still
living with our six children." She paused, and looked around with a
warning air. "Please don't murmur sympathetically! Whenever I say
`six,' people always murmur sympathetically, and it's so misplaced.
It's just what we wanted--_lots_ of little heads round the table. Five
sturdy boys, and one little girl."

"Well, at any rate, you can't have much adventure now!" It was Mrs
Francis Manning who spoke, the faint Cockney twang of her voice sounding
discordantly in contrast to the cultured tones of her companions.
"Children are such a tie. We have four, and I never seem to have a free
hour. And to live in the country, too. It's a good thing you had some
adventure when you were young, for there's no chance of it now."

"I deny it!" cried Juliet, hotly. "I deny it. Can anything in the
world be more adventurous than to start a new home, and a new
generation, to have six young lives entrusted to one to train for the
world's service? Think what those six lives may mean, multiplying into
fresh lives, spreading influence wherever they go! There are no such
adventures in life, as marriage and parent-ship, if one can only see
them in the right light, and keep on seeing..." She gave a little
laugh, half shy, half apologetic, a trifle ashamed of her own intensity.
"Ah, well! it's adventurous enough to have a pack of boys who ate
learning to ride, learning to shoot, trying to copy everything that
their father can do to-day, hobbling home almost every day of the week
with cuts and bruises, and breaks and sprains. I have all the adventure
that I need, and,--what shall I say? Only this, that I enjoy it even
more than I expected!"

She stopped, panting, and her husband smiled at her across the room, and
silently clapped his hands. "I beg to second the motion!" he said
gravely, and there was a general stir of laughter. It was pleasant to
meet a couple of the good old-fashioned type which was yearly becoming
more rare. Every person in the room felt a sincere respect for Captain
and Mrs Antony Maplestone.

"Well, of course--if you put it like that," said Mrs Manning
doubtfully, "I'm sure I've always done my best to be a good mother, and
the girls go to school now, which makes it easier, but with the boy
being blind--well, naturally, it's a tie! My husband tells me he wished
for Comfort, and there's no doubt but he's got it. We're not rich, of
course, but comfortable, quite comfortable. He's only to express a
wis