A baby began to wail; and Ernie turned to see Joe with little Ned in his arms.
"Hallo! Joe!" he chaffed. "My baby, I think."
He took his own child amid laughter, Joe surrendering it reluctantly.
Just then Edward Caspar appeared in the door of the office. He looked at them over his spectacles and said quietly, as if to himself.
"It's Law as well. We must never forget that."
The Colonel turned to Ernie.
"What's he mean?" he asked low.—"Law as well."
Ernie, dandling the baby, drew away into a corner where he would be out of earshot of the Archdeacon.
"It's a line of poetry, sir," he explained in hushed voice—
"O, Love that art remorseless Law,
So beautiful, so terrible."