"It is time you inquired," said her husband, reproachfully. "I doubt if he remembers you."
Louise broke into a merry laugh. "Not know his mamma? Indeed! We shall see!"
Going to a table, she rang a bell, which was immediately answered by a liveried servant.
"Bring me my Loris," she cried.
"He has already been put to bed," answered the man.
"Bring him, anyhow. I have not seen him for almost nine days."
The man disappeared, and shortly after a nurse entered, bearing in her arms a bright little fellow scarcely four years of age. Loris, the tyrant of the house, who was fast being spoiled by the alternate indulgence and neglect of his capricious mother, struggled violently with his nurse, who had just aroused him from his first sleep.
Louise threw herself upon the child in an excess of maternal devotion. She fairly covered him with kisses.
"How has my Loris been? My poor boy! Will he forgive his mamma for having deserted him?"
The boy resented this outburst of love by sundry kicks and screams.