difference! All the difference in the world.... "Oh,
Elizabeth!"... The barges had slid farther and farther under the
bridge; the woman and the child were out of sight; the steamboat
with its folded smoke-stacks slid after them, leaving a wake of
rocking, yellow foam; the water splashed loudly against the
piers. It was nearly dark there on the footpath, and quite
deserted. David put his head down on his arms on the railing and
stood motionless for a long moment.

When he reached home, he found his mother in the twilight, in the
little garden behind the house. David, standing behind her, said
carelessly, "I have some news for you, Materna."

"Yes?" she said, absorbed in pinching back her lemon verbena.

"Blair is--is spoony over Elizabeth. Here, I'll snip that thing
for you."

Mrs. Richie faced him in amazement. "What! Why, but they are both
children, and--" she stopped, and looked at him. "Oh--
_David!_" she said.

And the boy, forgetting the spying windows of the opposite
houses, dropped his head on her shoulder. "Materna--Materna," he
said, in a stifled voice.




CHAPTER VII