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diff --git a/14646-h/14646-h.htm b/14646-h/14646-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c512b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/14646-h/14646-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12207 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Christopher and Columbus, by Countess Elizabeth Von Arnim</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 8pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14646 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, Christopher and Columbus, by Countess +Elizabeth Von Arnim, Illustrated by Arthur Litle</h1> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p class="figcenter"><a name="Frontise" id="Frontise" href= +"images/frontise_l.png"><img src="images/frontise_l.png" width= +"300" alt= +"Picture of man and two girls having tea in front of an inn. Signed Arthur Litle. Caption: "Oh, yes. You're both very fond of me," said Mr. Twist, pulling his mouth into a crooked and unhappy smile."We love you." said Anna-Felicitas simply." /> +</a></p> +<p> </p> +<h1><a name="Title" id="Title"></a>CHRISTOPHER AND COLUMBUS</h1> +<h3>By the Author of <i>Elizabeth and Her German Garden</i></h3> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">FRONTISPIECE BY ARTHUR LITLE</p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h6>Garden City New York<br /> +Doubleday, Page & Company</h6> +<h4>1919</h4> +<p> </p> +<hr style="width: 65%; margin-top: 4em;" /> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<h3>Table of Contents:</h3> +<p><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>CHAPTER XXXI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>CHAPTER XXXII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXIII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXXIV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXV"><b>CHAPTER XXXV</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXXVI</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVII</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXVIII</b></a></p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a><a name="CHAPTER_I" id= +"CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> +<p>Their names were really Anna-Rose and Anna-Felicitas; but they +decided, as they sat huddled together in a corner of the +second-class deck of the American liner <i>St. Luke</i>, and +watched the dirty water of the Mersey slipping past and the +Liverpool landing-stage disappearing into mist, and felt that it +was comfortless and cold, and knew they hadn't got a father or a +mother, and remembered that they were aliens, and realized that in +front of them lay a great deal of gray, uneasy, dreadfully wet sea, +endless stretches of it, days and days of it, with waves on top of +it to make them sick and submarines beneath it to kill them if they +could, and knew that they hadn't the remotest idea, not the very +remotest, what was before them when and if they did get across to +the other side, and knew that they were refugees, castaways, +derelicts, two wretched little Germans who were neither really +Germans nor really English because they so unfortunately, so +complicatedly were both,—they decided, looking very calm and +determined and sitting very close together beneath the rug their +English aunt had given them to put round their miserable alien +legs, that what they really were, were Christopher and Columbus, +because they were setting out to discover a New World.</p> +<p>"It's very pleasant," said Anna-Rose. "It's very pleasant to go +and<a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a> discover America. All for +ourselves."</p> +<p>It was Anna-Rosa who suggested their being Christopher and +Columbus. She was the elder by twenty minutes. Both had had their +seventeenth birthday—and what a birthday: no cake, no +candles, no kisses and wreaths and home-made poems; but then, as +Anna-Felicitas pointed out, to comfort Anna-Rose who was taking it +hard, you can't get blood out of an aunt—only a month before. +Both were very German outside and very English inside. Both had +fair hair, and the sorts of chins Germans have, and eyes the colour +of the sky in August along the shores of the Baltic. Their noses +were brief, and had been objected to in Germany, where, if you are +a Junker's daughter, you are expected to show it in your nose. +Anna-Rose had a tight little body, inclined to the round. +Anna-Felicitas, in spite of being a twin, seemed to have made the +most of her twenty extra minutes to grow more in; anyhow she was +tall and thin, and she drooped; and having perhaps grown quicker +made her eyes more dreamy, and her thoughts more slow. And both +held their heads up with a great air of calm whenever anybody on +the ship looked at them, as who should say serenely, "We're +<i>thoroughly</i> happy, and having the time of our lives."