“O no, the baby isn’t afraid of anybody,” returned Anna before she had time to reflect. Then she flushed. “I mean he isn’t afraid of anyone he’s used to. Of course he’s used to them.” “Then he’d get used to me?” Mrs. Langley half-asserted, half-questioned. Anna’s heart sank. “I guess Joe, Junior’d better not go so far from home again until he’s older,” she said gently. “I ought to have known better. But I can come just the same. The boys have already offered to mind him Saturday.” “But I want to see _him_ again,” Mrs. Langley insisted. And Anna felt as if she were standing on her head, to have Mrs. Langley begging to see the baby and to be trying to hold her off. “Yes, indeed, Mrs. Langley, when he’s a wee bit older,” she temporized, but the other broke in impatiently. “Anna Miller! it’s just because he’s a baby that I want to see him. When he’s older, I sha’n’t care.” Anna sighed. “He’ll get used to me,” Mrs. Langley urged. “I understand that he lets Mr. Langley hold him?” “O, any child would go to Mr. Langley, he’s so good and so----” “So _what_?” demanded the minister’s wife, so fiercely that Anna faltered the word she had meant to swallow: _handsome_. “Anna Miller! Do you mean to tell me that I--that I frightened that baby by my looks?” cried the invalid yet more fiercely. “You don’t happen to look like anyone he’s happened to see so far, nor--dress like ’em,” Anna murmured deprecatingly. “You’d hardly expect him ever to see anyone who had suffered as I have all these years and lost everyone they ever cared for!” “There’s Mr. Langley,” Anna reminded her. “Of course. But he isn’t like one’s own child. Anna, will you go out and send Bell in to me. Then please wait until she comes for you.” Too sore and shocked to protest, Anna complied silently. She guessed that Mrs. Langley was about to consult a mirror. If she hadn’t seen herself since--since the little lamb had been placed in the cemetery, she would--but Anna’s imagination refused to compass the situation. She waited with mingled dread and terror for--she knew not what. CHAPTER XV Big Bell’s voice was actually soft as she bade Anna return to her mistress, and the girl stole fearfully in. However, nothing dire had happened. Except that she was strangely subdued, Mrs. Langley was her usual self. But Anna’s heart ached sadly. She chattered lightly about the snow-fall and the interrupted skating. Mrs. Langley, who hadn’t listened, presently broke in. “Anna, what can I do to make--so that the baby won’t be afraid of me?” she asked at once meekly and fiercely so that Anna shuddered. There was no answer to that riddle, but she plucked up a bit of spirit. “It was partly the dark--the half dark, I mean. Junior’s used to one thing or t’other. There’s no twilight in our house any more than there was where he came from,” she said, rather talking against time than making a suggestion. But the other took it as such.