"Aleck! Darling! My little darling!"

The child was too heavy for her to lift, and she tottered as she tried
to rise, lifting a frightened face to Courtland.

"Let me take him," said the young man, stooping and gathering him gently
from her. "Now show me where!"




CHAPTER VI


Into the narrow brick house from which he had run forth so joyously but
a few short minutes before, they carried him, up two flights of steep
stairs to a tiny room at the back of the hall.

The gas was burning brightly at one side, and something that sent forth
a savory odor was bubbling on a little two-burner gas-stove. Courtland
was hungry, and it struck his nostrils pleasantly as the door swung
open, revealing a tiny table covered with a white cloth, set for two.
There was a window curtained with white, and a red geranium on the sill.

The girl entered ahead of him, sweeping back a bright chintz curtain
that divided the tiny room, and drew forth a child's cot bed. Courtland
gently laid down the little inert figure. The girl was on her knees
beside the child at once, a bottle in her hand. She was dropping a few
drops in a teaspoon and forcing them between the child's lips.