Page:Possession (Roche, February 1923).pdf/282

 had two convulsions, but he got over them and he's the healthiest of all now. This is an awful fine child."

She had taken him from the bath, laid him on her broad lap, and, with a practised hand, was drying him. Derek looked down at her with almost overwhelming gratitude. At the moment he really loved her for what she had done. Her sad heavy face, her large bosom, her thick round shoulders were admirable, because they were the essence of brooding motherhood.

When she rose to go he saw that she was with child and his heart smote him for having been so excitable with her, and for having almost dragged her from her house to his.

"How can I ever repay you?" he asked, when she had Buckskin comfortably tucked up on the couch with Pegleg clasped to his breast.

"Don't worry about that," she said. "I s'pose his mother was badly frightened, eh?"

"His mother! Oh—she's away," Derek stammered, his face scarlet. "She's gone to Brancepeth for the day, shopping. I was here alone with him."

"No wonder you were scared," said Mrs. Chard, kindly.

Buckskin slept well that night and awakened Derek as usual by clasping his head in his fat little arms and kissing him rapturously. To get his jumping, naked little body into his clothes was a task that took all Derek's newly acquired skill. At breakfast he beat the table with his porridge spoon, and broke into trills of laughter over nothing.

"It's all very well," said Derek to him, seriously. "I like to see you in high spirits, old man, but have a thought for your poor dad. Yesterday you changed him from a hardy young man into a doddering old imbecile by your eccentricities. Don't do it again."

"Gug-gug! Did-dy, dad-dy!" replied his son, winking