The House of Conrad

on the floor below, rushed up and began showering compliments at her and cooing to the tiny youngster. " And what be ye calling him, Mrs. Conrad? " she asked, all smiles. " Fer-di-" Anna started to pronounce the name slowly. " Freddy," Mrs. Maguire snapped, giving her no chance to finish. She was familiar with her German neighbor's linguistic failings. Anna was frequently misplacing her vowels and splitting her English words into syllables. The Irish woman took it for granted that it was Freddy that Mrs. Conradi had meant to say. " Freddy," Mrs. Maguire went on with enthusiasm; " that's a fine American name. I'm glad. I was afraid you might name him Fritz or Hans or some other foreign name which is no good in this country. But Freddy is a nice name. I have a nephew by that name, Fred O'Rourke. He is a roundsman for this district, as fine a police officer as you ever saw." Mrs. Maguire's two little girls, who for some time hadvainly sought to gain their mother's eye, could restrain their hankering no longer and began pulling her apron and asking that they be allowed to see the baby. Mrs. Conradi was pleased by the eagerness of the children. Radiating good nature, she lifted the bonnet to show the whole of the child's face and head. "There, that's little Freddy," Mrs. Maguire was saying to her youngsters with a benign voice and look, as if in giving the name of the infant she was making a present of something very precious to the little girls. ...