He picked up the child with a deft movement that made it clear that Dick's thirteen years had not been long enough to make him forget how to handle a baby. Mrs. Lester held out her hands for the crying bundle and held it to her, rocking it backwards and forwards and crooning brokenly. The baby struggled for a moment, and then gave in, putting out a dimpled hand to catch the lace at her breast; and she leaned down to him, holding him until she could touch the velvet-soft cheek. Her husband stood looking at them, a lump in his throat; the years slipped away, and she was a child-mother again, holding Dick to her, singing the little sleepy song he loved. He had been so proud of them both—his two babies, he had called them; and he had boasted that she had never grown up. There were lines in her face now, graven in the last three months; and in the glass-domed room his other baby lay, taking his last fighting chance; and he could help neither. He shut his lips on a groan, turning away.
Neil Fraser was coming across the grass, taking the flower-beds in his stride. He was pale and tired, but his eyes blazed with triumph. John Lester stared at him, and no words would come.
"It's all right!" Fraser said. He put out a hand to each, and suddenly grabbed the borrowed baby, for Mrs. Lester trembled so violently that he feared she would faint. "It's all right, I tell you! He's splendid—sleeping peacefully."
"And the operation?" John Lester uttered.
"Don't I tell you it's all right?" He threw back his head, with a laugh like a boy's. "There were complications, as well as what I thought, and I had to take chances—but Dick will be as fit as ever he was. He'll walk out of the hospital, Mrs. Lester—ah, poor soul!"
They caught her between them as she swayed forward. The baby was dumped unceremoniously on the grass, where, in sheer perversity, he lay kicking fat legs and chewing a clover blossom contentedly. Mrs. Lester came back to consciousness to find herself on the garden seat, the silver cup of a flask at her lips.
"Tell me again!" she whispered.
"I could tell you all day, for I don't mind admitting I'm a proud man!" Fraser said. "I don't think it's been done before. I had a case much the same in Munich, but there were, as I said, complications in Dick's case; but it worked out splendidly. He stood it well—not that I ever had any doubt about that; he's so tremendously fit, physically. And next year, unless you go hunting for scars on him, you won't need to remember that he was ever hurt!"
"When can we see him?" the father uttered.
"You can look at him whenever you like; he's back in bed, fast asleep, with a nurse watching him. And you can see him for five minutes this evening. I'll ring up to see how he is after lunch, and if you like I'll meet you here at five o'clock. Now I'm going to tell my old mother—you've no idea how keen she has been about Dick. She's coming to see him as soon as I'll let her!"