Jim reassured her in a hoarse grunt. "It 's all right, Mum, I 've emptied her."
The lamplighter put out the lower lamp.
"What are you doing that for?" cried Jack.
The lamplighter pointing over his shoulder, replied laconically, "Moon!" and ran off.
Sir Peter was just about to apply a lighted candle to the touch-hole of the gun, when Mr. Jerome Brooke-Hoskyn, much dishevelled, threw open his window, and cried in a horrified whisper, "Sir Peter! Sir Peter!—For Heaven's sake, don't fire that gun!"
"Why the devil not, sir?" roared Sir Peter, angrily.
"Sh!" cried Mr. Brooke-Hoskyn, waving a frantic hand. "It's a boy!"
"Gobblessmysoul!" cried Sir Peter, "I'll be godfather!"
And all the Walk was delighted, and the leaves of the elm clapped their hands together in the evening breeze.
Basil gently disengaged his arm from Barbara's waist and began playing the slow movement of the Kreutzer Sonata very, very softly.