r lips gave, the
corners of her mouth dropped. And watching her Ormiston swore a little
under his breath. "We have something to say to each other, the baby and
I," she went on, "which no one else may hear. So do what I ask you,
Roger. And come back--I may want you--in about an hour, if I do not
send for you before."

Alone with her child, Lady Calmady moved slowly across and bolted both
the nursery and the chapel-room doors. Then she drew a low stool up in
front of the fire and sat down, laying the infant upon her lap. It was
a delicious, dimpled creature, with a quantity of silky golden-brown
hair, that curled in a tiny crest along the top of its head. It was but
half awake yet, the rounded cheeks pink with the comfort of food and
slumber. And as the beautiful, young mother, bending that set, ashen
face of hers above it, laid the child upon her knees, it stretched,
clenching soft baby fists and rubbing them into its blue eyes.

Katherine unwrapped the shawls, and took off one small garment after
another--delicate gossamer-like things of fine flannel, lawn and lace,
such as women's fingers linger over in the making with tender joy. Once
her resolution failed her. She wrapped the half-dressed child in its
white shawls again, rose from her place and walked over to the sunny
window, carrying it in the hollow of her arm--it staring up, meanwhile,
with the strange wonder of baby eyes, and cooing, as though holding
communication with gracious presences haunting the moulded ceiling
above. Katherine gazed at it for a few seconds. But the little
creature's serene content, its absolute unconsciousness of its own evil
fortune, pained her too greatly. She went back, sat down on the stool
again, and completed the task she had set herself.

Then, the baby lying stark naked on her lap, she studied the fair,
little face, the penciled eyebrows and fringed eyelids,--dark like her
own,--the firm, rounded arms, the rosy-palmed hands, their dainty
fingers and finger-nails, the well-proportioned and well-nourished
body, without smallest mark or blemish upon it, sound, wholesome, and
complete. All these she studied long and carefully, while the dancing
glow of the firelight played over the child's delicate flesh, and it
extended its little arms in the pleasant warmth, holding them up, as in
act of adoration, towards those gracious unseen presences, still,
apparently, hovering above the flood of instreaming sunshine against
the ceiling over