common sense!'
'Aunt Lora!' said Ruth.
She spoke quietly, but there was a note in her voice which acted on
Mrs. Porter like magic. Her flow of words ceased abruptly. It was a
small incident, but it had the effect of making Kirk, grateful as he
was for the interruption, somehow vaguely uneasy for a moment.
It seemed to indicate some subtle change in Ruth's character, some new
quality of hardness added to it. The Ruth he had left when he sailed
for Colombia would, he felt, have been incapable of quelling her
masterful aunt so very decisively and with such an economy of words. It
suggested previous warfare, in which the elder women had been subdued
to a point where a mere exclamation could pull her up when she forgot
herself.
Kirk felt uncomfortable. He did not like these sudden discoveries about
Ruth.
'I will explain to Kirk,' she said. 'You go up and see that everything
is right in the nursery.'
And, amazing spectacle! off went Mrs. Porter without another word.
Ruth put her arm in Kirk's and led him off to the smoking-room.
'You may smoke a cigar while I tell you all about Bill,' she said.
Kirk lit a cigar, bewildered. It is always unpleasant to be the person
to whom things have to be explained.
'Poor old boy,' Ruth went on, 'you certainly are thin. But about Bill.
I am afraid you are going to be a little upset about Bill, Kirk. Aunt
Lora has no tact, and she will make a speech on every possible
occasion; but she was right just now. It really was rather dangerous,
picking Bill up like that and kissing him.'
Kirk stared.
'I don't understand. Did you expect me to wave my hand to him? Or would
it have been more correct to bow?'
'Don't be so satirical, Kirk; you wither me. No, seriously, you really
mustn't kiss Bill. I never do. Nobody does.'
'What!'
'I dare say it sounds ridiculous to you, but you were not here when he
was so ill and nearly died. You remember what I was telling you at the
dock? About giving Whiskers away? Well, this is all part of it. After
what happened I feel, like Aunt Lora, that we simply can't take too
many precautions. You saw his nursery. Well, it would be simply a waste
of money giving him a nursery like that if he was allowed to be exposed
to infection when he was out of it.'
'And I am supposed to be infectious?'
'Not more than anybody else. There's no need to be hurt about it. It's
just as much a sacrifice for me.'
'So nobody makes a fuss over Bill now, is that it?'
'Well, no. Not in the way you mean.'
'Pretty dreary outlook for the kid, isn't it?'
'It's all for his good.'
'What a ghastly expression!'
Ruth left her chair and came and sat on the arm of Kirk's. She ruffled
his hair lightly with the tips of her fingers. Kirk, who had been
