hout wakening him. I have done
it many a time. I should like to have him in my arms to-night."

So they turned into Mrs. Phil's room, and found that handsome young
matron sitting in her dressing-gown before the fire, brushing out her
great dark mantle of hair.

"Don't waken Tod," she cried out, as usual; and then when she saw Dolly
she broke into a whispered volley of wondering questions. Where in the
world had she been? What had she been doing with herself until such an
hour? Where was Grif? Was n't he awfully vexed? What had he said when
she came in? All of which inquiries the two parried as best they might.

As to Tod--well, Tod turned her thoughts in another direction. He was
a beauty, and a king, and a darling, and he was growing sweeter and
brighter every day,--which comments, by the way, were always the first
made upon the subject of the immortal Tod. He was so amiable, too, and
so clever and so little trouble. He went to sleep in his crib every
night at seven, and never awakened until morning. Aunt Dolly might look
at him now with those two precious middle fingers in his little mouth.
And Aunt Dolly did look at him, lifting the cover slightly, and
bending over him as he lay there making a deep dent in his small, plump
pillow,--a very king of babies, soft and round and warm, the white lids
drooped and fast closed over his dark eyes, their long fringes making
a faint shadow on his fair, smooth baby cheeks, the two fingers in
his sweet mouth, the round, cleft chin turned up, the firm, tiny white
pillar of a throat bare.

"Oh, my bonny baby!" cried Dolly, the words rising from the bottom of
her heart, "how fair and sweet you are!"

They managed to persuade Mrs. Phil to allow them to take possession
of him for the night; and when they went up-stairs Dolly carried him,
folded warmly in his downy blanket, and held close and tenderly in her
arms.

"Aunt Dolly's precious!" Aimee heard her whispering to him as she gave
him a last soft good-night kiss before they fell asleep. "Aunt Dolly's
comfort! Everything is not gone so long as he is left."

But she evidently passed a restless night. When Aimee awakened in the
morning she found her standing by the bedside, dressed and looking
colorless and heavy-eyed.

"I never was so glad to see morning in my life," she said. "I thought
the day would never break. I--I wonder how long it will be before Grif
will be reading his letter?"

"He may get it before nine o'clock," a