The other day I was looking through them, at his request, to find one of my own handkerchiefs which he had taken, and oh, horrors! a caterpillar, forgotten, had spun a big cocoon in one of them!" She shuddered, but in Kathleen's laughter there was a tremor of tenderness born of that shy pride which arises from possession.

For it was now too late, if it had not always been too late, for any criticism of this boy of hers.

Perfect he had always been, wondrous to her, as a child, for the glimpses of the man developing in him; perfect, wonderful, adorable now for the glimpses of the child which she caught so constantly through the man's character now forming day by day under her loyal eyes.

Everything masculine in him she loved or pardoned proudly--even his egotism, his slapdash self-confidence, his bullying of her, his domination, his exacting demands.

But this new humility--this sudden humble doubt that he might not be worthy of her, filled her heart with delicious laughter and a delight almost childish.
So she watched him from the parapet, chin cupped in both palms, bright hair blowing, one shoulder almost hidden under the drooping scarlet nasturtiums pendant from the carved stone urn above; a fair, sweet, youthful creature, young as her guiltless heart, sweet as her conscience, fair as the current of her stainless life.
And beside her, seated sideways, brown eyes brooding, sat a young girl, delicately lovely, already harassed, already perplexed, already bruised and wearied by her first skirmishes with life; not yet fully understanding what threatened, what lay before--alas! what lay behind her--even to the fifth generation.
They were to motor to Lenox after luncheon.