'ospital, with its white tiles and its antiseptics and what not, and
the temperature just so and no lower nor higher. I don't call it 'aving
a proper faith in Providence, pampering and fussing over a child to
that extent.'
'You're stringing me!'
'Not a bit of it, Mr. Dingle. I've seen the nursery with my own eyes,
and I 'ave my information direct from the young person who looks after
the child.'
'But, say, in the old days that kid was about the dandiest little sport
that ever came down the pike. You seen him that day I brought him round
to say hello to the old man. He didn't have no nursery at all then, let
alone one with white tiles. I've seen him come up off the studio floor
looking like a coon with the dust. And Miss Ruth tickled to see him
like that, too. For the love of Mike, what's come to her?'
'It's all along of this Porter,' said Keggs morosely. 'She's done it
all. And if,' he went on with sudden heat, 'she don't break her 'abit
of addressing me in a tone what the 'umblest dorg would resent, I'm
liable to forget my place and give her a piece of my mind. Coming round
and interfering!'
'Got your goat, has she?' commented Steve, interested. 'She's
what you'd call a tough proposition, that dame. I used to have my eye
on her all the time in the old days, waiting for her to start
something. But say, I'd like to see this nursery you've been talking
about. Take me up and let me lamp it.'
Keggs shook his head.
'I daren't, Mr. Dingle. It 'ud be as much as my place is worth.'
'But, darn it! I'm the kid's godfather.'
'That wouldn't make no difference to that Porter. She'd pick on me just
the same. But, if you care to risk it, Mr. Dingle, I'll show you where
it is. You'll find the young person up there. She'll tell you more
about the child's 'abits and daily life than I can.'
'Good enough,' said Steve.
He had not seen Mamie for some time, and absence had made the heart
grow fonder. It embittered him that his meetings with her were all too
rare nowadays. She seemed to have abandoned the practice of walking
altogether, for, whenever he saw her now she was driving in the
automobile with Bill. Keggs' information about the new system threw
some light upon this and made him all the more anxious to meet her now.
It was a curious delusion of Steve's that he was always going to pluck
up courage and propose to Mamie the very next time he saw her. This had
gone on now for over two years, but he still clung to it. Repeated
failures to reveal his burning emotions never caused him to lose the
conviction that he would do it for certain next time.
It was in his customary braced-up, do-or-die frame of mind that he
entered the nursery now.
His visit to Keggs had been rather a late one and had lasted some time
before the subject of the White Hope had been broached, with the result
that, when Steve arrived among the white tiles and antiseptics, he
found his godson in bed and asleep. In a chair by the cot Mamie sat
