Aunt Hannah, too, enjoyed the visit very much, though yet there was one thing that disturbed her--the vaguely troubled look in Billy"s eyes, which to-day was more apparent than ever. Not until just before Billy went home did something occur to give Aunt Hannah a possible clue as to what was the meaning of it. That something was a question from Billy.
"Aunt Hannah, why don"t I feel like Marie did? why don"t I feel like everybody does in books and stories? Marie went around with such a detached, heavenly, absorbed look in her eyes, before the twins came to her home. But I don"t. I don"t find anything like that in my face, when I look in the gla.s.s. And I don"t feel detached and absorbed and heavenly. I"m happy, of course; but I can"t help thinking of the dear, dear times Bertram and I have together, just we two, and I can"t seem to imagine it at all with a third person around."
"Billy! _Third person_, indeed!"
"There! I knew "twould shock you," mourned Billy. "It shocks me. I _want_ to feel detached and heavenly and absorbed."
"But Billy, dear, think of it--calling your own baby a third person!"
Billy sighed despairingly.
"Yes, I know. And I suppose I might as well own up to the rest of it too. I--I"m actually afraid of babies, Aunt Hannah! Well, I am," she reiterated, in answer to Aunt Hannah"s gasp of disapproval. "I"m not used to them at all. I never had any little brothers and sisters, and I don"t know how to treat babies. I--I"m always afraid they"ll break, or something. I"m just as afraid of the twins as I can be. How Marie can handle them, and toss them about as she does, I don"t see."
"Toss them about, indeed!"
"Well, it looks that way to me," sighed Billy. "Anyhow, I know I can never get to handle them like that--and that"s no way to feel! And I"m ashamed of myself because I _can"t_ be detached and heavenly and absorbed," she added, rising to go. "Everybody always is, it seems, but just me."
"Fiddlededee, my dear!" scoffed Aunt Hannah, patting Billy"s downcast face. "Wait till a year from now, and we"ll see about that third-person bugaboo you"re worrying about. _I"m_ not worrying now; so you"d better not!"
CHAPTER XXII. A DOT AND A DIMPLE
On the day Cyril Henshaw"s twins were six months old, a momentous occurrence marked the date with a flaming red letter of remembrance; and it all began with a baby"s smile.
Cyril, in quest of his wife at about ten o"clock that morning, and not finding her, pursued his search even to the nursery--a room he very seldom entered. Cyril did not like to go into the nursery. He felt ill at ease, and as if he were away from home--and Cyril was known to abhor being away from home since he was married. Now that Marie had taken over the reins of government again, he had been obliged to see very little of those strange women and babies. Not but that he liked the babies, of course. They were his sons, and he was proud of them. They should have every advantage that college, special training, and travel could give them. He quite antic.i.p.ated what they would be to him--when they really knew anything. But, of course, _now_, when they could do nothing but cry and wave their absurd little fists, and wobble their heads in so fearsome a manner, as if they simply did not know the meaning of the word backbone--and, for that matter, of course they didn"t--why, he could not be expected to be anything but relieved when he had his den to himself again, with a reasonable chance of finding his ma.n.u.script as he had left it, and not cut up into a ridiculous string of paper dolls holding hands, as he had once found it, after a visit from a woman with a small girl.
Since Marie had been at the helm, however, he had not been troubled in such a way. He had, indeed, known almost his old customary peace and freedom from interruption, with only an occasional flitting across his path of the strange women and babies--though he had realized, of course, that they were in the house, especially in the nursery. For that reason, therefore, he always avoided the nursery when possible. But to-day he wanted his wife, and his wife was not to be found anywhere else in the house. So, reluctantly, he turned his steps toward the nursery, and, with a frown, knocked and pushed open the door.
"Is Mrs. Henshaw here?" he demanded, not over gently.
Absolute silence greeted his question. The man saw then that there was no one in the room save a baby sitting on a mat in the middle of the floor, barricaded on all sides with pillows.
With a deeper frown the man turned to go, when a gleeful "Ah--goo!"
halted his steps midway. He wheeled sharply.
"Er--eh?" he queried, uncertainly eyeing his small son on the floor.
"Ah--goo!" observed the infant (who had been very lonesome), with greater emphasis; and this time he sent into his father"s eyes the most bewitching of smiles.
