"Was there ever such egregious folly?" he began, but remembering he
was quoting Maria North's favorite resume of his own conduct, he
stopped. The child cried, missing, no doubt, the full rounded
curves and plump arm of its nurse. North danced it violently, with
an inward accompaniment that was not musical, and thought of the
other dancers. "Doubtless," he mused, "she has told this beau of
hers that she has left the baby with the 'looney' Man on the Beach.
Perhaps I may be offered a permanent engagement as a harmless
simpleton accustomed to the care of children. Mothers may cry for
me. The doctor is at Eureka. Of course, he will be there to see
his untranslated goddess, and condole with her over the imbecility
of the Man on the Beach." Once he carelessly asked Joe who the
company were.

"Well," said Joe, mournfully, "thar's Widder Higsby and darter; the
four Stubbs gals; in course Polly Doble will be on hand with that
feller that's clerking over at the Head for Jones, and Jones's
wife. Then thar's French Pete, and Whisky Ben, and that chap that
shot Archer,--I disremember his name,--and the barber--what's that
little mulatto's name--that 'ar Kanaka? I swow!" continued Joe,
drearily, "I'll be forgettin' my own next--and--"

"That will do," interrupted North, only half concealing his disgust
as he rose and carried the baby to the other room, beyond the reach
of names that might shock its ladylike ears. The next morning he
met the from-dance-returning Bessy abstractedly, and soon took his
leave, full of a disloyal plan, conceived in the sleeplessness of
her own bedchamber. He was satisfied that he owed a duty to its
unknown parents to remove the child from the degrading influences
of the barber Kanaka, and Hank Fisher especially, and he resolved