* * * * *

"She will take the little one," said the voice above them.

Both women turned their eyes to Bedient. Mary McCullom smiled shyly.

"I remember--David--Cairns," she said, in an awed tone. "This is
not----"

"No, dear, but it is enough. I will take your--baby."

The smile brightened.... "Oh, we were so happy," she whispered.... "And
Vina--tell him when he is older--how his father and I loved--the
thought of him!"

"He will bless you," Bedient said.

A glow had fallen upon the weary face of the mother.... "Yes," she
answered. "He will bless us ... and I shall be with my husband.... Oh,
now, I can go to my husband!"

* * * * *

Hours afterward, when it was over, Vina looked into Bedient's face,
saying:

"You may ask David--why I hesitated--that first moment."

"I know, Vina--God love you!"

Before they left the hospital, he said: "We won't speak of this
to-night.... Everything is arranged.... To-morrow morning, we will come
for the little boy.... It is time for us to be at the Club."

"I had forgotten," Vina answered vaguely.

* * * * *

Kate Wilkes and Marguerite Grey were waiting that evening in the Club
library. David Cairns had left them a moment before, called to the
telephone.

"Rather a contrast from that other night when we foregathered to meet
_The Modern_--fresh from the sea," Kate Wilkes observed.

"Yes," said the Grey One.

"David no longer belongs to the coasting-trade in letters," Kate Wilkes
went on whimsically. "He has emerged from a most stubborn case of
boyhood. Now he's got Vina's big spirit, and she has her happiness and
is doing her masterpiece----"

The women exchanged glances. "You mean the Stations?" the Grey One
asked in her quiet way.

"Beth has done a great portrait--enough for any woman--just _one_ like
that," Kate Wilkes added, ignoring the other.

"For a time--I thought Beth and Mr. Bedient----" the Grey One ventured.

"No," the other said briefly. "Beth loves her work better than she
could love any man. She's the virgin of pictures. Have you seen her
since she came back?"

"Yes. As lovely as ever."

"And your 'rage' is on again.... I'm mighty glad about that, Margie.
You were suicidal. Does the great fortune hold true?"

"Oh, yes," the Grey One said, "I'm doing right well. Some of my things
are going over the water."

"Poor little Wordling.... I wonder what she ha