</p> +<p>For worlds they wouldn't have admitted to each other that they +were even aware of such a thing as being anxious or wanting to cry. +Like other persons of English blood, they never were so cheerful +nor pretended to be so much amused as when they were right down on +the very bottom of their luck. Like other persons of German blood, +they had the squashiest corners deep in their hearts, where they +secretly clung to cakes and<a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a> +Christmas trees, and fought a tendency to celebrate every possible +anniversary, both dead and alive.</p> +<p>The gulls, circling white against the gloomy sky over the +rubbish that floated on the Mersey, made them feel extraordinarily +forlorn. Empty boxes, bits of straw, orange-peel, a variety of +dismal dirtiness lay about on the sullen water; England was +slipping away, England, their mother's country, the country of +their dreams ever since they could remember—and the <i>St. +Luke</i> with a loud screech had suddenly stopped.</p> +<p>Neither of them could help jumping a little at that and getting +an inch closer together beneath the rug. Surely it wasn't a +submarine already?</p> +<p>"We're Christopher and Columbus," said Anna-Rose quickly, +changing as it were the unspoken conversation.</p> +<p>As the eldest she had a great sense of her responsibility toward +her twin, and considered it one of her first duties to cheer and +encourage her. Their mother had always cheered and encouraged them, +and hadn't seemed to mind anything, however awful it was, that +happened to her,—such as, for instance, when the war began +and they three, their father having died some years before, left +their home up by the Baltic, just as there was the most heavenly +weather going on, and the garden was a dream, and the blue +Chinchilla cat had produced four perfect kittens that very +day,—all of whom had to be left to what Anna-Felicitas, whose +thoughts if slow were picturesque once she had got them, called the +tender mercies of a savage and licentious soldiery,—and came +by slow and difficult stages to England; or such as when their +mother began catching cold and didn't seem at last ever able to +leave off <a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>catching cold, and +though she tried to pretend she didn't mind colds and that they +didn't matter, it was plain that these colds did at last matter +very much, for between them they killed her.</p> +<p>Their mother had always been cheerful and full of hope. Now that +she was dead, it was clearly Anna-Rose's duty, as the next eldest +in the family, to carry on the tradition and discountenance too +much drooping in Anna-Felicitas. Anna-Felicitas was staring much +too thoughtfully at the deepening gloom of the late afternoon sky +and the rubbish brooding on the face of the waters, and she had +jumped rather excessively when the <i>St. Luke</i> stopped so +suddenly, just as if it were putting on the brake hard, and emitted +that agonized whistle.</p> +<p>"We're Christopher and Columbus," said Anna-Rose quickly, "and +we're going to discover America."</p> +<p>"Very well," said Anna-Felicitas. "I'll be Christopher."</p> +<p>"No. I'll be Christopher," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Very well," said Anna-Felicitas, who was the most amiable, +acquiescent person in the world. "Then I suppose I'll have to be +Columbus. But I think Christopher sounds prettier."</p> +<p>Both rolled their r's incurably. It was evidently in their +blood, for nothing, no amount of teaching and admonishment, could +get them out of it. Before they were able to talk at all, in those +happy days when parents make astounding assertions to other parents +about the intelligence and certain future brilliancy of their +offspring, and the other parents, however much they may pity such +self-deception, can't contradict, because after all it just +possibly may be so, the most foolish people occasionally producing +geniuses,—in <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>those happy +days of undisturbed bright castle-building, the mother, who was +English, of the two derelicts now huddled on the dank deck of the +<i>St. Luke</i>, said to the father, who was German, "At any rate +these two blessed little bundles of deliciousness"—she had +one on each arm and was tickling their noses alternately with her +eyelashes, and they were screaming for joy—"won't have to +learn either German or English. They'll just <i>know</i> them."</p> +<p>"Perhaps," said the father, who was a cautious man.