Aggie did not answer.

Zoie leaned forward toward the mirror to smooth out her eyebrows with the tips of her perfumed fingers. "Good gracious," she cried in horror as she caught sight of her reflection. "You're not going to put my hair in a pigtail!"

"That's the way invalids always have their hair," was Aggie's laconic reply, and she continued to plait the obstinate curls.

"I won't have it like that!" declared Zoie, and she shook herself free from Aggie's unwelcome attentions and proceeded to unplait the hateful pigtail. "Alfred would leave me."

Aggie shrugged her shoulders.

"If you're going to make a perfect fright of me," pouted Zoie, "I just won't see him."

"He isn't coming to see YOU," reminded Aggie. "He's coming to see the baby."

"If Jimmy doesn't come soon, I'll not HAVE any baby," answered Zoie.

"Get into bed," said Aggie, and she proceeded to turn down the soft lace coverlets.

"Where did I put my cap?" asked Zoie. Her eyes caught the small knot of lace and ribbons for which she was looking, and she pinned it on top of her saucy little curls.

"In you go," said Aggie, motioning to the bed.

"Wait," said Zoie impressively, "wait till I get my rose lights on the pillow." She pulled the slender gold chain of her night lamp; instantly the large white pillows were bathed in a warm pink glow--she studied the effect very carefully, then added a lingerie pillow to the two more formal ones, kicked off her slippers and hopped into bed. One more glance at the pillows, then she arranged the ribbons of her negligee to fall "carelessly" outside the coverlet, threw one arm gracefully above her head, half-closed her eyes, and sank languidly back against her pillows.

"How's that?" she breathed faintly.

Controlling her impulse to smile, Aggie crossed to the dressing-table with a business-like air and applied to Zoie's pink cheeks a third coating of powder.

Zoie sat bolt upright and began to sneeze. "Aggie," she said, "I just hate you when you act like that." But suddenly she was seized with a new idea.

"I wonder," she mused as she looked across the room at the soft, pink sofa bathed in firelight, "I wonder if I shouldn't look better on that couch under those roses."

Aggie was very emphatic in her opinion to the contrary. "Certainly not!"

she said.

"Then," decided Zoie with a mischievous smile, "I'll get Alfred to carry me to the couch. That way I can get my arms around his neck. And once you get your arms around a man's neck, you can MANAGE him."

Aggie looked down at the small person with distinct disapproval. "Now, don't you make too much fuss over Alfred," she continued. "YOU'RE the one who's to do the forgiving. Don't forget that! What's more," she reminded Zoie, "you're very, very weak." But before she had time to instruct Zoie further there was a sharp, quick ring at the outer door.

The two women glanced at each other inquiringly. The next instant a man's step was heard in the hallway.

"How is she, Mary?" demanded someone in a voice tense with anxiety.

"It's Alfred!" exclaimed Zoie.

"And we haven't any baby!" gasped Aggie.

"What shall I do?" cried Zoie.

"Lie down," commanded Aggie, and Zoie had barely time to fall back limply on the pillows when the excited young husband burst into the room.

CHAPTER XVI

When Alfred entered Zoie's bedroom he glanced about him in bewilderment.

It appeared that he was in an enchanted chamber. Through the dim rose light he could barely perceive his young wife. She was lying white and apparently lifeless on her pillows. He moved cautiously toward the bed, but Aggie raised a warning finger. Afraid to speak, he grasped Aggie's hand and searched her face for rea.s.surance; she nodded toward Zoie, whose eyes were closed. He tiptoed to the bedside, sank on his knees and reverently kissed the small hand that hung limply across the side of the bed.

To Alfred's intense surprise, his lips had barely touched Zoie's fingertips when he felt his head seized in a frantic embrace. "Alfred, Alfred!" cried Zoie in delight; then she smothered his face with kisses.

As she lifted her head to survey her astonished husband, she caught the reproving eye of Aggie. With a weak little sigh, she relaxed her tenacious hold of Alfred, breathed his name very faintly, and sank back, apparently exhausted, upon her pillows.

"It's been too much for her," said the terrified young husband, and he glanced toward Aggie in anxiety.

Aggie nodded a.s.sent.

"How pale she looks," added Alfred, as he surveyed the white face on the pillows.

"She's so weak, poor dear," sympathised Aggie, almost in a whisper.

Alfred nodded his understanding to Aggie. It was then that his attention was for the first time attracted toward the crib.

"My boy!" he exclaimed. And again Zoie forgot Aggie's warning and sat straight up in bed. But Alfred did not see her. He was making determinedly for the crib, his heart beating high with the pride of possession.

Throwing back the coverlets of the ba.s.sinette, Alfred stared at the empty bed in silence, then he quickly turned to the two anxious women.

"Where is he?" he asked, his eyes wide with terror.

Zoie's lips opened to answer, but no words came.

Alfred's eyes turned to Aggie. The look on her face increased his worst fears. "Don't tell me he's----" he could not bring himself to utter the word. He continued to look helplessly from one woman to the other.

In vain Zoie again tried to answer. Aggie also made an unsuccessful attempt to speak. Then, driven to desperation by the strain of the situation, Zoie declared boldly: "He's out."

"Out?" echoed Alfred in consternation.

"With Jimmy," explained Aggie, coming to Zoie's rescue as well as she knew how.

"Jimmy!" repeated Alfred in great astonishment.

"Just for a breath of air," explained Zoie sweetly She had now entirely regained her self-possession.

"Isn't he very young to be out at night?" asked Alfred with a puzzled frown.

"We told Jimmy that," answered Aggie, amazed at the promptness with which each succeeding lie presented itself. "But you see," she continued, "Jimmy is so crazy about the child that we can't do anything with him."

"Jimmy crazy about my baby?" exclaimed Alfred incredulously. "He always said babies were 'little red worms.'"

"Not this one," answered Zoie sweetly.

"No, indeed," chimed in Aggie. "He acts as though he owned it."