صفحة 41 من 416

"Now, you just let me handle this, Nellie," he said, "and we'll

soon have Tommie and Mary and Bige all curled up on that sofa

like three kittens."

With a sigh of ineffable relief she resigned the dead weight in

her weary arms to him, and he, stepping softly, and holding him

gently as a woman, soon had the boy more comfortable than he had

been for hours. Mary and Tommie followed, and then Nellie, free

of her responsibility at last, bent forward, put her elbows on

her knees, and wept.

Code, racked and embarrassed, looked around for his mother, but

that mainstay was nowhere in sight. He thought of whistling, so

as to appear unconscious of her tears, but concluded that would

be merely rude. To take up a paper or book and read it in the

face of a woman's weeping appeared hideous, although for the

first time in many months, he felt irresistibly drawn to the

ancient and dusty volumes in the glass-doored bookcase.