</p> +<p>"They're born bi-lingual," said the mother; and the twins +wheezed and choked with laughter, for she was tickling them beneath +their chins, softly fluttering her eyelashes along the creases of +fat she thought so adorable.</p> +<p>"Perhaps," said the father.</p> +<p>"It gives them a tremendous start," said the mother; and the +twins squirmed in a dreadful ecstasy, for she had now got to their +ears.</p> +<p>"Perhaps," said the father.</p> +<p>But what happened was that they didn't speak either language. +Not, that is, as a native should. Their German bristled with +mistakes. They spoke it with a foreign accent. It was copious, but +incorrect. Almost the last thing their father, an accurate man, +said to them as he lay dying, had to do with a misplaced dative. +And when they talked English it rolled about uncontrollably on its +r's, and had a great many long words in it got from Milton, and Dr. +Johnson, and people like that, whom their mother had particularly +loved, but as they talked far more to their mother than to their +father, who was a man of much briefness in words though not in +temper, they were better on the whole at English than German.</p> +<p><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>Their mother, who loved England +more the longer she lived away from it,—"As one does; and the +same principle," Anna-Rose explained to Anna-Felicitas when they +had lived some time with their aunt and uncle, "applies to +relations, aunts' husbands, and the clergy,"—never tired of +telling her children about it, and its poetry, and its spirit, and +the greatness and glory of its points of view. They drank it all in +and believed every word of it, for so did their mother; and as they +grew up they flung themselves on all the English books they could +lay hands upon, and they read with their mother and learned by +heart most of the obviously beautiful things; and because she +glowed with enthusiasm they glowed too—Anna-Rose in a flare +and a flash, Anna-Felicitas slow and steadily. They adored their +mother. Whatever she loved they loved blindly. It was a pity she +died. She died soon after the war began. They had been so happy, so +<i>dreadfully</i> happy....</p> +<p>"You can't be Christopher," said Anna-Rose, giving herself a +shake, for here she was thinking of her mother, and it didn't do to +think of one's mother, she found; at least, not when one is off to +a new life and everything is all promise because it isn't anything +else, and not if one's mother happened to have been so—well, +so fearfully sweet. "You can't be Christopher, because, you see, +I'm the eldest."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas didn't see what being the eldest had to do with +it, but she only said, "Very well," in her soft voice, and +expressed a hope that Anna-Rose would see her way not to call her +Col for short. "I'm afraid you will, though," she added, "and then +I shall feel so like Onkel Nicolas."</p> +<p>This was their German uncle, known during his life-<a name= +"Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>time, which had abruptly left off when the +twins were ten, as Onkel Col; a very ancient person, older by far +even than their father, who had seemed so very old. But Onkel Col +had been older than anybody at all, except the pictures of the +<i>liebe Gott</i> in Blake's illustrations to the Book of Job. He +came to a bad end. Neither their father nor their mother told them +anything except that Onkel Col was dead; and their father put a +black band round the left sleeve of his tweed country suit and was +more good-tempered than ever, and their mother, when they +questioned her, just said that poor Onkel Col had gone to heaven, +and that in future they would speak of him as Onkel Nicolas, +because it was more respectful.</p> +<p>"But why does mummy call him poor, when he's gone to heaven?" +Anna-Felicitas asked Anna-Rose privately, in the recesses of the +garden.</p> +<p>"First of all," said Anna-Rose, who, being the eldest, as she so +often explained to her sister, naturally knew more about +everything, "because the angels won't like him. Nobody <i>could</i> +like Onkel Col. Even if they're angels. And though they're obliged +to have him there because he was such a very good man, they won't +talk to him much or notice him much when God isn't looking. And +second of all, because you <i>are</i> poor when you get to heaven. +Everybody is poor in heaven. Nobody takes their things with them, +and all Onkel Col's money is still on earth. He couldn't even take +his clothes with him."