"Oh, Lord, Noel! D-don’t do that again! The m-machine can’t feel it! N-now if you had struck your horse--"
St. Quentin turned on her savagely, but said nothing.
"T-that’s right, Noel. D-don’t speak. There’s a good deal in being a g-gentleman, after all. If you h-hadn’t been, you would have said, ’S-shut up, Kate!’"
"If your husband," said St. Quentin, slowly, "ever goes to jail for wife-beating, I shall bail him out."
"I-it’s strange how men agree with one another," said Kate, pensively. "M-my cousin has always said that a g-good beating with a bed-slat would about fit my c-case."
"Bright boy!" said St. Quentin. "He ought to get on in the world."
"Hadn’t we better turn back, Noel? I have an engagement at five."
"Do you have to go home to dress, or shall I drop you anywhere?"
"I was just going to see Gladys for half an hour. You may drop me at Mrs. Goddard’s if you will."
"Will Carolina be there?" asked St. Quentin.
"Yes, I think so. Do you want to see her?" asked Kate, innocently.
"Well, I’d rather like to see her with the child. Will you let me come in with you?"
"I say, Kate," said St. Quentin, after a pause, "keep your eye open for a toy shop, will you? One oughtn’t to call on a child without some little present, ought one?"
"You won’t find one up in this part of the country, such as you want," said Kate. "Let her out a little and we will have time to go down to Twenty-third Street."
When they came out of the shop, even Kate, extravagant as she was, was aghast.
"Noel, it’s w-wicked to spend money like that. Why, that child is only a b-baby. She can’t appreciate all those hand-made clothes for that doll. And real lace! It’s absurd!"
"Kate," said St. Quentin, slowly, "if you were that crippled baby, I’d have bought you everything in that whole shop!"
A lump came into Kate’s throat so suddenly that it choked her.
When they arrived at Mrs. Goddard’s, there was no need to ask the butler if the ladies were at home, for, instead of the formal household Mrs. Goddard used to boast, the house seemed now to have become a home. Even the butler looked human, as laughter and childish screams of delight floated down the hall from the second floor.
"Perkins, what is it?" asked Kate, pausing suddenly.