'You poor boy, how thin you are!'
'I had fever. It's an awful place for fever out there.'
'Kirk!'
'Oh, I'm all right now. The voyage set me up. They made a great fuss
over me on board.'
Ruth's hand was clinging to his arm. He squeezed it against his side.
It was wonderful to him, this sense of being together again after these
centuries of absence. It drove from his mind the thought of all the
explanations which sooner or later he had got to make. Whatever might
come after, he would keep this moment in his memory golden and
untarnished.
'Don't you worry about me,' he said. 'Now that I've found you again I'm
feeling better than I ever did in my life. You wait till you see me
sparring with Steve to-morrow. By the way, how is Steve?'
'Splendid.'
'And Bill?'
Ruth drew herself up haughtily.
'You dare to ask about your son after Steve? How clumsy that sounds! I
mean you dare to put Steve before your son. I believe you've only just
realized that you have a son.'
'I've only just realized there's anybody or anything in the world
except my wife.'
'Well, after that I suppose I've got to forgive you. Since you have
asked after Bill at last, I may tell you that he's very well indeed.'
Kirk's eyes glowed.
'He ought to be a great kid by now.'
'He is.'
'And Mamie? Have you still got her?'
'I wouldn't lose her for a million.'
'And Whiskers?'
'I'm afraid Whiskers is gone.'
'Not dead?'
'No. I gave him away.'
'For Heaven's sake! Why?'
'Well, dear, the fact is, I've come around to Aunt Lora's way of
thinking.'
'Eh?'
'About germs.'
Kirk laughed, the first real laugh he had had for a year.
'That insane fad of hers!'
Ruth was serious.
'I have,' she said. 'We're taking a great deal more care of Bill than
in the old days. I hate to think of the way I used to let him run
around wild then. He might have died.'
'What nonsense! He was simply bursting with health all the time.'
'I had a horrible shock after you left,' Ruth went on. 'The poor little
fellow was awfully ill with some kind of a fever. The doctor almost
gave him up.'
'Good heavens!'
'Aunt Lora helped me to nurse him, and she made me see how I had been
