In the very dawn of babyhood dress had no special import; to his masculine eyes sex was lost in youth.

But, little by little, came the tiny changes which convention has established.

And with each change came to Squire Norman the growing realisation that his child was a woman.

A tiny woman, it is true, and requiring more care and protection and devotion than a bigger one; but still a woman.

The pretty little ways, the eager caresses, the graspings and holdings of the childish hands, the little roguish smiles and pantings and flirtings were all but repetitions in little of the dalliance of long ago.