d never offered it to me once! The fellows all think it was
awfully mean--I had promised to take them out in it, and it made me
feel deuced cheap, I can tell you. The idea of using a machine like
that just to air a kid every day! I guess it pumped it full of wind,
anyhow--that's one comfort."

"If you are going to say disagreeable things about the baby, I won't
listen to you," said Deena, crossly, and then, ashamed of her
petulance, added: "Run along to school, dear; the sooner you get some
knowledge into that little red head of yours, the sooner you can have
automobiles and horses of your own."

"Those of my brothers-in-law will suit me just as well," he said,
favoring her with a horrid grimace, as he wiped his mouth on a rope of
napkin held taut between his outstretched fists. "Perhaps I had better
let Mr. French know myself what I expect in the future."

"Perhaps you'll mind your own business!" cried Deena, driven to fury.

He left the room singing in a quavering treble:

I'll pray for you when on the stormy ocean
With love's devotion. That's what I'll do.

It was a song with which a nursemaid of the Shelton children had been
wont to rock the reigning baby to sleep, and had lurked in Dicky's
memory for many a year.

Poor Deena was thoroughly ruffled. It was maddening to have a love she
held as the most sacred secret of her heart vulgarized by a boy's
coarse teasing, and, in addition, she was jealous of her own
dignity--anxious to pay her dead husband proper respect--distressed at
the possibility of Stephen's thoughtful kindness becoming a subject of
comment in the town. And yet what difference did it make?

This carefully guarded secret would be public property by her own
consent before a week was over, for Dicky's announcement of French's
return was no news to Deena--at that very moment her heart was beating
against a letter which assured her he was following fast upon its
tracks, and when he came he was not likely to prove a patient lover.
All through that second summer his letters had been growing more
tender, more urgent, till at last he had taken matters into his own
hands, and decided that their separation must end. For aught she knew,
his vessel might already have reached New York--he might be that
blessed moment on his way to Harmouth! The thought sent little thrills
of happiness bounding through her veins. She had a shrewd idea he
would appear unannounced by letter or telegram, but not
to-day--