Evie was sitting in one of the low window seats in the hall at Vail, regarding with all the gravity due to the subject her two months\' old baby, that soft little atom round which revolved the world and the stars and all space. Her discoveries about it were in number like the sands of the sea, but far more remarkable. This afternoon they had been, and still continued to be, epoch-making.

"His nose," she said, after a long pause, to Lady Oxted, who was sitting by the fire, "is at present like mine—that is to say, it is no particular nose, but it will certainly be like Harry\'s, which is perpendicular. That\'s a joke, dear aunt, the sort of thing which people who write society stories think clever. It isn\'t, really."

Lady Oxted sighed.

"And his brains exactly resemble both yours and Harry\'s, dear," she said—"that is to say, they are no particular brains."

Evie took no notice whatever of this vitriolic comment.

"And its eyes are certainly Harry\'s eyes," she went on. "Oh, I went to see Jim\'s wife to-day, you know the dairymaid whom Harry was supposed[Pg 440]—— Well, I went to see her. Jim was there too. I love Jim. You know the resemblance to Harry is simply ridiculous. I was in continual fear lest I should forget it was Jim and say, \'Come, darling, it\'s time to go.\' And then Harry might have behaved as I once did. Oh, here\'s nurse.—What a bore you are, nurse, O my own angelic!"

Evie gave up a kiss-smothered baby, and went across to where Lady Oxted was sitting.

"And Mrs. Jim\'s baby, I must allow, has its points," she continued. "That\'s why I\'m sure that Geoff\'s eyes are like Harry\'s, because Geoff\'s eyes are exactly like Jim\'s baby\'s eyes, and Jim is Harry. By the way, where is the spurious Geoff,—the old one, I mean?"

"The old one went out within five minutes of his arrival here," said Lady Oxted. "I tried to make myself agreeable to him, but apparently I failed, for he simply yawned in my face, and said, \'Where\'s Harry?\'"

"Yes, Aunt Violet," said Evie, "you and I sha\'n\'t get a look in while those men are here, and we had better resign ourselves to it, and take two nice little back seats. In fact, I felt a little neglected this morning. Harry woke with a great stretch and said, \'By gad, it\'s Tuesday!—Geoff and the beloved doctor come to-day,\' and he never even said good-morning to the wife of his bosom."

"He\'s tiring of you," remarked Lady Oxted.

"I know; isn\'t it sad, and we have been married[Pg 441] less than a year? As I was saying, he got up at once, instead of going to sleep again, and I heard him singing in his bath. Oh, I just love that husband of mine," she said.

"So you have told me before," said Lady Oxted acidly.

"What a prickly aunt!" said Evie. "Dear Aunt Violet, if Geoffrey and the beloved physician and Jim weren\'t such darlings, all of them, I should be jealous of them—I should indeed."

"What a lot of darlings you have, Evie!" said the other.

"I know I have. I wish there were twice as many. For the whole point of the world is the darlings. A person with no darlings is dead—dead and buried. And the more darlings you have, by so much the more is the world alive. Isn\'t it so? I have lots—oh, and the world is good! All those I have, and you, and Harry even, and I might include my own Geoff. Also Uncle Bob, especially when he is rude to you."

The prickly aunt was tender enough, and Evie knew it.

"Oh, my dear!" she said. "It makes my old blood skip and sing to see you so happy. And Harry—my goodness, what a happy person Harry is!"

"I trust and believe he is," Evie said, "and my hope and exceeding reward are that he may always be. But to-day—to-day——" she said.

Lady Oxted was silent.

"Just think," said Evie, "what was happening[Pg 442] a year ago. At this hour a year ago Harry was here with the doctor and his uncle and his uncle\'s servant. And then evening fell, as it is falling now. Later came Geoffrey and Jim. Oh, I can\'t yet bear to think of it!"

"I think if I were Harry I should be rather fond of those three," said Lady Oxted. "Being a woman, I am in love with them all, like you."

"Of course you are," said Evie. "Oh, yes, Jim was just going out when I was with his wife, to meet the others."

"To meet them?" asked Lady Oxted.

"Yes; Harry said it was a secret, but it\'s such a dear one I must tell you. They were going together—it was Harry\'s idea—to the church. The two graves, his uncle\'s and that other man\'s, are side by side. I asked if I might come too, but he said certainly not; I was not in that piece!"

"And then?"

Evie got up.

"I think they were just going to say their prayers there," she said. "Oh, I love those men. They............