veranda, his face beaming with smiles.

"Ah, Cousin Elsie," he said as he assisted her to alight, "this is kind.
Marian has been looking forward to your visit with longing, both to see
you and to exhibit to your appreciative eyes the little one who seems
to her the greatest and loveliest darling the world ever saw."

"Ah, I can understand that," she returned with a low, pleased laugh. "I
have not forgotten how lovely and what an inestimable treasure my first
baby seemed to me; though I am by no means sure that each one who
followed was not an equal joy and delight."

"Your second son among the rest, I hope, mother," laughed Harold.

She gave him a loving smile in response.

"Will you go up with us, Harold?" asked Arthur.

"No, thank you," he said. "I will busy myself here with the morning
paper while mother makes her little call."

It was a most inviting looking apartment into which the doctor conducted
his cousin, tastefully furnished and redolent of the breath of flowers;
in pretty vases set here and there on bureau, mantel, and table, and
blooming in the garden beneath the open windows whence the soft, warm
air came stealing in through the lace curtains. But the chief ornaments
of the room were its living occupants--the young mother lying amid her
snowy pillows and the little one sleeping in its dainty crib close at
her side.