Indeed, my life, I have it--the nose of my forefathers." Aaron made this declaration in a tone of comic despair. "And having it I will not part with it, except with life." There was so much playful humor in the dissertation that Rachel laughed outright. Her laugh was the sweetest in the world, and it fell like music on Aaron's heart. He smiled, and there was a gleam in his eyes, and presently he spoke again. "I am not aware whether you have ever observed the attraction a big nose has for children. Take the most popular drama of all ages, Punch and Judy. Where is the artist who would venture to present Punch with any but an enormous nose? Are the children frightened at it? No, they revel in it. Do they sympathize with Judy when she is slain? Not at all; every whack Punch gives her is greeted with shrieks of laughter--because of his enormous nose. Introduce two strangers to a baby, one with a very small nose, the other with a very big nose. Let them both hold out their arms. Instinctively the baby flies to the man with the large nose. It is Nature's silent voice that instructs the child. He or she--the sex is not material--instinctively knows which is the better nose of the two, which is the most promising nose, the most suggestive of kisses and jumps in the air and cakes and songs, and all that is dear to a child's heart. The test is infallible. Nothing will convince me that you did not marry me because of my big nose." "Indeed, dear," said Rachel, still laughing, "I hardly think I would have married you without it." "Then the fact is established. I am about to make a confession to you, Rachel; I am going to tell you the true reasons for my choosing this place to reside in, where I am separated by a long distance from the friends of my youth and manhood, and where you, too, my dear child"--in his moments of tenderness he occasionally addressed her thus--"will, I fear, be for a time without friends to whom you can unbosom yourself." "I have you, my dear husband," said Rachel in a tone of deep affection, drawing closer to him, and slipping her little hand into his great hand. A fine, large, nervous hand was Aaron Cohen's; a palmister would have seen great possibilities in it. Rachel's hand, despite her domestic work, was the hand of a lady; she took a proper pride in preserving its delicacy and beauty. "I have you, my dear husband," she said. "Yes, my life, but you used to kiss at least a dozen female friends a day." "I kissed Prissy and the baby to-night."