"You forget, Alicia," I informed her, "that even if he shouldn't prove
all right, he is still the father of those children."
"I don't care," she returned stoutly. "If he's bad and sees that we see
he's bad, he wouldn't have the face to take them away from here. Even a
bad father wants his children to be all right!"
"And how in the world do you know that, you astounding infant?"
"Oh, I know!" with a triumphant laugh, "At the Home--some fathers
brought their children and cried--one of them did--because he was so bad
he didn't think he was fit to have a child near him. I had tiptoed into
the matron's office, and I heard him!"
"Perhaps he didn't want to support the brat," I scoffed to cover up my
wonder.
"Well, and do you think he will?" Alicia snatched at my words. "A man
who ran away from them, loafing round for years? Oh, it will be easy,
Uncle Ranny!" she chuckled. "He couldn't fool us!"
"And why, my little Portia, couldn't he?"
"Because," said Alicia thoughtfully, "he will always be thinking of
himself and we--won't."
"You mean," I pressed, delightedly, "he'll be self-conscious and give
himself away, the while we are clothed in our rectitude?"
"Yes!" she cried, with a laugh. "We'll be thinking of Jimmie and Laura
and Randolph--and it's always easier to think what to do when you're
thinking of somebody else--not of yourself."
"And did you discover that also in the matron's office at the Home?" I
leaned toward her in amazement.
"No," she bent her gaze downward, "I learned that right here."
I kissed Alicia upon the cheek. It lies heavy at my door that I have
shown her too little affection in the past merely because she is not
related to me. It startled me to realize that dear to me as Laura's
children are, Alicia is the dearest of them all.
As with a gentle good night she slipped away, a profound sigh of relief
escaped me. That child succeeded in almost wholly blotting out my
feeling of bitter perplexity after talking with Gertrude. Do Alicias
upon growing older turn into Gertrudes, I wonder? No, I think not.
Surely not.