o you
want to go to?" And I uttered the profound and philosophical
rejoinder, "Wherever the next train goes to." It seemed that it went
to Slough; which may seem to be singular taste, even in a train.
However, we went to Slough, and from there set out walking with even
less notion of where we were going. And in that fashion we passed
through the large and quiet cross-roads of a sort of village, and
stayed at an inn called The White Hart. We asked the name of the
place and were told that it was called Beaconsfield (I mean of course
that it was called Beconsfield and not Beaconsfield), and we said to
each other, "This is the sort of place where some day we will make
our home."**

[* At Hanwell is London's most famous lunatic asylum.]

[** _Autobiography_, p. 219.]

They both wanted a home. They both deeply desired a family. The wish
is normal to both man and woman, normal in a happy marriage, and
theirs was unusually happy; it was almost abnormally keen in both
Frances and Gilbert. Few men have so greatly loved children. As a
schoolboy his letters are full of it--making friends with Scottish
children on the sands, with French children by the medium of
pictures. Later he was writing "In Defence of Baby Worship" and
welcoming with enthusiasm the arrival of his friends' children into
the world.

In the Notebook he had written:

Sunlight in a child's hair.
It is like the kiss of Christ upon all children.
I blessed the child: and hoped the blessing would go with him
And never leave him;
And turn first into a toy, and then into a game
And then into a friend,
And as he grew up, into friends
And then into a woman.

GRASS AND CHILDREN

Grass and children
There seems no end to them.
But if there were but one blade of grass
Men would see that it is fairer than lilies,
And if we saw the first child
We should worship it as the God come on earth.

ROUNDS

I find that most round things are nice,
Particularly Eternity and a baby.

Frances cared no less deeply both for Eternity and for babies and for
many years went on hoping for the family that would complete their
lives. At last it was decided to have an operation to enable her to
have children. Her doctor writes:

I well remember an incident which occurred during her convalescence
from that operation. I received a telephone call from the matron of
the Nursing Home in wh