "And he asked me to let you know that he
would not be home to lunch."

"There... if that isn't always the way!" exclaimed Mary. "As sure as I
cook something he specially likes, he doesn't come in. Tilly sent me
over the loveliest little sucking-pig this morning. Richard would have
enjoyed it."

"You should be proud, my dear Mary, that his services are in such
demand."

"I am, John--no one co