</p> +<p>"Then is he quite—did Onkel Col go there quite—"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas stopped. The word seemed too awful in connection +with Onkel Col, that terrifying old gentleman who had roared at +them from the folds of so many wonderful wadded garments whenever +they were <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>led in, trembling, to +see him, for he had gout and was very terrible; and it seemed +particularly awful when one thought of Onkel Col going to heaven, +which was surely of all places the most +<i>endimanché</i>.</p> +<p>"Of course," nodded Anna-Rose; but even she dropped her voice a +little. She peeped about among the bushes a moment, then put her +mouth close to Anna-Felicitas's ear, and whispered, "Stark."</p> +<p>They stared at one another for a space with awe and horror in +their eyes.</p> +<p>"You see," then went on Anna-Rose rather quickly, hurrying away +from the awful vision, "one knows one doesn't have clothes in +heaven because they don't have the moth there. It says so in the +Bible. And you can't have the moth without having anything for it +to go into."</p> +<p>"Then they don't have to have naphthalin either," said +Anna-Felicitas, "and don't all have to smell horrid in the autumn +when they take their furs out."</p> +<p>"No. And thieves don't break in and steal either in heaven," +continued Anna-Rose, "and the reason why is that there <i>isn't</i> +anything to steal."</p> +<p>"There's angels," suggested Anna-Felicitas after a pause, for +she didn't like to think there was nothing really valuable in +heaven.</p> +<p>"Oh, nobody ever steals <i>them</i>," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas's slow thoughts revolved round this new +uncomfortable view of heaven. It seemed, if Anna-Rose were right, +and she always was right for she said so herself, that heaven +couldn't be such a safe place after all, nor such a kind place. +Thieves could break in and steal if they wanted to. She had a +proper horror of thieves. She was sure the night would certainly +come when they would break into her father's <a name="Page_11" id= +"Page_11"></a><i>Schloss</i>, or, as her English nurse called it, +her dear Papa's slosh; and she was worried that poor Onkel Col +should be being snubbed up there, and without anything to put on, +which would make being snubbed so much worse, for clothes did +somehow comfort one.</p> +<p>She took her worries to the nursemaid, and choosing a moment +when she knew Anna-Rose wished to be unnoticed, it being her hour +for inconspicuously eating unripe apples at the bottom of the +orchard, an exercise Anna-Felicitas only didn't indulge in because +she had learned through affliction that her inside, fond and proud +of it as she was, was yet not of that superior and blessed kind +that suffers green apples gladly—she sought out the +nursemaid, whose name, too, confusingly, was Anna, and led the +conversation up to heaven and the possible conditions prevailing in +it by asking her to tell her, in strict confidence and as woman to +woman, what she thought Onkel Col exactly looked like at that +moment.</p> +<p>"Unrecognizable," said the nursemaid promptly.</p> +<p>"Unrecognizable?" echoed Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>And the nursemaid, after glancing over her shoulder to see if +the governess were nowhere in sight, told Anna-Felicitas the true +story of Onkel Col's end: which is so bad that it isn't fit to be +put in any book except one with an appendix.</p> +<p>A stewardess passed just as Anna-Felicitas was asking Anna-Rose +not to remind her of these grim portions of the past by calling her +Col, a stewardess in such a very clean white cap that she looked +both reliable and benevolent, while secretly she was neither.</p> +<p>"Can you please tell us why we're stopping?" Anna-Rose inquired +of her politely, leaning forward to catch her attention as she +hurried by.</p> +<p><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>The stewardess allowed her +roving eye to alight for a moment on the two objects beneath the +rug. Their chairs were close together, and the rug covered them +both up to their chins. Over the top of it their heads appeared, +exactly alike as far as she could see in the dusk; round heads, +each with a blue knitted cap pulled well over its ears, and round +eyes staring at her with what anybody except the stewardess would +have recognized as a passionate desire for some sort of +reassurance. They might have been seven instead of seventeen for +all the stewardess could tell. They looked younger than anything +she had yet seen sitting alone on a deck and asking questions. But +she was an exasperated widow, who had never had children and wasn't +to be touched by anything except a tip, besides despising, because +she was herself a second-class stewardess, all second-class +passengers,—"As one does," Anna-Rose explained later on to +Anna-Felicitas, "and the same principle applies to Jews." So she +said with an acidity completely at variance with the promise of her +cap, "Ask the Captain," and disappeared.