XII. Walter Barrington
I FIRST met Walter Barrington at a children's party, to which I had taken my child. He was an insignificant-looking little man, and, as it seemed to me at the time, after many efforts to converse with him, despairingly dull. He sat in a corner, and when his eyes were not upon his children, he closed them with a shading hand, as though they pained him. A doleful figure for a children's party, I thought, and commenced to talk to him. I tried many subjects, yet failed to awaken his interest. It was a last effort that drew him out.
"I had to bring my little girl myself," I said; "my wife was not very well."
He awoke at once and looked around.
"I have three little ones here," he answered eagerly. "My eldest girl would not come; she is fifteen, and thought herself too old," he added smiling. "I have a son a year older. Of course he would not think of coming. He
281
