no more waking in this world � she shivered and cried at the solemn black of the funeral � and looked like a poor weak little in her heavy mourning gown it was while she was yet in the state that richard first met her at the house of a mutual friend where she had been invited to stay for change and solace after her � and she had comforted herself with his love just as a small hurt might comfort itself in the arms of a kind protector it was delightful to find another man ready to pet and make much of her as her late father had done � it was all she wanted in life � and of the graver duties and of marriage she took no thought richard was kind and nice and not bad looking � richard had just got a living � and what was best of all richard was perfectly devoted � this was her own expression � perfectly devoted to her and gradually the effect of her father s death wore off � she forgot him more and more completely � till when her baby was bom a sudden rush of tender recollection flowed in upon her mind and she said with tears sparkling in her pretty eyes � eyes and expression of angel a who had read many of the books writ whose work his daughter had laughed whether his spirit had become re in t who already looked so wise beyond rs moved by this thought he one day express e that our will be as de our father was red a little cry of alarm hope not she said with delightful to be clever dick i you don t know h is i likes id woman do you want the boy to b t be a fool declared warmly � t i but i he won t be clever i if poor you would understand what i mean is really z pitiable object � he is dick � he always wants what he cannot get � and he s going wrong and he wants to put it right and cat t put it right � not in his because ev i to do it another � and oh � it s just aw the tragedy of a quiet life oh don t and covered her shell pink ears with her pretty white hands � i don t want to hear anything about mind and soul or imagination i want baby to be just � baby and so it was baby � at least for the present � remained baby � and it was only nurse who called him master nurse knew him better even than his parents and had become much impressed by his personal dignity this he showed in various ways of his own for example he disliked all dirty things and was only content with perfect cleanliness certain pictures in the nursery he strove to hide from his eyes with one tiny hand and as this gesture was not quite by his elders he managed to up on his cot and tear them down they were not objectionable pictures but they were unnatural � that is to say they were nursery pictures of the kind which are called by the of christmas numbers suitable for children there were fat impossible � and red faced carrying pale pink dogs in their arms � all of which creatures moved master to quiet scorn was always hearing of some curious and original deed on the part of her son but she paid very little attention to any of the signs and symptoms of his possible future mental development all she thought of was that he was baby � her own her very own beautiful baby i � and her chief idea was that he must be fed well and have his own way whenever it was possible this was the business of the day for her � the business upon which she set all her energies � baby s food baby s brain and baby s thoughts were � to use her own frank � utter nonsense if asked she would have said with the most charming assumption of maternal wisdom that a child of two has no brain worth considering and no thoughts worth thinking that was her opinion nurse entertained quite a different view of the matter being a trained woman whose life had been spent with children of all sorts sickly and healthy bright and dull and who had studied their moods and manners holy orders with close and sympathetic attention she was affectionately interested in her charge and said of him to her own special friends � master is a child he will be a great man but thought no such thing she thought in fact as little about the development of her small son as she did of the soul if he had one of the troublesome whose drunken had summoned her hu band out of his peaceful study into the wind and rain on this cross and cloudy march morning she was perfectly happy in herself � she had never wanted more than a home a husband and a baby and she had a three nothing further existed in the universe so far as she was concerned and as soon as she had the drawing room � which was one of the little duties she imposed on herself regardless of the fact that the house maid had it perfectly � she tripped up to the nursery singing as she went full of a careless gaiety being so happily constituted as to be indifferent to any troubles in which she did not share and after all it is fortunate that the greater majority of women are even as she � and that few of them have the finer perception and power to look beyond the circle of their own comfortable surroundings into the speechless miseries 