out the sun.

"I suppose if you were I," she said at last, "you'd take your baby in
your arms, and go down and say to that man on the steps, 'Come in and be
lord of the manor and the ruler of your wife and child.'"

I held Junior close and my voice trembled. "I should never say a thing
like that to--Billy--"

"What would you say?"

"I should say"--I choked over it, and broke down at the end--"oh, lover,
lover, this is your son--and I am his happy mother--"

She stopped in front of me and stood looking down, with the anger all
gone from her eyes. Then, before she could turn or cry out, the long
windows were struck open by something that was stronger than the wind.
There had been no flying squirrels on the balcony, and the shadow which
had hidden the sun was the breadth and height of the big man who stood
between the velvet curtains! He crossed the room at a stride.

"Did you think that bolts and bars could keep me from you?" he asked,
and took Lady Crusoe's hands in a tight grip and drew her toward him.
She resisted for a moment. Then her white slenderness was crushed in his
hungry arms.

Well, as soon as I could gather up Junior and his belongings, I went
down to wait for Billy. But before I went I saw her drop on her knees
beside the hooded cradle and lift out little Robin, and, still kneeling,
hold him up toward his father, as the nun holds up Galahad in the Holy
Grail.

And what do you think I heard her say?

_"Oh, lover, lover, this is your son--and I am his happy mother!"_

Billy came in glowing from his walk in the sharp air, and I can't tell
you how good it seemed to feel his cold cheek against my cheek, and his
warm lips on mine. We were a rapturous trio in front of the library
fire, and there we were joined presently by the rapturous trio from
above stairs. They treated Billy and me as if we were a pair of guardian
angels. Then we had dinner together, with Mandy and William in the
background beaming.

And that night I told Billy all about it. "Isn't it beautiful, Billy?
They are going to live on the old Davenant place, and it is to be their
home."

Everybody calls on us now. You see, Lady Crusoe's family is older than
any of the others, and then there's her husband's money. And I shine in
her reflected light, for our friendship, as she says, is founded on a
rock. But Billy says it is founded on a wreck. Yet while he jokes about
it, I know that he is proud of his friendship with Robin's father. A