"
"Don't listen to him, Richard, please!" and: "Don't let your head be
turned by such fulsome flattery, my dear!" were wife and husband's
simultaneous exclamations.
"I shouldn't think so," said Mary sturdily, and would have added more,
but just at this minute Jinny came out of the house, with the peculiar
noiseless tread she had acquired in moving round an infant's crib; and
Purdy vanished.
Jinny gazed at her sister-in-law with such meaning--that Mary could not
but respond.
"Did you get her safely laid down, dear?"
"Perfectly, Mary! Without even the quiver of an eyelash. You recollect,
I told you yesterday when her little head touched the pillow, she opened
her eyes and looked at me. To-day there was nothing of that sort. It was
quite perfect"; and Jinny's voice thrilled at the remembrance: it was as
if, in continuing to sleep during the transit, her--or rather John's--
tiny daughter had proved herself a marvellous sagacity.
Mahony gave an impatient shrug in Jinny's direction. But he, too, had to
stand fire: she had been waiting all day for a word with him. The babe,
who was teething, was plagued by various disorders; and Jinny knew each
fresh pin's-head of a spot that joined the rash.
Mahony made light of her fears; then turning to his wife asked her to
hurry on the six-o'clock dinner: he had to see a patient between that
meal and tea. Mary went to make arrangements--Richard always forgot to
mention such things till the last moment--and also to please Jinny by
paying a visit to the baby.
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