The mother's question brought him back to the cot.
"He air beautiful, ain't he?" she breathed, a misty gleam on her lashes.
"Yes," said Young, and he sat down in Daddy Skinner's big rocker.
"Wouldn't ye like to hold him?" Tess hoped he would.
"Not yet," replied the lawyer. "I want to know more about him. You must tell me now whose son he is, and let me help you decide what to do about it.... Won't you trust me a little, Tess, dear?"
He hitched his chair nearer the cot and looked earnestly into the dear, brown eyes she turned fearlessly and unashamed up to his own.
"He air mine," Tessibel told him, and a tender smile played about her lips, "but I can't tell ye any more.... There ain't nothin' to do about it. It air all right--huh?"
"Oh, my dear," sighed the man. "I hoped you'd relieve my mind a little. But--but I'll not speak about it again till you come of your own accord and tell me.... I've been thinking about something else, though--"
"Air it about Andy?" interrupted Tessibel.
Young looked up and discovered a boyish face smiling down upon him from the attic.
"Come down," he said to the dwarf.
Andy descended the ladder and trudged across the floor.
The lawyer stood up and extended his hand. "How are you, Andy?" he enquired pleasantly. "Pretty well, I hope?"
Andy shook hands gravely.
"Yep, thank ye, professor, I air that," he assented. "Hope ye're the same."
"Andy's been more'n good to me," Tess confided. "Please sit down again, Mr. Young.... Set on the floor, Andy!"
Obediently the dwarf curled up on the floor and turned eagerly to Young who had resumed his chair.
"Ain't Tess got the fine baby?" he queried, and as though not expecting an answer, added, "And she air awful happy."
A fugitive smile trembled on Young's face.
Awful happy! Awful happy! Was it possible? He looked into Tessibel's joyous eyes and pondered. Yes, she was happy. He could see that! Happy in a squatter's hut! Happy in the companionship of a condemned murderer, and happy with a nameless child! His eyes went to the little one on the chair. Yes, the three of them were happy. Tessibel's love was bound up in Andy and the baby, and the dwarf had forgotten his own danger to serve the other two. To help in the same loyal and unselfish way would be his future work. At that moment Deforrest Young buried deep in his heart the passion which hurt like nothing else hurts on earth, and something very like happiness took its place.