Her clasp of Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k"s hand seemed to bring them all to their feet, and she moved quickly from one to the other, with some commonplace of greeting, and a bright smile for each. Clasping the hands of Kate and Josephine together she looked from one to the other and said in her pleasant voice,--
"How like old times it seems; and how nice to come in on you all at Christmas! You are a bit stouter--you two--but f.a.n.n.y hasn"t changed a bit. Alec"--she swung round toward the bewildered men--"I don"t believe you know me, but I should have recognized you anywhere. Please, now, which is which of you?"
"That"s Paul Fosd.i.c.k, Lois; and that"s Lawrence Hastings. Gentlemen, Mrs. Holton."
"Very glad to meet you, gentlemen. Odd, isn"t it? that this should be the first time!"
She gave them her hand in turn in her quick graceful way. Since marrying into the family they had heard much of this Lois, and lo! their preconceived notions of her went down with a bang. They had been misled and deceived; she was not that sort of person at all! She had effected as by a miracle a change in the atmosphere of the room. It was as though the first daffodil had daringly lifted its head under a leaden February sky. Amzi, prepared for an explosion, marveled that none had shaken the house from its foundations. But while the masculine members of the family yielded up their arms without a struggle their wives were fortifying themselves against the invader. Amzi"s conduct was wholly reprehensible; he had no right to permit and sanction Lois"s return; the possibilities implied in her coming were tremendous and far-reaching. It was a staggering blow, this unlooked-for return. While their husbands stood grinning before the shameless woman, they conferred in glances, furtively looking from each other to the prodigal. Amzi fortified himself with another gla.s.s of eggnog.
Lois had dominated the scene from the moment of her appearance. Her entrance had been the more startling by reason of its very simplicity.
She was taking everything as a matter of course, quite as though there were nothing extraordinary in the parting of the waters to afford her pa.s.sage dry shod, through those sixteen years, to a promised land imaginably represented by Montgomery. Her sisters, huddled by the center table, struggled against their impotence to seize the situation. This was not their idea of the proper return of a woman who had sinned against Heaven, to say nothing of the house of Montgomery. Their course was the more difficult by reason of their ignorance of the cause of her descent upon them. Amzi should suffer for this; but first she must be dealt with; and they meant to deal with her. Their rage surged the more hotly as they saw their husbands" quick capitulation. They, too, should be dealt with!
"Let us all sit down and be comfortable," said Lois easily, and Hastings and Fosd.i.c.k b.u.mped heads in their mad haste to place a chair for her.
Hastings, with his theatric instincts stimulated, and realizing that silence would give the ma.s.sed artillery of the enemy a chance to thunder, immediately engaged the newcomer in conversation. Paris and its theaters served admirably as a theme. Lois clearly knew her Paris well; and she had met Rostand--at a garden party--and spoke of the contemporaneous French drama with the light touch of sophistication.
French phrases slipped from her tongue trippingly, and added to her charm and mystery, her fellowship with another and wider world. From Hastings she turned to embrace them all in her talk. The immobile countenances of her sisters, reflecting stubborn resentment and antagonism, were without effect upon her. Instead of sitting before them as the villainess of this domestic drama, a culprit arraigned for her manifold wickednesses, she was beyond question the heroine of the piece.
"You remember, f.a.n.n.y, what a hard business we used to make of our French? Well, in Seattle I had a lot of time on my hands and I put in a good deal of it studying languages. There was a wonderful Frenchwoman out there and I got her to teach me,--all good fun, with her; we used to go places together, and I finally reached the point where I could talk back to a French waiter. I really believe I could set up as a teacher now without being indicted for taking money under false pretenses. You have been over, haven"t you, Kate? It seems to me I heard of your being there; but you might all have gone round the world a dozen times! Whose children are those out there? Bring them in and let me have a look at them."
The children were brought in by their fathers and presented without any interruption to her flow of talk. She let fall a question here and there that was presumably directed to one or the other of her sisters, but their faint, reluctant answers apparently did not disturb her. She was treating them as though they were dingy frumps; and they revolted against all this prattle about Paris. It was distinctly unbecoming in a woman whose sins were so grievous to ripple on so light-heartedly about the unholiest of cities when they sat there as jurors waiting to hear her plea for mercy.
"Susan, you dear angel, come here!"
Susie toddled into her aunt"s arms, raised a face that stickily testified to her Uncle Amzi"s plentiful provision of candy, and was kissed. Mrs. Waterman, formulating a plan of campaign, took a step toward Susan as though to save the child from this desecration of its innocence; but a glance from Amzi gave her pause.
"Oo have booful clothes. Whas oor name?"
"I"m a new aunt; I"m your Aunt Lois. You never heard of me, did you?
