he'd rather die than have him feel
ashamed of her. There isn't a better woman in the world, There isn't a
better mother----'"

He clapped his hands.

"Don't you believe it?" she demanded. "Don't you believe what the
paper says?"

"It's true!" he cried. "It's all true!"

"How do you know," she whispered, intensely, "that it's all true?"

"I--just--_feel_ it!"

They were interrupted by the clock. It struck seven times....

In great haste and alarm she put him from her knee; and she caught up
her hat and cloak, and kissed him, and ran out, calling back her
good-night, again and again, as she clattered down the stairs.... In
the streets of the place to which she hurried, there were flaming
lights, the laughter of men and flaunting women, the crash and rumble
and clang of night-traffic, the blatant clamour of the pleasures of
night; shuffling, blear-eyed derelicts of passion, creeping beldames,
peevish children, youth consuming itself; rags and garish jewels,
hunger, greasy content--a confusion of wretchedness, of greed and grim
want, of delirious gaiety, of the sins that stalk in darkness....
Through it all she brushed, unconscious--lifted from it by the magic of
this love: dwelling only upon the room that overlooked the river, and
upon the child within; remembering the light in his eyes and the
tenderness of his kiss.

[Illustration: Tailpiece to _A Garden of Lies_]

[Illustration: Headpiece to _The Celebrity in Love_]

_THE CELEBRITY IN LOVE_

While the boy sat alone, in wistful idleness, there came a knock at the
door--a pompous rat-tat-tat, with a stout tap-tap or two added, once
and for all to put the quality of the visitor beyond doubt. The door
was then cautiously pushed ajar to admit the head of the personage thus
impressively heralded. And a most extraordinary head it was--of
fearsome aspect; nothing but long and intimate familiarity could resign
the beholder to the unexpected appearance of it. Long, tawny hair, now
sadly unkempt, fell abundantly from crown to shoulders; and hair as
tawny, as luxuriantly thick, almost as long, completely covered the
face, from every part of which it sprang, growing shaggy and rank at
the eyebrows, which served to ambush two sharp little eyes: so that the
whole bore a precise resemblance to an ill-natured Skye terrier. It is
superfluous to add that this was at once the face and the fortune of
Toto, the Dog-faced Man, known in private life, to