was a rather delicate child
considerably undergrown for his age, but a placid, uncomplaining little
mortal--looked at Septimus out of his blue and white china eyes and
contorted his india-rubber features into a muddle indicative of pleasure,
and Septimus smiled cordially at the baby.

"William Octavius Oldrieve Dix," he murmured--an apostrophe which caused
the future statesman a paroxysm of amusement--"I am exceedingly glad to see
you. I hope you like London. We're great friends, aren't we? And when you
grow up, we're going to be greater. I don't want you to have anything to do
with machinery. It stops your heart beating and makes you cold and
unsympathetic and prevents women from loving you. You mustn't invent
things. That's why I am going to make you a Member of Parliament--a
Conservative member."

William Octavius, who had been listening attentively, suddenly chuckled,
as if he had seen a joke. Septimus's gaze conveyed sedate reproof.

"When you laugh you show such a deuce of a lot of gum--like Wiggleswick,"
said he.

The baby made no reply. The conversation languished. Septimus bent down to
examine the tooth, and the baby clutched a tiny fistful of upstanding hair
as a reaper clutches a handful of wheat. Septimus smiled and kissed the
little crinkled, bubbly lips and fell into a reverie. William Octavius went
fast asleep.

When Emmy returned she caught an appealing glance from Septimus and rescued
him, a new Absalom.

"You dear thing," she cried, "why didn't you do it yourself?"

"I was afraid of waking him. It's dangerous to wake babies suddenly. No, it
isn't babies; it's somnambulists. But he may be one, you see, and as he
can't walk we can't tell. I wonder whether I could invent an apparatus for
preventing somnambulists from doing themselves damage."

Emmy laughed. "You can invent nothing so wonderful as Madame Bolivard," she
cried gaily. "She is contemptuous of the dangers of English marketing. 'The
people understood me at once,' she said. She evidently has a poor opinion
of them."

Septimus stayed to lunch, a pleasant meal which made them bless Hegisippe
Cruchot for introducing them to the aunt who could cook. So far did their
gratitude go that Septimus remarked that it would only be decent to add
"Hegisippe" to the baby's names. But Emmy observed that he should have
thought of that before; the boy had already been christened; it was too
late. They drank the Zouave's health instead in some fearful an