"We're so delighted," Mrs. Stornaway announced, as if to the bystanders. "Everybody in Willowfield is so delighted to have you back again. The church has not seemed the same place. The man who took your place--Mr. Jeramy, you know--you haven't any idea how unpopular----" "Excuse me," said Baird, "I must speak to Latimer. Where is Latimer, Annie?" "Who is Latimer?" asked Mrs. Stornaway. "Excuse me," said Baird again, and turning back towards the platform, he disappeared among the crowd with Annie, who had clung to his hand. "Why, he's gone!" proclaimed Mrs. Stornaway. "But where's he gone? Why didn't he stay? Who's Latimer?" "Latimer!" Miss Amory echoed, "you ought to know him. His family lives in Willowfield. He is the man who was coming home to take charge of the little church at Janway's Mills. He has evidently crossed the Atlantic with them." "Well, now, I declare," proclaimed Mrs. Stornaway. "It must be the man who took his sister to Europe. It was a kind of absurd thing. She died away--the girl did, and people wondered why he did not come back and how he lived. Why, yes, that must be the man." And she turned to look about for him. Miss Amory Starkweather made a slight movement. "Don't look," she said. "He might not like to be stared at." "They're quite common people," commented Mrs. Stornaway, still staring. "They live in a little house in a side street. They had very silly ideas about the girl. They thought she was a genius and sent her to the School of Art in Boston, but it wasn't long before her health failed her. Ah! I guess that must be the man talking to Mr. Baird and Annie. He looks as if he would go off in a consumption." He was a tall, hollow-chested man, with a dark, sallow face and an ungainly figure. There were suggestions of both ill-health and wretchedness in his appearance, and his manner was awkward and embarrassed. Two human beings more utterly unlike each other than himself and the man who held his hand could not possibly have been found. It was Baird who held his hand, not he Baird's, and it was Baird who seemed to speak while he listened, while with his free hand he touched the hair of the child Annie. "Well," remarked Mrs. Stornaway, "Mr. Baird seems to have taken a fancy to him. I don't think he's attractive myself. Are they going to talk to him all day?" "No," said Miss Amory, "he is going now." He was going. Baird had released his hand and he was looking in a gloomy, awkward way at Annie, as if he did not know how to make his adieux. But Annie, who was a simple child creature, solved the difficulty for him with happy readiness. She flung both her small arms about his ungainly body and held up her face. "Kiss me three times," she said; "three times." Latimer started and flushed. He looked down at her and then glanced rather timidly at Baird. "Kiss her," said Baird, "it will please her--and it will please me."