It was all quite true. He did manage her children and their children--there were three of each--with astonishing ease and success. They amused him, and adored him. He understood them utterly. Honor was seven when her own father died and nine when her mother married again. Stephen Lorimer would never forget her first inspection of him. Nursemaids had done their worst on the subject of stepfathers; fairy tales had presented the pattern. He knew exactly what was going on in her mind, and--quite as earnestly beneath his persiflage as he had set himself to woo the widow--he set himself to win her daughter. It was a matter of moments only before he saw the color coming back into her square little face and the horror seeping out of her eyes. It was a matter of days only until she sought him out and told him, in her mother's presence, that she believed she liked him better than her first father. "Honor, _dear_! You--you mustn't, really----" Mildred Lorimer insisted with herself on being shocked. "Don't _you_, Muzzie? Don't you like him better?" the child wanted persistently to know. "He was very nice, of course; I did like him awfully. But he was always 'way off Down Town ... at The Office. We didn't have any fun with him. Stepper's always home. I'm glad we married a newspaper one this time." "Stephen, that dreadful name.... What will people think?" Her new husband didn't in the least care. He and Honor had gravely considered on that first day what they should call each other. It seemed to Stephen Lorimer that it was hardly fair to the gentleman who had stayed so largely at The Office to have his big little daughter and his tiny sons calling his successor Father or Dad, and _Papa_ with all its shades and shifts of accent left him cold. "Let's see, Honor. 'Stepfather' as a salutation sounds rather accusing, doesn't it? 'Step-pa,' now, is less austere, but----" "Oh, Stephen, _dear_!" They were not consulting Mrs. Lorimer at all. "I've got it! It's an inspiration! 'Stepper!' Neat, crisp, brisk. Means, if any one should ask you, 'Step-pa' and also, literally, stepper; a stepper; one who steps--into another's place." "_Stephen_----" "Well, haven't I, my dear?" He considered the three young Carmodys, nine, seven, and five. "Steps yourselves, aren't you? Honor's the top step and----" "Oh, Stepper, call me Top Step! I like that." "Right. And Billy's Bottom Step and Ted's the Tweeny! Now we're all set!" "Yes," said Honor, contentedly. She herded her little brothers out of the room and came back alone. "But--what'll I tell people you _are_?" "Why, I think," he considered, "you're young enough and trusting enough to call me A Writer." "I mean, are you Muzzie's step-husband, too?"