The Benson signal., 1918-01-19
CHAPTER XIII.
y
The Dam Gives Way.

She began getting her strength back
days, but this queer kink in her emo
tions didn't straighten out. She came
to see that it was absur(l-monstrOus
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 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 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
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,
In his gleeful delight over the pos
session of a son and a daughter, that
she felt for him, tenderly, mistily,
luminously, 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 Inn. Rose was a 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 it not been
for that germinant idea Of hers. II
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 g
big room at the top Of the house
which Florence McCrea had always
vaguely intended to make into 8
studio. But. in the paralysis Of in
decision as to what sort Of studio tC
make it, she had left the thing bare.
Rodney had given Harriet carte
Alanche to go ahead and fit 1t up be
Gore he and Rose came back from the
AAashora. and the layette was a poonu