“You insane creature!” she cried.  “How crazy of you to leave him to her!  I know both of them.  I have met them often.  She may be able to make good her boast.  But it is perfectly splendid of you!  And, after all, really it is the only way.  I can see that.  I think it is what I should have done myself, or tried to do.  I don’t know that I could have done it!  When I think of walking away and leaving Freckles with a woman he once loved, to let her see if she can make him love her again, oh, it gives me a graveyard heart.  No, I never could have done it!  You are bigger than I ever was.  I should have turned coward, sure.”

“I am a coward,” admitted Elnora.  “I am soul-sick!  I am afraid I shall lose my senses before this is over.  I didn’t want to come!  I wanted to stay, to go straight into his arms, to bind myself with his ring, to love him with all my heart.  It wasn’t my fault that I came.  There was something inside that just pushed me.  She is beautiful——­”

“I quite agree with you!”

“You can imagine how fascinating she can be.  She used no arts on me.  Her purpose was to cower me.  She found she could not do that, but she did a thing which helped her more:  she proved that she was honest, perfectly sincere in what she thought.  She believes that if she merely beckons to Philip, he will go to her.  So I am giving her the opportunity to learn from him what he will do.  She never will believe it from any one else.  When she is satisfied, I shall be also.”

“But, child!  Suppose she wins him back!”

“That is the supposition with which I shall eat and sleep for the coming few weeks.  Would one dare ask for a peep at the babies before going to bed?”

“Now, you are perfect!” announced the Angel.  “I never should have liked you all I can, if you had been content to go to sleep in this house without asking to see the babies.  Come this way.  We named the first boy for his father, of course, and the girl for Aunt Alice.  The next boy is named for my father, and the baby for the Bird Woman.  After this we are going to branch out.”

Elnora began to laugh.

“Oh, I suspect there will be quite a number of them,” said the Angel serenely.  “I am told the more there are the less trouble they make.  The big ones take care of the little ones.  We want a large family.  This is our start.”

She entered a dark room and held aloft a candle.  She went to the side of a small white iron bed in which lay a boy of eight and another of three.  They were perfectly formed, rosy children, the elder a replica of his mother, the other very like.  Then they came to a cradle where a baby girl of almost two slept soundly, and made a picture.

“But just see here!” said the Angel.  She threw the light on a sleeping girl of six.  A mass of red curls swept the pillow.  Line and feature the face was that of Freckles.  Without asking, Elnora knew the colour and expression of the closed eyes.  The Angel handed Elnora the candle, and stooping, straightened the child’s body.  She ran her fingers through the bright curls, and lightly touched the aristocratic little nose.