redestined work.

"Tom," she said, with her smile still on her face, "what I really and
truly wanted to tell you was about Lila." The mention of the child's
name brought quick light to the mother's face. "Lila--think of
it, Tom--Lila," the mother repeated with vast pride. "You must come right
out and see her. About an hour ago, she sat gazing at your picture on my
dresser, and suddenly without a word from me, she whispered 'Daddy,' and
then was as shy for a moment, then whispered it again, and then spoke it
out loud, and she is as proud as Punch, and keeps saying it over and
over! Tom--you must come out and hear it."

Perhaps it was a knotty point of law that held his mind, or perhaps it
was the old beat of the hoofs on the turf of the Primrose Hunt that
filled his ears, or the red coat of the fox that filled his eyes.

He smiled graciously and replied absently: "Well--Daddy--" And repeated
"Daddy--don't you think father is--" He caught the cloud flashing across
her face, and went on: "Oh, I suppose daddy is all right to begin with."
He picked up his law book and the woman drew nearer to him. She put her
hand over the page and coaxed:

"Come on, Tom--just for a little minute--come on out and see her. I know
she is waiting for you--I know she is just dying to show off to you--and
besides, the new rugs have come for the living-room, and I just couldn't
unpack them without you. It would seem so--old--old--old marriedy, and
we aren't going to be that." She laughed and tried to close the law
book.

Their eyes met and she thought for a moment that she was winning her
contest. But he put her hand aside gently and answered: "Now, Laura, I'm
busy, exceedingly busy. This mine accident is bound to come before me in
one form or another soon, and I must be ready for it, and it is a
serious matter. There will be all kinds of attacks upon the property."

"The property?" she asked, and he answered:

"Why, yes--legal attacks upon the mine--to bleed the owners, and I must
be ready to guard them against these assaults, and I just can't jump and
run every time Lila coos or you cut a string on a package. I'll be out
to-night and we'll hear Lila and look at the rugs." To the
disappointment upon her face he replied: "I tell you, Laura, sentiment
is going to wreck your life if you don't check it."

The man looked into his book without reading. He had come to dislike
these little scenes with his wife. He looked from his book out of the