Well, it doesn"t matter the tiniest little bit. Something tells me that we"re going to get on famously. I shouldn"t wonder, I shouldn"t wonder at all, Susan, if we became the best of friends."
Her voice softened into new and charming tones. She held the sticky, chubby hands unmindfully. She was one of those women who are incapable of an awkward att.i.tude. The child lingered, examining with wide-eyed scrutiny the enchantments of the new lady"s apparel.
"She"s charming, f.a.n.n.y," Lois remarked, glancing up suddenly at Susan"s mother; "a perfectly adorable baby."
"Oo going to stay in this house? This Uncle Amzi ims house."
"Now, Susan, do you really want me to stay?"
Susan surveyed her newfound aunt gravely before pa.s.sing upon this question that was so much more momentous than she realized. Lois, bending forward in her low chair with her head slightly to one side, met the child"s gaze with like gravity. It might have been a.s.sumed from her manner that she attached the greatest importance to Susan"s verdict; there may even have been an appeal in the brown eyes; but if there was it was an affair between the woman and the child in which the spectators had no share.
Susan swallowed.
"Oo stay and play wif me. Uncle Amzi ims going to make big toboggan in ims yard and oo can slide down wif me. And Phil she come and play. Phil make me bow and arroo and Phil, her shooted it at old rooster and ims est runned and runned."
"How splendid!" laughed Lois.
"You may go now, Susan," said her mother, feeling that this flirtation had progressed far enough.
Thus admonished Susan withdrew, while her brother and cousin submitted themselves to the new aunt"s closer inspection.
"Two Amzis! It"s quite fine of you to perpetuate the name, girls. You must be sure, boys, always to spell your name out; don"t hide in behind an initial. These old Bible names are a lot better than these new fancy ones. There must be a million Donalds and Dorothys right now scattered over the United States. Where do you go to school, boys?"
She plainly interested them. She was a new species, and had for them the charm of strangeness. She wore on her wrist a tiny watch, the like of which they had never seen before, and one of them poked it shyly with his finger. She accommodatingly slipped it off and gave it to them to examine, telling them of the beautiful shop in Geneva where she had bought it. Susan returned to share in these further revelations by the wonderful lady. The spectacle of their children gathered at the erring Lois"s knees, filled the watchful sisters with dismay. The ease of the woman"s conquests, her continued indifference to their feelings, caused their indignation to wax hot.
"The children must go. Run along home now, and, boys, see that Susie gets home safely. No; you must go at _once_!" said Mrs. Waterman.
"Oo bring lady home to ours house, mamma; my wants to play with lady"s watch."
"Skip along, Susan; you"ll have lots of time to play with my watch,"
said Lois. "Oh, wait a minute!"
Jeremiah was bringing fresh gla.s.ses for the eggnog, and she sent him to her room to bring down some packages she had left on her bed.
While he was gone she romped with Susan, running back through the hall into the dining-room with the chirruping child trotting after her, and paused breathless as Jeremiah placed the parcels on the center table.
"That is altogether unnecessary; the children have had enough presents,"
said Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k. "The children must go at once."
"Oh, these are only trifles; just a minute more," Lois flung over her shoulder.
She peered into a box, inspected the contents with a moment"s quick apprais.e.m.e.nt, and clasped on Susie"s chubby wrist a tiny bracelet.
"There, Susan! What do you think of that?"
Susan thought well of it beyond question and trotted to her mother to exhibit the treasure.
Three pairs of eyes looked upon the trinket coldly. Careless of their scorn Lois was enjoying the mystification of the young Amzis, to whom she held out two boxes and bade them make a choice. She laughed merrily when they opened them and found two silver watches as like as two peas.
There was no questioning Lois"s complete success with the children.
Their fathers responded in grateful praise of the gifts: their Uncle Amzi said "Thunder!" and expressed his delight.
"Now, you youngsters run along or I"ll get scolded for keeping you.
Scoot!"
Lois urged them to the door, where Susan presented her face for further osculation.
"You shouldn"t have done that, Lois; it was altogether unnecessary,"
announced Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k.
"Oh, those things! they"re not of the slightest importance. I didn"t know just how many youngsters you had, and the shops over there are simply irresistible."
She ladled herself a gla.s.s of eggnog composedly, as though wholly unconscious that the withdrawal of the noncombatants had cleared the field for battle.
The sisters, having sipped Amzi"s Christmas tipple apprehensively, noted that this was Lois"s second gla.s.s.
"Well, what are you all doing with yourselves?" she asked, sinking into a chair. "Kate, I believe I look more like you than either f.a.n.n.y or Jo.
I think you are taller than I am, but we have the same complexion. My face is all chopped up from the sea; it was the worst crossing I ever made, but I only missed one day on deck. The captain is the best of fellows and kept an officer trailing me to see that I didn"t tumble overboard."