Two events of importance in the small world which centred round WilliamB. Winfield occurred at about this time. The first was the entrance ofMamie, the second the exit of Mrs. Porter.

　　Mamie was the last of a series of nurses who came and went in somewhatrapid succession during the early years of the White Hope's life. Shewas introduced by Steve, who, it seemed, had known her since she was achild. She was the nineteen-year-old daughter of a compositor on one ofthe morning papers, a little, mouselike thing, with tiny hands andfeet, a soft voice, and eyes that took up far more than their fairshare of her face.

　　She had had no professional experience as a nursery-maid; but, as Stevepointed out, the fact that, in the absence of her mother, who had diedsome years previously, she had had sole charge of three small brothersat the age when small brothers are least easily handled, and hadsteered them through to the office-boy age without mishap, put herextremely high in the class of gifted amateurs. Mamie was accordinglygiven a trial, and survived it triumphantly. William Bannister, thatdiscerning youth, took to her at once. Kirk liked the neat way shemoved about the studio, his heart being still sore at the performanceof one of her predecessors, who had upset and put a substantial footthrough his masterpiece, that same "Ariadne in Naxos" which Lora DelanePorter had criticised on the occasion of her first visit to the studio.

　　Ruth, for her part, was delighted with Mamie.

　　As for Steve, though as an outside member of the firm he cannot beconsidered to count, he had long ago made up his mind about her. Sometime before, when he had found it impossible for him to be in herpresence, still less to converse with her, without experiencing a warm,clammy, shooting sensation and a feeling of general weakness similar tothat which follows a well-directed blow at the solar plexus, he hadcome to the conclusion that he must be in love. The furious jealousywhich assailed him on seeing her embraced by and embracing a stoutperson old enough to be her father convinced him of this.

　　The discovery that the stout man actually was her father's brotherrelieved his mind to a certain extent, but the episode left him shaken.

　　He made up his mind to propose at once and get it over. When Mamiejoined the garrison of No. 90 a year later the dashing feat was stillunperformed. There was that about Mamie which unmanned Steve. She wasso small and dainty that the ruggedness which had once been his prideseemed to him, when he thought of her, an insuperable defect. Theconviction that he was a roughneck deepened in him and tied his tongue.

　　The defection of Mrs. Porter was a gradual affair. From a very earlyperiod in the new regime she had been dissatisfied. Accustomed to rule,she found herself in an unexpectedly minor position. She had definiteviews on the hygienic upbringing of children, and these she imparted toRuth, who listened pleasantly, smiled, and ignored them.

　　Mrs. Porter was not used to such treatment. She found Ruth considerablyless malleable than she had been before marriage, and she resented thechange.

　　Kirk, coming in one afternoon, found Ruth laughing.

　　"It's only Aunt Lora," she said. "She will come in and lecture me onhow to raise babies. She's crazy about microbes. It's the new idea.

　　Sterilization, and all that. She thinks that everything a child touchesought to be sterilized first to kill the germs. Bill's running awfulrisks being allowed to play about the studio like this."Kirk looked at his son and heir, who was submitting at that moment tobe bathed. He was standing up. It was a peculiarity of his that herefused to sit down in a bath, being apparently under the impression,when asked to do so, that there was a conspiracy afoot to drown him.

　　"I don't see how the kid could be much fitter.""It's not so much what he is now. She is worrying about what mighthappen to him. She can talk about bacilli till your flesh creeps.

　　Honestly, if Bill ever did get really ill, I believe Aunt Lora couldtalk me round to her views about them in a minute. It's only the factthat he is so splendidly well that makes it seem so absurd."Kirk laughed.

　　"It's all very well to laugh. You haven't heard her. I've caught myselfwavering a dozen times. Do you know, she says a child ought not to bekissed?""It has struck me," said Kirk meditatively, "that your Aunt Lora, if Imay make the suggestion, is the least bit of what Steve would call ashy-dome. Is there anything else she had mentioned?'

　　"Hundreds of things. Bill ought to be kept in a properly sterilizednursery, with sterilized toys and sterilized everything, and thetemperature ought to be just so high and no higher, and just so low andno lower. Get her to talk about it to you. She makes you wonder whyeverybody is not dead.""This is a new development, surely? Has she ever broken out in thisplace bef............