"Well, by George!" murmured the man, weakly, a dawning amazement driving the frown from his face.
"Spgggh--oo--wah!" gurgled the boy, holding out two tiny fists.
A slow smile came to the man"s face.
"Well, I"ll--be--darned," he muttered half-shamefacedly, wholly delightedly. "If the rascal doesn"t act as if he--knew me!"
"Ah--goo--spggghh!" grinned the infant, toothlessly, but entrancingly.
With almost a stealthy touch Cyril closed the door back of him, and advanced a little dubiously toward his son. His countenance carried a mixture of guilt, curiosity, and dogged determination so ludicrous that it was a pity none but baby eyes could see it. As if to meet more nearly on a level this baffling new acquaintance, Cyril got to his knees--somewhat stiffly, it must be confessed--and faced his son.
"Goo--eee--ooo--yah!" crowed the baby now, thrashing legs and arms about in a transport of joy at the acquisition of this new playmate.
"Well, well, young man, you--you don"t say so!" stammered the growingly-proud father, thrusting a plainly timid and unaccustomed finger toward his offspring. "So you do know me, eh? Well, who am I?"
"Da--da!" gurgled the boy, triumphantly clutching the outstretched finger, and holding on with a tenacity that brought a gleeful chuckle to the lips of the man.
"Jove! but aren"t you the strong little beggar, though! Needn"t tell me you don"t know a good thing when you see it! So I"m "da-da," am I?"
he went on, unhesitatingly accepting as the pure gold of knowledge the shameless imitation vocabulary his son was foisting upon him. "Well, I expect I am, and--"
"Oh, Cyril!" The door had opened, and Marie was in the room. If she gave a start of surprise at her husband"s unaccustomed att.i.tude, she quickly controlled herself. "Julia said you wanted me. I must have been going down the back stairs when you came up the front, and--"
"Please, Mrs. Henshaw, is it Dot you have in here, or Dimple?" asked a new voice, as the second nurse entered by another door.
Before Mrs. Henshaw could answer, Cyril, who had got to his feet, turned sharply.
"Is it--_who_?" he demanded.
"Oh! Oh, Mr. Henshaw," stammered the girl. "I beg your pardon. I didn"t know you were here. It was only that I wanted to know which baby it was.
We thought we had Dot with us, until--"
"Dot! Dimple!" exploded the man. "Do you mean to say you have given my _sons_ the ridiculous names of "_Dot_" and "_Dimple_"?"
"Why, no--yes--well, that is--we had to call them something," faltered the nurse, as with a despairing glance at her mistress, she plunged through the doorway.
Cyril turned to his wife.
"Marie, what is the meaning of this?" he demanded.
"Why, Cyril, dear, don"t--don"t get so wrought up," she begged. "It"s only as Mary said, we _had_ to call them something, and--"
"Wrought up, indeed!" interrupted Cyril, savagely. "Who wouldn"t be?
"Dot" and "Dimple"! Great Scott! One would think those boys were a couple of kittens or puppies; that they didn"t know anything--didn"t have any brains! But they have--if the other is anything like this one, at least," he declared, pointing to his son on the floor, who, at this opportune moment joined in the conversation to the extent of an appropriate "Ah--goo--da--da!"
"There, hear that, will you?" triumphed the father. "What did I tell you? That"s the way he"s been going on ever since I came into the room; The little rascal knows me--so soon!"
Marie clapped her fingers to her lips and turned her back suddenly, with a spasmodic little cough; but her husband, if he noticed the interruption, paid no heed.
"Dot and Dimple, indeed!" he went on wrathfully. "That settles it. We"ll name those boys to-day, Marie, _to-day!_ Not once again will I let the sun go down on a Dot and a Dimple under my roof."
Marie turned with a quick little cry of happiness.
"Oh, Cyril, I"m so glad! I"ve so wanted to have them named, you know!
And shall we call them Franz and Felix, as we"d talked?"
"Franz, Felix, John, James, Paul, Charles--anything, so it"s sane and sensible! I"d even adopt Calderwell"s absurd Bildad and--er--Tomdad, or whatever it was, rather than have those poor little chaps insulted a day longer with a "Dot" and a "Dimple." Great Scott!" And, entirely forgetting what he had come to the nursery for, Cyril strode from the room.