</p> +<p>The twins looked at each other. They knew very well that +captains on ships were mighty beings who were not asked +questions.</p> +<p>"She's trifling with us," murmured Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Yes," Anna-Rose was obliged to admit, though the thought was +repugnant to her that they should look like people a stewardess +would dare trifle with.</p> +<p>"Perhaps she thinks we're younger than we are," she said after a +silence.</p> +<p>"Yes. She couldn't see how long our dresses are, because of the +rug."</p> +<p>"No. And it's only that end of us that really shows we're grown +up."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>Yes. She ought to have seen +us six months ago."</p> +<p>Indeed she ought. Even the stewardess would have been surprised +at the activities and complete appearance of the two pupæ now +rolled motionless in the rug. For, six months ago, they had both +been probationers in a children's hospital in Worcestershire, +arrayed, even as the stewardess, in spotless caps, hurrying hither +and thither with trays of food, sweeping and washing up, learning +to make beds in a given time, and be deft, and quick, and never +tired, and always punctual.</p> +<p>This place had been got them by the efforts and influence of +their Aunt Alice, that aunt who had given them the rug on their +departure and who had omitted to celebrate their birthday. She was +an amiable aunt, but she didn't understand about birthdays. It was +the first one they had had since they were complete orphans, and so +they were rather sensitive about it. But they hadn't cried, because +since their mother's death they had done with crying. What could +there ever again be in the world bad enough to cry about after +that? And besides, just before she dropped away from them into the +unconsciousness out of which she never came back, but instead just +dropped a little further into death, she had opened her eyes +unexpectedly and caught them sitting together in a row by her bed, +two images of agony, with tears rolling down their swollen faces +and their noses in a hopeless state, and after looking at them a +moment as if she had slowly come up from some vast depth and +distance and were gradually recognizing them, she had whispered +with a flicker of the old encouraging smile that had comforted +every hurt and bruise they had ever had, "<i>Don't cry</i> ... +little darlings, <i>don't</i> cry...."</p> +<p><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>But on that first birthday +after her death they had got more and more solemn as time passed, +and breakfast was cleared away, and there were no sounds, prick up +their ears as they might, of subdued preparations in the next room, +no stealthy going up and down stairs to fetch the presents, and at +last no hope at all of the final glorious flinging open of the door +and the vision inside of two cakes all glittering with candles, +each on a table covered with flowers and all the things one has +most wanted.</p> +<p>Their aunt didn't know. How should she? England was a great and +beloved country, but it didn't have proper birthdays.</p> +<p>"Every country has one drawback," Anna-Rose explained to +Anna-Felicitas when the morning was finally over, in case she +should by any chance be thinking badly of the dear country that had +produced their mother as well as Shakespeare, "and not knowing +about birthdays is England's."</p> +<p>"There's Uncle Arthur," said Anna-Felicitas, whose honest mind +groped continually after accuracy.</p> +<p>"Yes," Anna-Rose admitted after a pause. "Yes. There's Uncle +Arthur."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><a name="Page_15" id= +"Page_15"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> +<p>Uncle Arthur was the husband of Aunt Alice. He didn't like +foreigners, and said so. He never had liked them and had always +said so. It wasn't the war at all, it was the foreigners. But as +the war went on, and these German nieces of his wife became more +and more, as he told her, a blighted nuisance, so did he become +more and more pointed, and said he didn't mind French foreigners, +nor Russian foreigners; and a few weeks later, that it wasn't +Italian foreigners either that he minded; and still later, that nor +was it foreigners indigenous to the soil of countries called +neutral. These things he said aloud at meals in a general way. To +his wife when alone he said much more.