le flat where he was
to look upon his dead, he was calm to the point of listlessness. "My own
fault. My own fault," he said.

She was waiting for him on the landing, her fresh cleanness in fragrant
contrast to the forlorn untidiness of the stairways. They went into her
parlor together and he began to speak at once.

"I got your letter. No; I won't sit down. I--"

"My soul and body! You're all in!" Lily said, startled, "Let me get you
some whisky--"

"No, please, nothing! Lily, I'm ... awfully sorry, I--I'll do what I can.
I--"

She put her hands over her face; he went on mechanically, with his
carefully prepared sentences, ending with:

"There's no reason why we should meet any more. But I want you to know
that the--the--_it_, will be taken care of. My lawyer will see you about
it; I'll have it placed somewhere."

She dropped her hands and looked at him, her little, pretty face amazed
and twitching: "Do you mean you'll take my baby?"

"I'll see that it's provided for."

"I ain't that kind of a girl!" They were standing, one on either side of
a highly varnished table, on which, on a little brass tray, a cigarette
stub was still smoldering. "_I_ don't want anything out of you"--Lily
paused; then said, "Mr. Curtis"--(the fact that she didn't call him
"Curt" showed her recognition of a change in their relationship)--"I'm
not on the grab. I can keep on at Marston's for quite a bit. All I want
is just if you can help me in February? But I'll never give my baby up!
My first one died."

"Your _first_--"

"So I'll never, never give it up!" Her shallow, honest, amber-colored
eyes overflowed with bliss. "I'll just love it!" she said.

Maurice felt an almost physical collapse; neither he nor Henry Houghton
had reckoned on maternal love. Mr. Houghton had implied that Lily's kind
did not have maternal love. "She'll leave it on a convenient
doorstep--unless she's a white blackbird," Henry Houghton had said.
Maurice, too, had taken for granted Lily's eagerness to get rid of the
child. In his amazement now, at this revelation of an unknown Lily--a
white blackbird Lily!--he began, angrily, to argue: "It is impossible
for you to keep it! Impossible! I won't permit it--"

"I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world! I'll take care of it.
You needn't worry for fear I'll put it onto you."

"But I won't have you keep it! I promise you I'll look after it. You
must go away, somewhere. Anywhere!"

"But I don't want to le