"Out rowing? If you are doing it to entertain me--" said Eve.
"I should never think of that; there's only one thing here that
entertains you, and that's baby," Cicely answered. She spoke without
insistence; her eyes had their absent-minded expression.
"Cicely, give him to me," Eve began. She must put her wish into words
some time. "If I could only make you feel how much I long for it! I will
devote my life to him; and it will be a pleasure to me, a charity,
because I am so alone in the world. You are not alone; you have other
ties. Listen, Cicely, I will make any arrangement you like; you shall
always have the first authority, but let me have him to live with me;
let me take him away when I go. I will even acknowledge everything you
have said: my brother _was_ much older than you were; it's natural that
those months with him should seem to you now but an episode--something
that happened at the beginning of your life, but which need not go on to
its close."
"I _was_ young," said Cicely, musingly.
"Young to marry--yes."
"No; I mean young to have everything ended."
"But that is what I am telling you, it must not be ended; Mr. Morrison
must come back to you."
"He may," answered Cicely, looking at her companion for a moment with
almost a solemn expression.
"Then give baby to me now, and let me go away--before he comes."
Cicely glanced off over the water; they were standing on the low bank
above the Sound. "He could not go north now, in the middle of the
winter," she answered, after a moment.
"In the early spring, then?"
"I don't know; perhaps."
Eve's heart gave a bound. She was going to gain her point.
Having been brought up by a man, she had learned to do without the
explanations, the details, which are dear to most feminine minds; so all
she said was, "That's agreed, then." She was so happy that a bright
flush rose in her cheeks, and her smile, as she spoke these last few
words, was very sweet; those lips, which Miss Sabrina had thought so
sullen, had other expressions.