"What, Sarah?"

"Oh! I didn't see you. All's well, and it's a daughter."




XIII

BABY


It was most pleasant, being asked by everyone, even by General Byington,
how it felt to be a grandmother. "Oh! ho, ho!" Mrs. Morris's unutilized
dimple kept itself busy to the point of positive fatigue.

Even more delightful was it, when the time came round for the totality
of her sex--the only sex worth considering--to call and see the babe and
mother, to hear them all proclaim it the prettiest infant ever seen, and
covertly pronounce Isabel more beautiful than on her wedding day.

In a way she was; and particularly when they fondly rallied her upon her
new accession of motherly practical manner, and she laughed with them,
and ended with that merry, mellow sigh which still gave Ruth new pride
in her and new hope. But another source of Ruth's new hope was that
Arthur, who had written to the bishop and resigned his calling the day
after Mrs. Morris's little namesake was born, had at length withdrawn
his letter.