She bent down and kissed him with trembling lips--"Ach!--you make me all
wet," Jacky said, frowning at her tears on his rosy cheek.

Later, as Maurice pulled his reluctant son out on to the pavement, he
was so moved that he almost forgot that she was still the old Eleanor;
he didn't even listen to his little boy's passionate assertion that he
would be a flying-trapeze man. As he walked along beside his wife to put
her on the car he spoke with great tenderness:

"I'll leave him at Lily's, and then I'll come right home, dear, and
we'll talk things over."

When he and his son got back to Maple Street, Jacky was blowing that
infernal horn so that the whole neighborhood was aware of his ecstasy.
Lily, waiting for them at the gate, put her hands over her ears.

"My soul and body! For the land's sake, stop! Who give you that horrid
thing?"

"An old lady," said Jacky--and blew a shattering screech on Eleanor's
horn.

CHAPTER XXIX

From the day of the circus, Jacky became, to Eleanor, not a symbol of
Maurice's unfaithfulness, but a hope for the future. The thought of his
mother was only the scar of a wound, which Maurice, in some single
slashing moment, had made in her heart. She was crippled by it, of
course. But the wound had healed so she could forget the scar--because
Maurice had never loved Lily, never found her "interesting," never
wanted to wander about with _her_, in a dark garden, and talk

Of shoes--and ships--and sealing wax--
And cabbages--and kings ...

To be sure the scar ached dully once in a while; but Eleanor knew that
if she could get possession of Jacky she would be protected against
other wounds--wounds which would never heal! She said to herself that
Maurice would never think of Edith Houghton if he had Jacky! But how
should she get Jacky?

For months she revolved countless schemes to persuade Lily to resign
him; schemes so futile that Maurice, listening to them every night when
he got home from the office, was touched, of course; but by and by he
was also a little uneasy. He had told her where Lily lived, then
regretted it, for once she walked up and down before the house on Maple
Street for an hour, hoping to see "the woman," but failing, because Lily
and Jacky happened to be in town that afternoon.

"I have a great mind to steal him for you!" she said, telling Maurice of
her fruitless effort.

He protested, too disturbed at her mere presence on Lily's street to
notice her attempt