in his arms, but he evaded him. Presently the
door opened, the nurse entered, the child sprang from among the group,
and ran with a laughing defiance to the farthest end of the room, and,
leaning his chin on the billiard-table, flashed a look of defiant humour
at his pursuer. Presently the door opened again, and the figure of
the mother appeared. All at once the child's face altered; he stood
perfectly still, and waited for his mother to come to him. Lali had not
spoken, and she did not speak until, lifting the child, she came the
length of the billiard-table and faced them.

"I beg your pardon," she said, "for intruding; but Richard has led us a
dance, and I suppose the mother may go where her child goes."

"The mother and the child are always welcome wherever they go," said
General Armour quietly.

All the men had risen to their feet, and they made a kind of semicircle
before her. The white-robed child had clasped its arms about her neck,
and nestled its face against hers, as if, with perfect satisfaction, it
had got to the end of its adventure; but the look of humour was still in
the eyes as they ran from Richard to his father and back again.

Frank Armour stepped forwards and took the child's hand, as it rested
on the mother's shoulder. Lali's face underwent a slight change as her
husband's fingers touched her neck.

"I must go," she said. "I hope I have not broken up a serious
conversation--or were you not so serious after all?" she said, glancing
archly at General Armour. "We were talking of women," said Lambert.

"The subject is wide," replied Lali, "and the speakers many. One would
think some wisdom might be got in such a case."

"Believe me, we were not trying to understand the subject," said Captain
Vidall; "the most that a mere man can do is to appreciate it."

"There are some things that are hidden from the struggling mind of man,
and are revealed unto babes and the mothers of babes," said General
Armour gravely, as, reaching out his hands, he took the child from the
mother's arms, kissed it full upon the lips, and added: "Men do not
understand women, because men's minds have not been trained in the same
school. When once a man has mastered the very alphabet of motherhood,
then he shall have mastered the mind of woman; but I, at least,
refuse to say that I do not understand, from the stand-point of modern
cynicism."

"Ah, General, General!" said Lambert, "we have lost the chivalric way of
saying t