consulted them casually about this matter at the club, and they had all
been running about at a year old.

I made this nurse the following offer: If she would bring the dilatory
boy to my rooms and leave him there for half an hour I would look at
him. At first Mary, to whom the offer was passed on, rejected it with
hauteur, but presently she wavered, and the upshot was that Irene,
looking scornful and anxious, arrived one day with the perambulator.
Without casting eyes on its occupant, I pointed Irene to the door: "In
half-an-hour," I said.

She begged permission to remain, and promised to turn her back, and so
on, but I was obdurate, and she then delivered herself of a passionately
affectionate farewell to her charge, which was really all directed
against me, and ended with these powerful words: "And if he takes off
your socks, my pretty, may he be blasted for evermore."

"I shall probably take off her socks," I said carelessly to this.

Her socks. Do you see what made Irene scream?

"It is a girl, is it not?" I asked, thus neatly depriving her of
coherent speech as I pushed her to the door. I then turned round to--to
begin, and, after reflecting, I began by sitting down behind the hood of
his carriage. My plan was to accustom him to his new surroundings before
bursting on the scene myself.

I had various thoughts. Was he awake? If not, better let him
wake naturally. Half-an-hour was a long time. Why had I not said
quarter-of-an-hour? Anon, I saw that if I was to sit there much longer I
should have said an hour, so I whistled softly; but he took no notice.
I remember trying to persuade myself that if I never budged till Irene's
return, it would be an amusing triumph over Mary. I coughed, but still
there was no response. Abruptly, the fear smote me. Perhaps he is not
there.

I rose hastily, and was striding forward, when I distinctly noticed a
covert movement somewhere near the middle of the carriage, and heard a
low gurgle, which was instantly suppressed. I stopped dead at this sharp
reminder that I was probably not the only curious person in the room,
and for a long moment we both lay low, after which, I am glad to
remember, I made the first advance. Earlier in the day I had arranged
some likely articles on a side-table: my watch and chain, my bunch of
keys, and two war-medals for plodding merit, and with a glance at these
(as something to fall back upon), I stepped forward doggedly, looking
(I fear now) a l