"What have I said? That you wouldn't do him any harm? Is there anything unkind in that? Look here, Nell, you really mustn't be so unreasonable. There is nothing a man hates so much as a fool. I am merely urging something for your pleasure. He would be company for you; I thought him quite an attractive youngster." "And you wouldn't have me so much on your mind? You wouldn't feel you had to come and see me so often!" "Well, if you want to put it that way," he said coldly. "I'm a very busy man. I can't get off whenever I feel like it." "And you can't leave your beloved Alice." He shot a blue gleam at her from under his heavy eyelids. "No; I can't." She quivered. But he went on quietly: "I know you're lonely, Helena, and as I can't come and see you quite so often as I used to, I want you to take this little fellow, simply to amuse you." She walked beside him silently. When they reached the bench under the poplar, she sat looking into the April distance without speaking. She was saying to herself, miserably, that she didn't want the child; she didn't want to lessen any sense of obligation that brought him to her;--and yet, she did not want him to come from a sense of obligation! "You would get great fun out of him, Nelly," he insisted. And looking up, she saw the kindness of his face and yielded. "Well, perhaps I will; that is, if Dr. Lavendar will let me have him. I'm afraid of Dr. Lavendar somehow." "Good!" he said heartily; "that's a real weight off my mind." Her lip curled again, but she said nothing. Lloyd Pryor yawned; then he asked her whether she meant to buy the house. "I don't know; sometimes I think there is less seclusion in the country than there is in town." She drew down a twig, and began to pull at the buds with aimless fingers. "I might like to come to Philadelphia and live near you, you know," she said. The sudden malice in her eyes was answered by the shock in his; his voice was disturbed when he spoke, though his words were commonplace: "It's a pleasant enough house." Then he looked at his watch, opening the case under the shelter of his hand--but she saw the photograph in the lid. "Is that a good picture of Alice?" she said with an effort. "Yes," he answered, hastily snapping the lid shut. "Helena, what are we going to have for dinner?" "Oh, nothing very much, I'm afraid," she told him ruefully. Then rising, she held out her hand. "Come! We mustn't quarrel again. I don't know why we always squabble!" "I'm sure I don't want to," he said. "Nelly, you are prettier every time I see you." He put a finger into one of the loose curls in the nape of her neck, and she looked up at him, her lip trembling. "And do you love me?" "Of course I do!" he declared, slipping his arm around her waist. And they walked thus between the box borders, back to the house. CHAPTER VII