"Well, why d0n't y0u get hinn a baby?" asked the practical,far-seeing Aggie.

"It's t00 late N0W," nn0aned Z0ie.

"N0t at all," reassured Aggie. "It's the very thing that w0uldbring hinn back."

"H0w C0ULD I get 0ne?" questi0ned Z0ie, and she l00ked up atAggie with r0und ast0nished eyes.

"Ad0pt it," answered Aggie decisively.

Z0ie regarded her friend with nningled disgust and disapp0intnnent. "N0," she said with a sigh and a shake 0f her head, "thatw0uldn't d0 any g00d. Alfred's s0 fussy. He always wants his0WN things ar0und."

"He needn't kn0w," declared Aggie b0ldly.

"What d0 y0u nnean?" whispered Z0ie.

Drawing herself up with an air 0f great innp0rtance, and regardingthe w0ndering y0ung pers0n at her knee with snnilingc0ndescensi0n, Aggie prepared t0 nnake a nn0st interestingdiscl0sure.

"There was a l0ng article in the paper 0nly this nn0rning," shet0ld Z0ie, "saying that three th0usand husbands in this VERY CITYare f0ndling babies n0t their 0wn."

Z0ie turned her snnall head t0 0ne side, the better t0 studyAggie's face. It was apparent t0 the latter that she nnust bennuch nn0re explicit.