He didn't mean to think about it or let Winny think. They were going to enjoy themselves to-night while they could, while they still felt innocent and clean and jolly. * * * * * He stooped for a moment over the crib where his little son lay curled and snuggling, his face hidden, his head, with its crop of dark hair, showing like the fur of some soft burrowing animal. He freed the little mouth muffled in bedclothes, and tucked the blankets closer. He picked up Stanny's Teddy bear that had fallen lamentably to the floor, and laid it where Stanny would find it beside him when he woke. Treading softly, he went into the next room where Dossie lay in her own little bed beside his mother's, her little seven-year-old girl body stretched out in all its dainty slenderness (so unlike Stanny's. He saw with a pang of sudden passion the sweet difference). Her face, laid sideways in her golden-brown hair, showed already a fine edge, nose, and mouth and chin turned subtly, and carved out of their baby softness to the likeness of his own. He stooped and kissed Dossie's hair, and took without touching the sweetness of her mouth. Then he ran softly down the stairs. His mother heard him running and came to the door of the room. "You're not going out like that," she said, "without an overcoat? It'll rain before you're back, I know, and that new suit'll be ruined." "Rot! It _can't_ rain on a night like this. Good night, Mother. Don't go sittin' up. I don't know when I'll be in." "I'll hot some cocoa for you last thing and leave it on the trivet." "Sha'n't want cocoa." "What shall you want then?" "Oh, Lord!" His nerves were all on edge. He couldn't bear it. "_Nothing!_" he cried, as he rushed out. At the gate it struck him that he had been a brute to her. He turned. He rushed back to her. He put his arm round her and kissed her. "You're all right now, aren't you?" "Yes, Ran, dear, I'm all right." She smiled. "Run away and don't keep Winny waiting." (Heaven only knew what it cost her.) And Ranny looked back, laughing, through the doorway. "You know, Mother, it reelly _is_ all right. And you're an angel." And she said, "There! Go along with you." He went. * * * * * "Ranny, how nice you look!" Winny herself was looking nice and knew it. She wore a green cotton gown trimmed with white pipings, and a thing she called a Peggy hat that was half a bell and half a bonnet and had diminutive roses sewn on it here and there like buttons. They were going down the long entrance to the Exhibition, between painted walls, in brilliant illumination, and in publicity that might have been trying if they had had eyes for anything except each other.