teacher.
I have some money in the bank and I am going to advance it to you,
because you can return it later on, when you give concerts or sing at
the opera. If you don't give it back, I'll dun you, sue you, set the
minions of the law after you, if such a promise can give you any
comfort. Don't you dare answer, it is bad for your throat to speak too
much, especially when it is nonsense. And I'm going to make a lot more
money besides. I have an idea about an old maid and a canary that the
magazines will bid for, hungrily. It's the finest thing I ever wrote,
although it is still incubating in my head."

She rose, ever so carefully, so as not to awaken Baby Paul, and
deposited him in his crib. Then she came to me with both hands
outstretched.

"Do you really think, David, that I would squander your poor little
savings? Do you think I am one to speculate on friendship and try to
coin money out of kindness?"

She held both my shoulders, her great beautiful eyes seeming to search
my soul, which the tears that trembled on her lashes appeared to sear as
if they had been drops of molten lead. With some effort, I brought a
smile to my lips and shook my head.

"You are a silly infant," I told her, gravely. "Little Paul, on the
other hand, is a man, an individual endowed with intelligence beyond his
months. He will understand that you are not at all concerned in this
matter and that I only want to help him out. I want to give him a mother
of whom he will be proud, one who will make the little scrivener she met
on a top floor ever boastful that once upon a time he was a friend and
still maintains her regard. I am only seeking to help him, since we are
great pals, to graduate from long frocks to trousers, in anticipation of
college and other steps towards useful manhood. He is a particular
friend of mine; he smiles upon me; he has drooled upon my shirtfront and
pulled my moustache. We understand one another, Paul and I, and together
we deplore your feminine obstinacy."

To my frightful embarrassment Frances let go of my shoulders and seized
my hands, which she carried swiftly as a flash to her lips, before I
could draw them away.

"When I teach him to pray, you will not be forgotten, David. We--we will
speak of this some other time, because, perhaps, after all, my voice
will never return--as it was before, and then all this will have been
but--but idle speculations--and--and I will never forget your goodness."

Just then,