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, who was nothing if not intrepid, at first tried to +soften his heart by offering to read aloud to him in the evenings +when he came home weary from his daily avocations, which were golf. +Her own suggestion instantly projected a touching picture on her +impressionable imagination of youth, grateful for a roof over its +head, in return alleviating the tedium of crabbed age by +introducing its uncle, who from his remarks was evidently +unacquainted with them, to the best productions of the great +masters of English literature.</p> +<p>But Uncle Arthur merely stared at her with a lacklustre eye when +she proposed it, from his wide-legged position on the hearthrug, +where he was moving money <a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>about +in trouser-pockets of the best material. And later on she +discovered that he had always supposed the "Faery Queen," and +"Adonais," and "In Memoriam," names he had heard at intervals +during his life, for he was fifty and such things do sometimes get +mentioned were well-known racehorses.</p> +<p>Uncle Arthur, like Onkel Col, was a very good man, and though he +said things about foreigners he did stick to these unfortunate +alien nieces longer than one would have supposed possible if one +had overheard what he said to Aunt Alice in the seclusion of their +bed. His ordered existence, shaken enough by the war, Heaven knew, +was shaken in its innermost parts, in its very marrow, by the +arrival of the two Germans. Other people round about had Belgians +in their homes, and groaned; but who but he, the most immensely +British of anybody, had Germans? And he couldn't groan, because +they were, besides being motherless creatures, his own wife's flesh +and blood. Not openly at least could he groan; but he could and did +do it in bed. Why on earth that silly mother of theirs couldn't +have stayed quietly on her Pomeranian sand-heap where she belonged, +instead of coming gallivanting over to England, and then when she +had got there not even decently staying alive and seeing to her +children herself, he at frequent intervals told Aunt Alice in bed +that he would like to know.</p> +<p>Aunt Alice, who after twenty years of life with Uncle Arthur was +both silent and sleek (for he fed her well), sighed and said +nothing. She herself was quietly going through very much on behalf +of her nieces. Jessup didn't like handing dishes to Germans. The +tradespeople twitted the cook with having to cook for them and were +facetious about sausages and asked how one <a name="Page_17" id= +"Page_17"></a>made sauerkraut. Her acquaintances told her they were +very sorry for her, and said they supposed she knew what she was +doing and that it was all right about spies, but really one heard +such strange things, one never could possibly tell even with +children; and regularly the local policeman bicycled over to see if +the aliens, who were registered at the county-town police-station, +were still safe. And then they looked so very German, Aunt Alice +felt. There was no mistaking them. And every time they opened their +mouths there were all those r's rolling about. She hardly liked +callers to find her nieces in her drawing-room at tea-time, they +were so difficult to explain; yet they were too old to shut up in a +nursery.</p> +<p>After three months of them, Uncle Arthur suggested sending them +back to Germany; but their consternation had been so great and +their entreaties to be kept where they were so desperate that he +said no more about that. Besides, they told him that if they went +back there they would be sure to be shot as spies, for over there +nobody would believe they were German, just as over here nobody +would believe they were English; and besides, this was in those +days of the war when England was still regarding Germany as more +mistaken than vicious, and was as full as ever of the tradition of +great and elaborate indulgence and generosity toward a foe, and +Uncle Arthur, whatever he might say, was not going to be behind his +country in generosity.</p> +<p>Yet as time passed, and feeling tightened, and the hideous +necklace of war grew more and more frightful with each fresh bead +of horror strung upon it, Uncle Arthur, though still in principle +remaining good, in practice found himself vindictive. He was +saddled; that's what he was. Saddled with this monstrous <a name= +"Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>unmerited burden. He, the most patriotic +of Britons, looked at askance by his best friends, being given +notice by his old servants, having particular attention paid his +house at night by the police, getting anonymous letters about +lights seen in his upper windows the nights; the Zeppelins came, +which were the windows of the floor those blighted twins slept on, +and all because he had married Aunt Alice.