joy, on to the unfortunate child. Under a microscope it would probably
have looked like an Old Home Week. And Kirk did not care. He simply
kept on hugging. That was the sort of man he was, thoroughly heartless.
'Bill, you're great!' he cried.
Bill had been an amazed party to the incident. Nothing of this kind had
happened to him for so long that he had forgotten there were children
to whom this sort of thing did happen. Then he recollected a similar
encounter with a bearded man down in the hall when he came in one
morning from his ride in the automobile. A moment later he had
connected his facts.
This man who had no beard was the same man as the man who had a beard,
and this behaviour was a personal eccentricity of his. The thought
crossed his mind that Aunty Lora would not approve of this.
And then, surprisingly, there came the thought that he did not care
whether Aunty Lora approved or not. He liked it, and that was
enough for him.
The seeds of revolt had been sown in the bosom of William Bannister.
It happened that Ruth, returning from her luncheon-party, looked in at
the nursery on her way upstairs. She was confronted with the spectacle
of Bill seated on Kirk's lap, his face against Kirk's shoulder. Kirk,
though he had stopped speaking as the door opened, appeared to be in
the middle of a story, for Bill, after a brief glance at the newcomer,
asked: 'What happened then?'
'Kirk, really!' said Ruth.
Kirk did not appear in the least ashamed of himself.
'Ruth, this kid is the most amazing kid. Do you know what happened just
now? He was running along and he tripped and came down flat. And he
didn't even think of crying. He just picked himself up, and......'
'That was very brave of you, Billy. But, seriously, Kirk, you shouldn't
hug him like that. Think what Aunt Lora would say!'
'Aunt Lora be......Bother Aunt Lora!'
'Well, I won't give you away. If she heard, she would write a book
about it. And she was just starting to come up when I was downstairs.
We came in together. You had better fly while there's time.'
It was sound advice, and Kirk took it.
It was not till some time later, going over the incident again in his
mind, he realized how very lightly Ruth had treated what, if she really
adhered to Mrs. Porter's views on hygiene, should have been to her a
dreadful discovery. The reflection was pleasant to him for a moment; it
seemed to draw Ruth and himself closer together; then he saw the
reverse side of it.
If Ruth did not really believe in this absurd hygienic nonsense, why
had she permitted it to be practised upon the boy? There was only one
answer, and it was the one which Kirk had already guessed at. She did
it because it gave her more freedom, because it bored her to look after
the child herself, because she was not the same Ruth he had left at the
studio when he started with Hank Jardine for Colombia.
Three months of his new life had gone by before Kirk awoke from the
stupor which had gripped him as the result of the general upheaval of
