or little kiddie is so miserably
unhappy, and I'm not strong enough to get out and work for her as I
used to. I would if I could. I think Fairfax is sick of the whole
thing. He didn't count on me going under as I have. He hasn't been
near me for a month, but he says it's because he hates the sight of
Phoebe. I wonder. It wasn't that way a couple of years ago. But I'm
different now. You wouldn't know me, I'm that thin and skinny. I hate
the word, but that's what I am. The doctors have ordered me to a
little place out in Arizona. I've got to do what they say, and what
Fairfax says. It's the jumping-off place. So I'm leaving in a day or
two with Rachel. My husband says he can't leave his business, but I'm
not such a fool as he thinks. I won't say anything more about him,
except that he hasn't the courage to watch me go down by inches.

"I can't leave Phoebe with him and I don't think it best to have her
with me. She ought to be spared all that. She's so young, Harvey.
She'd never forget. You love her, and she adores you. I'm giving her
back to you. Don't--oh, please don't, ever let her leave Blakeville!
I wish I had never left it, much as I hate it. I remember your new
wife as being a kind, simple-hearted woman. She will be good to my
little girl, I know, because she is yours as well. If I could get my
health back, I'd work my heart out trying to support her, but it's out
of the question. I have nothing to give her, Harvey, and I simply will
not let Fairfax provide for her. Do you understand? Or are you as
stupid and simple as you always were? And as tender-hearted?"

There was more, but Harvey's eyes were so full of tears he could not
read.

* * * * *

He was waiting in the Lake Shore station when the train pulled in on
Tuesday. His legs were trembling like two reeds in the wind and his
teeth chattered with the chill of a great excitement. Out of the blur
that obscured his vision bounded a small figure, almost toppling him
over as it clutched his not too stable legs and shrieked something
that must have pleased him vastly, for he giggled and chortled like
one gone daft with joy.

A soulless guard tapped him on the shoulder and gruffly ordered him
to "get off to one side with the kid," he was blocking the exit--and
flooding it, he added after a peep at Harvey's streaming eyes.

Rachel, tall and sardonic, stood patiently by until the little man
recovered from his ecstasies.