oper counsel for the particular case,
and there, for a while, I left him.

His wife's parents came on from the East. The mother, after some years
abroad, had lately resumed her domestic duties in the land of her birth.
The father, who knew all of one subject, and nothing of any other,
detached himself for a week or two from the one worthy interest in life
and accompanied her. The "street" was still there when he returned. They
seemed experienced and worldly-wise in their respective fields and their
respective aspects, but they entered upon this new matter with a poor
grace. Here was another mother who did not quite "know," and another
father who waited, at a second remove, for definite knowledge that did
not quite come. First there were maladroit attempts to bring a
reconciliation; and afterwards, and more shrewdly, endeavors to gain as
much as possible for their daughter from the wreck.

Raymond was determined to keep possession of Albert. Mrs. McComas,
mother of three, stoutly declared that the mother should have her child.
Other women said the same, and maintained the point regardless of the
mother's course or conduct. Many women have said the same in many cases,
and perhaps they are right. Perhaps they are completely right in the
case of a boy of six, who surely needs a woman's care. But it is not
difficult, even when material is more abundant than definite, to throw
an atmosphere of dubiousness about a woman and to make it appear that
she is not a "proper person...." So it appeared to the judge in this
case, and so he ruled--with a shading, however. Albert might spend with
his mother one month every summer--and some financial concession on
Raymond's part helped make the time brief. However, she was to have
nothing to say about Albert's mode of life through the rest of the year,
and nothing (more specifically) about his education.

"That makes him mine," said Raymond.

And he set his lips firmly. He was one of those who set their lips
firmly after the event is determined.

I do not know whether Raymond had any real affection for Albert. I do
not know whether he realized what it was for a father to undertake,
single handed, the charge of a boy of six. I think that what moved him
chiefly was his determination to carry a point. However all this may be,
I remember what he said as, after the decree, he walked out with
Albert's hand in his.

"Well, it's over!"

Over!--as if a separation involving a child is ever "