"No; I shall calm down in time; but I never get used to having you so far away. It never seems quite right, when the rest of us are all here together." "I am a little terrified at the prospect of the coming week," Hope said, as she sat down on the couch and looked across the lawn to where Mac was playing. "What now?" "Babe is to have her fresh-air child." "Hope! You don't mean it?" "Yes, she has coaxed papa into giving his consent. Is it a new idea to you?" Theodora dropped her duster, and sat down beside her sister. "It's new to us all," she said despairingly. "We never heard of it till last night. What will that girl do next? She detests children, and she has about as much idea of discipline as she has about--raising poultry. It is Isabel St. John's doing, I know. She is Babe's best-beloved friend; and where one leads, the other will follow." "Babe seems to be in earnest about it," Hope said charitably. "She's in earnest about everything--by fits and starts. It only doesn't last. She seems to be losing something of her medical fervor, and probably this is taking its place. I suppose she has met somebody who slums for a living, and the idea enchants her. I used to have aspirations that way, myself; but I am coming to the conclusion that for me charity begins at home, and that it counts for more to make Billy comfortable than to make his life a burden with my hobbies." "Blunt as ever, Teddy?" Hope's laugh had no sting. "Yes. I haven't reformed yet. Things 'rile' me, just as they used to, things and people. I'm a good hater, Hope." There was a suspicious glitter in her eyes; but it vanished, as Hope's hand touched her own. "And a good lover, too, dear. I wasn't criticising, for I think you are in the right of it. But Babe really seems rather practical. She only wants the child for a week, and she agrees to take all the care of it and give it its meals away from the table." "Yes; but what will she do with it?" Theodora's tone showed her perplexity. "There's no telling what may happen in the course of a week. She will test all the theories of all the cranks on the one poor baby, one theory a day, and by the end of the week, there won't be any baby left to send home again." "My chief worry is for Mac," Hope said resignedly. "Oh, I don't think the child will hurt him," Theodora reassured her. "They won't dare send a very bad one." "No; but it may work the other way about. I am a good deal more worried in regard to Mac's effect on the child, and--" "Mam-ma!" "No, Mac. I told you that you mustn't come here. This is Aunt Teddy's house, and people don't come here, unless she invites them." The door swung open a little way, and a chubby face appeared in the crack. "Ven please 'vite me now, Aunt Teddy." "You may come in, Mac." Mac came in, wriggled his fat little body into the narrow space between his mother and his aunt, and gave a sigh of relief.