first day what they should call each other. It seemed
to Stephen Lorimer that it was hardly fair to the gentleman who had
stayed so largely at The Office to have his big little daughter and his
tiny sons calling his successor Father or Dad, and _Papa_ with all its
shades and shifts of accent left him cold. "Let's see, Honor.
'Stepfather' as a salutation sounds rather accusing, doesn't it?
'Step-pa,' now, is less austere, but----"

"Oh, Stephen, _dear_!" They were not consulting Mrs. Lorimer at all.

"I've got it! It's an inspiration! 'Stepper!' Neat, crisp, brisk. Means,
if any one should ask you, 'Step-pa' and also, literally, stepper; a
stepper; one who steps--into another's place."

"_Stephen_----"

"Well, haven't I, my dear?" He considered the three young Carmodys,
nine, seven, and five. "Steps yourselves, aren't you? Honor's the top
step and----"

"Oh, Stepper, call me Top Step! I like that."

"Right. And Billy's Bottom Step and Ted's the Tweeny! Now we're all
set!"

"Yes," said Honor, contentedly. She herded her little brothers out of
the room and came back alone. "But--what'll I tell people you _are_?"

"Why, I think," he considered, "you're young enough and trusting enough
to call me A Writer."

"I mean, are you Muzzie's step-husband, too?"

It was the first time she had seen the lightness leave his eyes. "No.
_No._ I am your moth--I am her husband. There is no step there." He got
up and walked over to where his wife was sitting and towered over her.
He was a tall man and he looked especially tall at that moment. "Her
plain--husband. Extremely plain, as it happens"--he was himself again
for an instant--"but--_her husband_." It seemed to the child that he had
forgotten which one of them had asked him the question and was
addressing himself to her mother by mistake. He seemed at once angry and
demanding and anxious, and she had never seen her mother so pink.
However, her question had been answered and she had affairs of her own.
She went away without a backward glance so she did not see her
stepfather drop to his knees beside the chair and gather the quiet woman
roughly into his arms, nor hear his insistent voice. "Her husband. The
_first--husband--she--ever had. Say it, Mildred. Say it._"

And now Honor was thirteen and a half, and tardily ready for High
School, and there were three little Lorimers, twins and a six months'
old single. Stephen Lorimer, who had been a singularly footloose world
rover,