med now and then to come to the
surface, like wreckage in a summer sea.

* * * * *

The opening door disturbed these ponderings. The nurse appeared,
carrying the little boy. Lady Tranmore took him on her knee and caressed
him. He was a piteous, engaging child, generally very docile, but liable
at times to storms of temper out of all proportion to the fragility of
his small person. His grandmother was inclined to look upon his passions
as something external and inflicted--the entering-in of the Blackwater
devil to plague a tiny creature that, normally, was of a divine and
clinging sweetness. She would have taught him religion, as his only
shield against himself; but neither his father nor his mother was
religious; and Harry was likely to grow up a pagan.

He leaned now against her breast, and she, whose inmost nature was
maternity, delighted in the pressure of the tiny body, crooning songs to
him when they were left alone, and pausing now and then to pity and kiss
the little shrunken foot that hung beside the other.

She was interrupted by a soft entrance and the rustle of a dress.

"Ah, Margaret!" she said, looking round and smiling.

The girl who had come in approached her, shook hands, and looked down at
the baby. She was fair-haired and wore spectacles; her face was round
and childish, her eyes round and blue, with certain lines about them,
however, which showed that she was no longer in her first youth.

"I came to see if I could do anything to-day for Kitty. I know she is
very busy about the ball--"

"Head over ears apparently," said Lady Tranmore. "Everybody has lost
their wits. I see Kitty has chosen her dress."

"Yes, if Fanchette can make it all right. Poor Kitty! She has been in
such a state of mind. I think I'll go on with these invitations."

And, taking off her gloves and hat, Margaret French went to the
writing-table like one intimately acquainted with the room and its
affairs, took up a pile of cards and envelopes which lay upon it, and,
bringing them to Lady Tranmore's side, began to work upon them.

"I did about half yesterday," she explained; "but I see Kitty hasn't
been able to touch them, and it is really time they were out."

"For their party next week?"

"Yes. I hope Kitty won't tire herself out. It has been a rush lately."

"Does she ever rest?"

"Never--as far as I can see. And I am afraid she has been very much
worried."

"About that silly affair