I'll have to wait till he's older for that."

"Would you take the baby?" he asked surprisedly.

"How could I leave him?" she returned.

"I thought perhaps--didn't your stepmother have any relatives?"

"A few; but they are not people with whom he would be happy," she said
simply.

He looked at her with a puzzled face, made a move to speak, then
stopped, ashamed to utter what was in his mind; ashamed to tell her that
such devotion to a half-brother would hardly be expected of her, and
that, freed from him, she might make a far easier start in life.
Instead, he merely nodded his head understandingly, and kept silence,
feeling that here was a nature not to be approached, except with care
and reverence, first putting off the dust-soiled shoes of custom and
worldly prudence, as unfit to enter there. After a little more talk he
rose reluctantly.

"Our good Mrs. Updyke will be scandalized to see a light here after
half-past nine," he remarked lightly. "Have you any word to send to Aunt
Felicie?"

"Always my love and reverence," said Sara, with a touch of the old-
fashioned manner that Robert thought one of her greatest charms. "And,
if you think I may trouble her, I will write what there is to tell,
though even Miss Prue does not know all the dreams I have had for the
future."