But Jonah feared dimly that if he ventured inside the house he would bring himself under the law.

So he grinned, and kept his distance, like an animal that fears a trap.
But at last, his resistance worn to a thread by constant coaxing, he had agreed to spend the night there on account of the fowls.

He was interested in these, for one pair was his gift to Ada, the fruit of some midnight raid.
Jonah stood alone at the corner watching the crowd.

Chook's reference to the baby had shaken his resolution, and he decided to think it over.
And as he watched the moving procession with the pleasure of a spectator at the play, he thought uneasily of women and marriage.

As he nodded from time to time to an acquaintance, a young man passed him carrying a child in his arms.