He lowered
Bill to the ground.
"What on earth's the matter?" he asked. "What has happened?"
Without replying, Mrs. Porter made a gesture in the direction of the
nursery, which had the effect of sending Mamie and her charge off again
on the journey upstairs which Kirk's advent had interrupted. Bill
seemed sorry to go, but he trudged sturdily on without remark. Kirk
followed him with his eyes till he disappeared at the bend of the
stairway.
"What's the matter?" he repeated.
"Are you mad, Kirk?" demanded Mrs. Porter in a tense voice.
Kirk turned helplessly to Ruth.
"You had better let me explain, Aunt Lora," she said. "Of course Kirk
couldn't be expected to know, poor boy. You seem to forget that he has
only this minute come into the house."
Aunt Lora was not to be appeased.
"That is absolutely no excuse. He has just left a ship where he cannot
have failed to pick up bacilli of every description. He has himself
only recently recovered from a probably infectious fever. He is wearing
a beard, notoriously the most germ-ridden abomination in existence."
Kirk started. He was not proud of his beard, but he had not regarded it
as quite the pestilential thing which it seemed to be in the eyes of
Mrs. Porter.
"And he picks up the child!" she went on. "Hugs him! Kisses him! And
you say he could not have known better! Surely the most elementary
common sense--"
"Aunt Lora!" said Ruth.
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