"'Put him over here on the couch, do,' she says. 'It's much too hot to hold him, Calliope.'
"She'd called me that at Mr. Bartlett's funeral, and I recollect how my throat went all over me when she done so. Ain't it funny about your own first name? It seems so you when somebody nice says it for the first time—more you than you ever knew you were.
"Insley lifted Chris in his arms to do as she said, and then stood staring at her across the child.
"'I've been thinking,' he said, blunt—it's like watching the sign of folks to watch the different kind of things that makes them blunt. 'It's not my affair, but do you think you ought to let Chris get so—so used to you? What will he do when you're—when you go away?'
"At this she said nothing for a moment, then she smiled up at him.
"'I meant what I told him that night his father died,' she answered. 'I'm going to keep Chris with me, always.'
"'Always?' He stared at her, saw her face mean what she said. 'How fine of you! How fine of Mr. Proudfit!' said Insley.
"She waited just a breath, then she met his eyes, brave.
"'Not fine of me,' she says—'only fine for me. And not—Mr. Proudfit at all. I ought to take back what I told you—since I did tell you. That is not going to be.'