III
TERESA, however, took the baby seriously, and by dint of this conscientious care began to be fond of him. She resigned herself to the task of nursing him, supervised minutely the details of his daily life, and carried out Basil's theory that the baby must be saved all nervous excitement. He was named Ronald Grange, after her father. In the course of a few weeks he lost his black bristles and began to acquire a fuzz of soft brown hair; his eyes, after wavering in colour, decided to be brown, like Basil's; his complexion from brick-red became first a curious yellow, and then approached fairness. Teresa began to feel that he might ultimately be presentable. He was a strong child with a determined will to live. Major Ransome pronounced him a beauty, and in his grandfatherly delight called on the baby three of four times a week. Grandparents, however, were peculiarly obnoxious to Basil's theory; the poor Major was not allowed to hold Ronald Grange, or to prod any portion of his anatomy with a doting finger, or to chirrup to him. Basil considered that even looking at the baby as he lay in his crib was self-indulgence on the part of
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