Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1917-07-24
CHAPTER XIII.
The Dam Gives Way.

Shs began getting her strength back
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 Neutrality-suspicious.
almost, but that didn't help. Instead
of 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 it's miracle-for the
child which, by making her a mother,
should supply what her life needed
her soul wouldn't-cOuldn't 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 a
basket.
When Harriet came In for the first
time to see her, Rose knew. Har-
riet was living here now, running the
house for Rodney, while Rose was
laid up. Doing it beautifully well,
too, through all the confusion of
nurses and all. Harriet said:
II think you're in great luck to
have had two at once; get your duty
to posterity done that much sooner.
And, of course, you couldn't possibly
be 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
a 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 a pretense
at all. He was such n child himself,
In his gleeful delight over the pos
session of a son and daughter, that
she felt for him, tenderly, mistily,
LUMINOSITY, 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
up, 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, it 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
tie 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
find 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
to her, since her strength and vital
ity were coming back so fast. She
might have rebelled, had 1t not been
for that germiuant idea of hers. 1t
wouldn't do, she saw, in the light of
that, to give them any excuse for call
ing her unreasonable.
One Sunday morning, Rodney car
ried her upstairs to the nursery to
see her babies bathed. This was
big room at the top of the house
which Florence McCrea had always
vaguely intended to make into
studio. But, in the paralysis of in
decision as to what sort of studio 10
make it. she had left the thing bare.
Rodney had given Harriet carte
blanche to go ahead and fit it up be-
fore he and Rose came back from the
seashore, and the layette was monu-
msnt to Hsrriet's practically. There
had been a wild day of supplement-
ing, of course, when it was discovered
that there were two babies instead of
one,
The room, when they escorted Rose
into IL, was q terribly impressive
place. The spirit of a barren, sterile
efficiency brooded everywhere. And
this appearance Of baroness obtained
despite the presence of an enormous
number of artieles-a pair of scales,
a perfect battery of electric heaters
of various sorts; rows of vacuum jars
for keeping things cold or hot; small
steSilizing oven; instruments and ap-
planes that Rose couldn't guess the
uses or the names of. Mrs. Ruston,
of course, was master of them all.
and Doris flew about TO do her bid
ding. under a watchful eye.
Rose surveyed this scene. just as
she would have surveyed a laboratory.
or factory where they make some
thing complicated, ike watches.
That's what it was, really. Those two
pink little objects, in their two severe
ly sanitary baskets. were factory prod
ucts. At precise and unalterahle in
tervals. highly scientific compound
of fats ana proteids was put into
them. They we're inspected, weighed,