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 Edna were getting more friendly and he was becoming kina of used to the baby, she had to pull a bone like this. What would he do?

Eddie bent over the baby and kissed his cheek. He had a soft little cheek, and the smell of his healthy, clean young skin filled Eddie with happiness. His kid was like that. Sweet and normal and fresh like a young flower on its stem.

"Come on, Edna," he said. "It's after ten o'clock, and I got to take you home first."

"Why, that's silly, Eddie. I can perfectly well—"

"I'll take you home. Good night, Dot. Sleep well."

Dot heard them descending the stairs. Funny the stairs weren't carpeted. You'd think in a place like this where there were so many sick people that they'd have carpet. . . . Hm, Eddie took that pretty well after all. He'd made a good job of kissing the baby. Kissed him just as though he'd always wanted to kiss him and as though something had held him back before. Nice of him to try so hard to be decent about it. Perhaps if he tried real hard to love the baby he might get so after a while that he wouldn't mind holding the kid in his arms. Gee, imagine what it would be like if Eddie ever got to care about the baby! How wonderful it would be to know he was there suffering with her when the baby was ill, laughing with her at the antics of the child Edward, and rejoicing with her when the child had become a man. No, that could never be. The best she could hope for was a placid toleration of the little fellow. Eddie wasn't the sort to be soft over a kid. Maybe because his own father had been so rough and hard. Dot sighed. No use dreaming about the way things ought to be; it only made what really was, much more awful to bear.

It was Dot's duty now to prepare herself for bed. The days of being waited on were over, too. She was a patient