"Oh, mama! aren't you glad you're not a little girl any longer?" said Eva. "Oh, what shall we do with her, Hobbs, if she is so naughty?" said Dora, taking the child up in her arms and covering her with kisses. And yet, she knew that the reproaches were well-merited. "Is it true that mama was a little girl first?" "Of course, dear, certainly." "Quite a little girl, and then as tall as that--and that--and that?" "Yes!--and then like this," said Dora, touching the top of her head. "Well, then, you had a mama, too, that's grandma, isn't it? Was she pretty, like you?" "Much prettier." "Did she scold you?" "Certainly, when I was naughty." "Isn't it funny though?--Where is daddy?" "He is coming in a minute, dearie. Come, it is time you went for a walk, Hobbs," said Dora to the good woman, who was laughing at the child's questions; "do not stay out very long; it is chilly, and Miss Eva might catch cold." "Very well, ma'am," replied Hobbs. Dora, ascertaining that the child was warmly enough clad, gave her bonnet strings an extra touch, then looked at her and kissed her again and again. Eva and her nurse went out at the studio door. The latter, finding a letter in the box, came back with it and gave it to Dora, returning again to the child. Dora, remembering Eva's reproaches, felt the tears come into her eyes. With many women the mother kills the wife, but Dora was so much absorbed in her husband that she often reproached herself with not taking enough notice of the child. She was wife first, mother next. Yet, God knew how she adored her child. IV DORA It was past noon, and Philip had not yet set to work.