New Mexico state record. (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1914-19??, 1917-06-15
CHAPTER XIII.
Dam Gives Way.

She began getting her strength bach
very fast in the next two Or three
days, but this queer kink in her emo
lions didn't %straighten out. She came
to see that it was Neutrality-suspicious.
almost. but that didn't help. Instead
Of Il baby, she had given birth to two.
They were hers, of course, as much
as n 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-couldn't accept
the substitution. Those two drOll,
were exhibited to her every morning,
were as foreign to her, a. If they had
been brought into the house In q
basket.
When Harriet came in for the first
time to see her, Rose knew. Har-
riet was living acre now, running the
house for Rodney, while Rose was
laid up. Doing 1t 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 hat 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 a child himself,
in his gleeful delight over the pos
session of a o and u daughter, that
she felt for him, tenderly, mlstily,
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
all to themselves, quite apart
from Miss Harris, who looked after
ltose-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
about that.
They got them named with very lit.
tie difficulty. The boy was Rodney,
Of course. after his father and grand
before him. Rose was a little
Rodney would want the gil
named after her, and was relieved to
End 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
fiat on her back as much as
which was terribly irksome
o her. since her strength and vital
ty were coming back so. fast. She
night have rebelled, had it not been
or that g%erminant 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
her babies bathed. This was. a
ig room at the top of the house
Florence McCrea had always
intended to make into a
tudiO. But. In the paralysis of in
as to what sort of studio to
rake it, she had left the thing bare.
Rodney had given Harriet carte ,
lanche to go ahead and fit it up be-
1re he and Rose came back from the
and the layette was a monu- y
tent to Harriet's practically. There
ad been a wild day of supplement-
g. Of course, when 1t was discovered Sc
lat there were two babies instead Of m
ne.
The room, whep they escorted Rose II
ito It. was a terribly impressive a
lace. The spirit of a barren. sterile III
iiciency brooded everywhere. And
IFS appearance of baroness obtained CT
spite the presence Of an enormous to
1mber of articles pair of scales, It
perfect battery Of electric heaters m
various sorts; rows of vacuum jars II
r keeping things cold or hot a small ar