But Willie paid no heed, and as Eudora had said, was directly under foot, when she unlocked the door; his the first form distinctly seen, his the first face which met the doctor’s view, and his fearless baby laugh the first sound which welcomed the doctor home! CHAPTER XXIX. THE RESULT. It was not a disagreeable picture—that chubby, rosy cheeked little boy, his white fat shoulders peeping out from the dress of crimson and black, his fair curls blowing around his forehead, and his eyes raised curiously to the doctor’s face. Willie had not expected to see a stranger, and at sight of the tall figure, muffled above the chin, he drew back timidly and half hid himself behind Mrs. Richards, whom he intuitively knew to be the warmest ally he had among the three ladies gathered in the hall. As the doctor had said to Irving Stanley he disliked children, but he could not help noticing Willie, and after the first greetings were over he asked, “Whom have we here? whose child is this?” Eudora and Asenath tried to frown, but the expression of their faces softened as they glanced at Willie, who had followed them into the parlor, and who, with one little foot thrown forward, and his fat hands pressed together, stood upon the hearth rug, gazing at the doctor with that strange look which had so often puzzled, bewildered, and fascinated the entire Richards family. “Anna wrote you that the maid she so much wanted had come to her at last—a very lady-like person, who has evidently seen better days, and this is her boy, Willie. He is such a queer little fellow, that we allow him more liberties than we ought.” It was Mrs. Richards who volunteered this explanation, while her son stood looking down at Willie, wondering what it was about the child which seemed familiar. Anna had mentioned Mrs. Hastings in her letter—had said how much she liked her, had spoken of her boy, but the _Hastings_ had been badly blotted, and as the Doctor was too much absorbed in his own affairs to care for Anna’s waiting-maid, he had not thought of her since, notwithstanding that ’Lina had tried many times to make him speak of Anna’s maid, so as to calculate her own safety. “So you’ve taken to petting a servant’s child, for want of something better,” he said in answer to Mrs. Richards’ rather long speech concerning Willie. Ere Mrs. Richards could reply Anna made her appearance, and the fastidious Doctor forgot the little fellow, who was coaxed from the room by Pamelia, and taken to his mother.