14/16 He did not know a single child .-- He knew in a vague, impersonal way a number of children whom he had had a momentary glimpse of occasionally at the fashionable houses which he visited; but he knew them only as he would have known handsomely dressed dolls in show windows. He had never thought of them as children, but only as a part of the personal belongings of his acquaintances--much as he thought of their bric-a-brac or their poodles. They were not like the children he had once known. He had never seen them romp and play or heard them laugh or shout. His father's serene face was beaming down on him. |