‘Baby sleeps in the air, my lord,’ she replied. ‘My lady has gone to Croridge.’
‘Sharp air for a child, isn’t it?’
‘My lady teaches him to breathe with his mouth shut, like her father taught her when she was little. Our baby never catches colds.’
Madge displayed the child’s face.
The father dropped a glance on it from the height of skies.
‘Croridge, you said?’
‘Her uncle, Lord Levellier’s.’
‘You say, never catches cold?’
‘Not our baby, my lord.’
Probably good management on the part of the mother. But the wife’s absence disappointed the husband strung to meet her, and an obtrusion of her practical motherhood blurred the prospect demanded by his present step.