The circle banner., 1917-07-27
CHAPTER XIII.
The Dam Gives Way


She began getting her strength bacR
very fast in the next two or three
days, but this queer kink in her emo
tions didn't straighten out. She came
TO see that it was absurd-monstrous
almost, but that didn't help. instead
of a baby, she had given birth to two
They were hers, of course, as much
as one would have been. Only, her
soul, which had been waiting so
ecstatically for its miracle-for the
child which, by making her a mother,
should supply what her life needed
her soul wouldn't-couldnt accept
the substitution. Those two droll,
thin-voiced, squirming little mites that
were exhibited to her every morning,
were as foreign to her, as if they had
been brought into the house In
basket.
When Harriet came in for the first
time to see her, Rose knew. Har-
1iet was living here now, running the
house for Rodney, while Rose was
laid up. Doing it beautifully well,
too, through all the confusion OF
anu dll. IldlIlCL otiiNs
81 think you're in great luck to
have had two at once; get your duty
60 posterity done that much sooner.
And, of course, you couldn't possibly
he expected to nurse two great crea-
lures like that"
Rose acquiesced. She would have
struggled, though, she knew, but for
that queer trick fate had played her.
Her heart ached.
When she found that struggling
with herself, denouncing herself for
q brute, didn't serve to bring up the
feelings toward the twins that she
knew any proper mother ought to
have, she buried the dark fact as
deep as she could, and pretended. 1t
was only before Rodney that the pre-
tense was really necessary. And with
him, really, it was hardly pretense
at all. He was such a child himself,
!n his gleeful delight over the pos
session of a son and a daughter, that
she felt for him, tenderly, mistily, |
Iuminously, the very emotion she was
trying to capture for them-felt like |
grading his head in her weak arms, |
kissing him, crying over him.
She wouldn't have been allowed to |
do that to the babies, anyway. They
were going to be terribly well brought
mp, those twins; that was apparent
from the beginning. They had two
nurses all to themselves, quite apart
from Miss Harris, who looked after
Rose-Mrs. Ruston and Doris, the
maid, who were destined, 1t appeared,
TO be as permanent as the babies. But
Rose had the germ of an idea of her
own about that.
They got them named with very lit
1e difficulty. The boy was Rodney,
Of course, after his father and grand
father before him. Rose was q little
afraid Rodney would want the gil
named after her, and was relieved to
ind he didn't. There'd never in the
world be but one Rose for him, he
said. So Rose named the girl Portia.
They kept Rose in bed for three
weeks; fiat on her back as much as
possible, which was terribly irksome
o her, sincs her strength and vital {
II were coming back so fast. She
night have rebelIed, had it not been
or that germinant idea of hers. 1t
wouldn't do, she saw, in the light OF {
hat, to give them any excuse for call {
ng her unreasonable.
One Sunday morning, Rodney car
led her upstairs to the nursery to I
mol Thfc q / 4
lg room at the top of the house l
vhich Florence McCrea had always
aguely intended to make into e
tudio. But, in the paralysis of In ]
ecision as to what sort Of studio to t
,ake it, she had left the thing bare.
Rodney had given Harriet carte I
Ianche to 60 ahead and fit it up be- t
,re he and Rose came back from the q
easf ore, ard the layette was monu- 7