“I don't,” he as promptly assured her; “but you will never get away from it; you will never sit contentedly through long afternoons playing bridge; you're cursed, if you want to call it that.” “I saw Peyton's child,” she said at a tangent. “He had hold of the nurse's apron in such a funny decided fist. I wanted to hug him, but I remembered that it wasn't the thing to do. She has that,” a shade of defiance darkened her voice at her reference to Claire. “Babies are no longer overwhelmingly important,” Lee retorted; “not in the face of emotion itself; they have become a sort of unavoidable, almost an undesirable by-product.” “They won't be with me,” Mina Raff promised. It was evident to him that she saw herself in the role of a mother; her face had a tender maternal glamour, her eyes were misted with sentiment; a superb actress. “A baby of my own,” she whispered; “a baby and a house and Peyton.” “Nothing duller could be imagined.” Momentarily he lost his self-restraint. “You have something inimitable, supremely valuable, and you are dreaming like a rabbit. If you must be a mother, be that one on the screen, for the thrilling of millions of limited minds.” “He seemed to like me.” She had paid no attention to him, back again in the thought of the Morrises' son. “If he did,” Lee dryly added; “he will very soon get over it; Ira won't love you conspicuously.” “Why--why that never entered my head,” Mina was startled; “but, yes, how could he? And I can't bear to have anyone, the most insignificant person alive, hate me. It makes me too wretched to sleep. They will have to understand, be generous; I'll explain so it is entirely clear to them.” Her voice bore an actual note of fear, her delicate lips trembled uncontrollably. “You can't blame them, Ira and his mother, if they refuse to listen. Eastlake as a town will dispense with you; and Claire's family--it is really quite notable--will have their say wherever they live, in Charleston and London and Spain. When Ira is grown up and, in his turn, has children, they will be very bitter about your memory. However, publicly, I suppose it will do you more good than harm. The public loves such scandal; but, with that advertisement, the other will continue. It isn't logical, I'll admit; except for Claire I should support you. That is where, and only where, I am dragged into your privacy. And, too, for your sake, it would have been better if you had hit on a different sort of man, one without the background of such stubborn traditions. You will have to fight them both in him--where they, too, may come to blame you--and about you. There is a strain of narrow intolerance through all that blood.” * * * * *