"You're not fit to judge. Supposing, I say, such an extraordinary and ridiculous circumstance were to occur to Seth Dumbrick as his taking two girls, one of 'em a baby----"

"Such a beauty!" again interrupted the irrepressible Sally. "Kiss him, baby."

She put baby's face to his, and, utterly confounded and unable to resist, Seth Dumbrick kissed a pair of lips for the first time for Heaven knows how many years.

"If I believed in the Bible," he muttered, "which I don't, it'd be almost like kissing that. Sally, will you stop here, quiet, while I go out a bit?"

"Yes," replied Sally joyfully.

"You won't move, you won't touch a thing?"

"No, I won't--I won't!"

"And you won't mind sitting in the dark?"

"N--no," said Sally, with a little shiver.

"One soon gets used to it."