stopped it. It had been silent ever since--and it should
remain silent, too. Of what possible use were the hours it would tick
away now? As if anything mattered, with little Kathleen lying out
there white and still under the black earth!

"Muvver!"

The Lady in Black stirred restlessly, and glanced toward the closed
door. Behind it she knew was a little lad with wide blue eyes and a
dimpling mouth who wanted her; but she wished he would not call her by
that name. It only reminded her of those other little lips--silent now.

"_Muvver_!" The voice was more insistent.

The Lady in Black did not answer. He might go away, she thought, if
she did not reply.

There was a short silence, then the door-knob rattled and turned half
around under the touch of plainly unskilled fingers. The next moment
the door swung slowly back on its hinges and revealed at full length
the little figure in the Russian suit.

"Pe-eek!" It was a gurgling cry of joyful discovery, but it was
followed almost instantly by silence. The black-garbed, unsmiling
woman did not invite approach, and the boy fell back at his first step.
He hesitated, then spoke, tentatively, "I's--here."

It was, perhaps, the worst thing he could have said. To the Lady in
Black it was a yet more bitter reminder of that other one who was not
there. She gave a sharp cry and covered her face with her hands.

"Bobby, Bobby, how can you taunt me with it?" she moaned, in a frenzy
of unreasoning grief. "Go away--go away! I want to be alone--alone!"

All the brightness fled from the boy's face. His mouth was no longer
dimpled, and his eyes showed a grieved hurt in their depths. Very
slowly he turned away. At the top of the stairs he stopped and looked
back. The door was still open, and the Lady in Black still sat with
her hands over her face. He waited, but she did not move; then, with a
half-stifled sob, he dropped on the top step and began to bump down the
stairs, one at a time.

Long minutes afterward the Lady in Black raised her head and saw him
through the window. He was down in the yard with his father, having a
frolic under the apple tree.

A frolic!

The Lady in Black looked at them with somber eyes, and her mouth
hardened at the corners. Bobby down there in the yard could laugh and
dance and frolic. Bobby had some one to play with him, some one to
love him and care for him; while out there on the hillside Kathleen was
alone--all alone. Kath