was conscious of a rebuke, and the cause of it left him
quite at sea. He would probably have puzzled over it a great deal more
than he did, had not his mind become preoccupied with the idea that he
would be allowed to accompany his father to the men's part of the
establishment. It was an idea that filled him with a sort of
shrinking pride.

IX

Among the less intimate friends of his mother was a young widow with a
little girl about a year younger than Keith. For some reason unknown to
the boy, those two came to see his mother several times that Spring. It
was the first time in his life Keith met a girl on familiar terms.

Clara was slender and elfish, with a wealth of yellow tresses falling
down her back. She was tender and gay, too, and Keith liked to hear her
laugh. When they played, she was always ready to fall in with any whim
of Keith's.

One afternoon, when the days were growing longer, Clara's mother asked
permission to leave her with the Wellanders while she attended to some
business in the neighbourhood. Keith's mother was occupied in the
kitchen in some manner making her wish to have the door to the
living-room closed. Thus the two children were left to play by
themselves.

He never could remember how it began, and he could not tell what put the
idea in his head....

It was a new game, and she played it as readily as any other he might
have proposed. They had crawled so far into his own corner by the window
that they were almost hidden behind mamma's bureau.

At first they whispered to each other, eagerly as children do, but only
with the eagerness they might have shown if playing hide-and-seek. Then
he raised her little dress, and she didn't seem to mind. He also undid
his own dress, and they studied each other's bodies, noting the
differences.

The end of it was that they laid down together on the floor. He put his
mouth to hers and hugged her just as tightly as he could. When they had
been lying in way for a while, he whispered to her:

"Isn't it nice?"

And she dutifully whispered back: "It is!"

A few minutes later they were playing with his tin soldiers, and soon
after Clara's mother returned to take her away.

During their entire play both doors had remained closed. Keith was quite
sure of that. He had looked before he started the new game, although he
was not aware of trespassing on prohibited territory.

Afterwards he felt rather uneasy. There was a distinct sense of risk
attachi