now best, but is it suitable to term the nursling and
the parent by the same title? I am a foolish old woman, but it seems
strange to me. Your father did not confound them."

"Ah! I dare say not. We will find a Christian name for the new comer,
and end the Comedy of Errors, since you dislike it, and Leslie too,
doubtless; for women are nice on these points."

* * * * *

"Leslie, what shall we call the baby?" inquired Hector Garret the next
time he stood by his wife's side, wishing to divert her by a pleasant
difficulty, and to vary the expression of those large eyes--larger now
than ever--which, he knew not why, fascinated him by the intensity of
their gaze. "I cause Bridget to blunder oddly between you two; so set
her at rest by fixing as soon as you can the momentous question."

"I have fixed," answered Leslie, quietly.

"I commend your foresight; a man, now, would have left the alternative
open to the last."

"Mrs. Garret's first daughter must be named after Mrs. Garret's mother,"
declared Bridget, authoritatively.

"No," said Leslie, hastily; "I have named her after myself--if you do
not object," she added, with a flush, half shame, half pride.

"I? Oh, no; do as you will. It will not solve Bridget's puzzle; but I am
content. Leslie is a bonnie name."

Leslie compressed her lip.

"My mother's name is bonnier," she said, abruptly; "my mother's name is
Alice."

He started, and gazed at her keenly while she continued, falteringly,
but with a stubborn will in her speech:--

"I wish my baby to be mine in everything, particularly as she is a
girl. I am neither wise nor clever, nor strong now. I fear I am often
peevish; but you will excuse me, because I am a weak, ignorant woman.
Such defects are not fatal in a mother; hundreds have overcome them
for their children. I trust that I will be, if not what a better woman
might have been, at least more to my child than any other can be. Her
mother!--so holy a tie must confer some peculiar fitness. Yes; my baby
is mine, and must lie on my knees, and learn to laugh in my poor face.
And so I wish her to have my name also, that there may be a complete
union between us."

Hector Garret knew now what intelligence had reached his wife, and while
the old wound burnt afresh, the shyness of his still but sensitive
nature, the pride of the grave strong man, were offended and injured.
But with regard to his wife he was only conscious of the pet