Part 13 (1/2)
The gentleman in this particular charity was surprised to find how siood In this case no one had come to him with a petition or a demand; on the contrary, a note of undeserved thanks had, with the strange little creature, been presented to him
It was so pleasantly easy to help a child! There were no _arrieres pensees_--not that they would have troubled his, no tiestion or criticis he could do was so annoyingly little! The charwoman cleaned, Simone had a complete wardrobe, the larder was full, and there re was so womanly and capable--he had seen it and e and accomplishments--her hands were so apt and almost creative, that toys seely; rushed over at the least provocation to pour out her gratitude, and Bulstrode, who hated thanks, liked these
Childhood, if it had been for sale on the Boulevard, even that he would have bought Si before a series of shops other than chemisiers--florists, and jewellers'--shops where diminutive objects were displayed--and one afternoon had been standing ridiculously long in front of a certainon the Rue de Rivoli when he was accosted by an agreeable and familiar voice
”Jimmy! It isn't possible! don't tell ave a violent, but an entirely happy start Well, there were rewards then for people who didn't follow speeding h France! She was back and in Paris
”What--has come so soon?” he asked
Mrs Falconer, on her way from a hat shop in her automobile, stopped by his side
”Why, your second childhood,before?”
Bulstrode seeht in it Behind the bigpane there was a bright and very juvenile display
shi+ps sailed there; dolls hung gaudily and siant parti-colored balls rounded out their harlequin sides; tiny dishes for pygmy festivals were piled with delicious carrots and artichokes on little white, blue-rimmed platters
”Have you a ht all s heavy on her hands”
”Ah!” he was as radiant as she had the genius forhim ”Come, then, in with me and help me choose a _doll_”
It was not the first purchase during the course of a long friendshi+p which Bulstrode hadwoman by his side, but for some reason he enjoyed it more than former errands The bachelor and the childless woman were hard to please and their choice consuered, the amiable shopman pressed various toys on monsieur andher friend with his parcels at the door of his hotel, realized as she drove away that she knew nothing of the child for whom the purchases had been made On her way up the Champs Elysees she sive of _yourself--with_ yourself--_that's_ charity! Jiives himself
I wonder who his new love is?”
Bulstrode, in order to share what should be his ”new love's” ecstasy at first sight of the miraculous toy, sent for Sined for di's dwarfs, held out stiff but cordial arms and was naturally, to a child, the first and sole object of the drawing-room
”_Monsieur!_”
”For you, Si else as she clasped her hands, and the color rushed into her face, but she felt the doll, touched reverently its feet, hair, dress, incontinently forgot Bulstrode, and quite suddenly, passionately, caught the ie of life to her heart Just over its blonde head, for it was nearly as large as herself, she entleman's eyes
”It's my child! I've prayed for it always, always! I've never had a doll, a _bebe_, m'sieu”
The tea-table with cakes and chocolate called the, the heat stole through the garden and called up agreeable odors of sod and roses, the late afternoon sky spread its expanse over the terrace of the hotel, where, perfectly happy both of theentle and harmless pleasure as any two in Paris that day, the child of the people and an Aentleinal, erratic, and reckless giver of alms, quite by this tiive was, if not to regret, to have at least s whether in the hands of some colder, less poetic person his ood In the case of Siating any remorse to a future which he hoped would never arrive
But the middle of July did come and with it came poor Jimmy's exquisite temptation A telephone helped it dreadfully There was so so wonderful in the fact that in a couple of hours he could, if he would, let himself reach the side of the lovely voice which called to hi but a huood resolves to the wind, and went down and stayed three days at Fontainebleau
Out under the sky, where the elastic earth sprang softly beneath her feet and the eold, Mary Falconer finally asked him, ”And your doll, Jie, for he had not once thought of the little girl, nor did Mrs Falconer's h for Bulstrode to tell her the pretty story He had other things to say, and s not to say, and this, as it always did when he ith his lady, kept hiot all about little Siht of his return Paris was _en fete_ and in no sense impatient to reach his lonely house--for it seeht the loneliest house in the world--he walked without haste up town along the quays