herself upon me, as many other
women would have done."

"I should not think that was at all her character," said Warrender.

"No, I don't suppose it is her character; and then there were already
two of her, so to speak,--that child----"

"The only thing I dislike in her," he said hastily, "is that child. What
good can a creature of that age do her? And it must be so bad for the
boy."

"I don't know about the good it can do her. You don't any of you
understand," Mrs. Warrender said, with a moistening of her eyes, "the
good there is in a child. As young people grow up they become more
important, no doubt,--oh yes, far more important,--and take their own
place. But a little thing that belongs to you, that has no thoughts but
what are your thoughts, that never wants to be away from you----"

"Very unnatural," said the young man severely, "or else fictitious. The
little thing, you may be sure, would much rather be playing with its own
companions; or else it must be an unhealthy little sentimental----"

Mrs. Warrender shook her head, but said no more. She gave him a look
half remonstrating, half smiling. I had a little boy once, it was on her
lips to say: but she forbore. How was the young man, beginning his own
individual career, thinking of everything in the world rather than of
such innocent consolation as can be given to a woman by a child, to
understand that mystery? She whose daughters, everybody said, must be
"such companions," and her son "such a support," looked back wistfully
upon the days when they were little children; but then she was an
unreasonable woman. She was roused from a little visionary journey back
into her own experiences by the sound of Theo's voice going on:--

"----should call and ask," he was saying. "She might want you. She must
want some one, and they say she has no relations. I think certainly you
should call and ask. Shall I order the brougham for you this afternoon?
I would drive you over myself, but perhaps, in the circumstances, it
would be more decorous----"

"It must be the brougham; if you think I ought to go so soon----"

"Well, mother, you are the best judge; but I suppose that if women can
be of any use to each other it must be at such a--at a time when other
people are shut out."

Mrs. Warrender was much surprised by his fervour: but she remembered that
her husband had been very punctilious about visiting, as men in the
country often are, the duty of keeping up all social