</p> +<p>At this period Aunt Alice went to bed with reluctance. It was +not a place she had ever gone to very willingly since she married +Uncle Arthur, for he was the kind of husband who rebukes in bed; +but now she was downright reluctant. It was painful to her to be +told that she had brought this disturbance into Uncle Arthur's life +by having let him marry her. Inquiring backwards into her +recollections it appeared to her that she had had no say at all +about being married, but that Uncle Arthur had told her she was +going to be, and then that she had been. Which was what had indeed +happened; for Aunt Alice was a round little woman even in those +days, nicely though not obtrusively padded with agreeable fat at +the corners, and her skin, just as now, had the moist delicacy that +comes from eating a great many chickens. Also she suggested, just +as now, most of the things most men want to come home +to,—slippers, and drawn curtains, and a blazing fire, and +peace within one's borders, and even, as Anna-Rose pointed out +privately to Anna-Felicitas after they had come across them for the +first time, she suggested muffins; and so, being in these varied +fashions succulent, she was doomed to make some good man happy. But +she did find it real hard work.</p> +<p>It grew plain to Aunt Alice after another month of them that +Uncle Arthur would not much longer endure <a name="Page_19" id= +"Page_19"></a>his nieces, and that even if he did she would not be +able to endure Uncle Arthur. The thought was very dreadful to her +that she was being forced to choose between two duties, and that +she could not fulfil both. It came to this at last, that she must +either stand by her nieces, her dead sister's fatherless children, +and face all the difficulties and discomforts of such a standing +by, go away with them, take care of them, till the war was over; or +she must stand by Arthur.</p> +<p>She chose Arthur.</p> +<p>How could she, for nieces she had hardly seen, abandon her +husband? Besides, he had scolded her so steadily during the whole +of their married life that she was now unalterably attached to him. +Sometimes a wild thought did for a moment illuminate the soothing +dusk of her mind, the thought of doing the heroic thing, leaving +him for them, and helping and protecting the two poor aliens till +happier days should return. If there were any good stuff in Arthur +would he not recognize, however angry he might be, that she was +doing at least a Christian thing? But this illumination would soon +die out. Her comforts choked it. She was too well-fed. After twenty +years of it, she no longer had the figure for lean and dangerous +enterprises.</p> +<p>And having definitely chosen Arthur, she concentrated what she +had of determination in finding an employment for her nieces that +would remove them beyond the range of his growing wrath. She found +it in a children's hospital as far away as Worcestershire, a +hospital subscribed to very largely by Arthur, for being a good man +he subscribed to hospitals. The matron objected, but Aunt Alice +overrode the matron; and from January to April Uncle Arthur's house +was pure from Germans.</p> +<p><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>Then they came back +again.</p> +<p>It had been impossible to keep them. The nurses wouldn't work +with them. The sick children had relapses when they discovered who +it was who brought them their food, and cried for their mothers. It +had been arranged between Aunt Alice and the matron that the +unfortunate nationality of her nieces should not be mentioned. They +were just to be Aunt Alice's nieces, the Miss Twinklers,—("We +will leave out the von," said Aunt Alice, full of unnatural +cunning. "They have a von, you know, poor things—such a very +labelling thing to have. But Twinkler without it might quite well +be English. Who can possibly tell? It isn't as though they had had +some shocking name like Bismarck.")</p> +<p>Nothing, however, availed against the damning evidence of the +rolled r's. Combined with the silvery fair hair and the determined +little mouths and chins, it was irresistible. Clearly they were +foreigners, and equally clearly they were not Italians, or +Russians, or French. Within a week the nurses spoke of them in +private as Fritz and Franz. Within a fortnight a deputation of +staff sisters went to the matron and asked, on patriotic grounds, +for the removal of the Misses Twinkler. The matron, with the fear +of Uncle Arthur in her heart, for he was altogether the biggest +subscriber, sharply sent the deputation about its business; and +being a matron of great competence and courage she would probably +have continued to be able to force the new probationers upon the +nurses if it had not been for the inability, which was conspicuous, +of the younger Miss Twinkler to acquire efficiency.</p> +<p>In vain did Anna-Rose try to make up for Anna-Felicitas's +shortcomings by a double zeal, a double <a name="Page_21" id= +"Page_21"></a>willingness and cheerfulness. Anna-Felicitas was a +born dreamer, a born bungler with her hands and feet. She not only +never from first to last succeeded in filling the thirty hot-water +bottles, which were her care, in thirty minutes, which was her +duty, but every time she met a pail standing about she knocked +against it and it fell over. Patients and nurses watched her +approach with apprehension. Her ward was in a constant condition of +flood.</p> +<p>"It's because she's thinking of something else," Anna-Rose tried +eagerly to explain to the indignant sister-in-charge.</p> +<p>"Thinking of something else!" echoed the sister.</p> +<p>"She reads, you see, a lot—whenever she gets the chance +she reads—"</p> +<p>"Reads!" echoed the sister.</p> +<p>"And then, you see, she gets thinking—"</p> +<p>"Thinking! Reading doesn't make <i>me</i> think."</p> +<p>"With much regret," wrote the matron to Aunt Alice, "I am +obliged to dismiss your younger niece, Nurse Twinkler II. She has +no vocation for nursing. On the other hand, your elder niece is +shaping well and I shall be pleased to keep her on."</p> +<p>"But I can't stop on," Anna-Rose said to the matron when she +announced these decisions to her. "I can't be separated from my +sister. I'd like very much to know what would become of that poor +child without me to look after her. You forget I'm the eldest."</p> +<p>The matron put down her pen,—she was a woman who made many +notes—and stared at Nurse Twinkler. Not in this fashion did +her nurses speak to her. But Anna-Rose, having been brought up in a +spot remote from everything except love and laughter, had all the +<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>fearlessness of ignorance; and +in her extreme youth and smallness, with her eyes shining and her +face heated she appeared to the matron rather like an indignant +kitten.</p> +<p>"Very well," said the matron gravely, suppressing a smile. "One +should always do what one considers one's first duty."</p> +<p>So the Twinklers went back to Uncle Arthur, and the matron was +greatly relieved, for she certainly didn't want them, and Uncle +Arthur said Damn.</p> +<p>"Arthur," gently reproved his wife.</p> +<p>"I say Damn and I mean Damn," said Uncle Arthur. "What the hell +can we—"</p> +<p>"Arthur," said his wife.</p> +<p>"I say, what the hell can we do with a couple of Germans? If +people wouldn't swallow them last winter are they going to swallow +them any better now? God, what troubles a man lets himself in for +when he marries!"</p> +<p>"I do beg you, Arthur, not to use those coarse words," said Aunt +Alice, tears in her gentle eyes.</p> +<p>There followed a period of desperate exertion on the part of +Aunt Alice. She answered advertisements and offered the twins as +nursery governesses, as cheerful companions, as mothers' helps, +even as orphans willing to be adopted. She relinquished every claim +on salaries, she offered them for nothing, and at last she offered +them accompanied by a bonus. "Their mother was English. They are +quite English," wrote Aunt Alice innumerable times in innumerable +letters. "I feel bound, however, to tell you that they once had a +German father, but of course it was through no fault of their own," +etc., etc. Aunt Alice's hand ached with writing letters; and any +solution of the problem that <a name="Page_23" id= +"Page_23"></a>might possibly have been arrived at came to nothing +because Anna-Rose would not be separated from Anna-Felicitas, and +if it was difficult to find anybody who would take on one German +nobody at all could be found to take on two.</p> +<p>Meanwhile Uncle Arthur grew nightly more dreadful in bed. Aunt +Alice was at her wits' end, and took to crying helplessly. The +twins racked their brains to find a way out, quite as anxious to +relieve Uncle Arthur of their presence as he was to be relieved. If +only they could be independent, do something, work, go as +housemaids,—anything.</p> +<p>They concocted an anonymous-advertisement and secretly sent it +to <i>The Times</i>, clubbing their pocket-money together to pay +for it. The advertisement was:</p> +<p class="blockquot">Energetic Sisters of belligerent ancestry but +unimpeachable sympathies wish for any sort of work consistent with +respectability. No objection to being demeaned.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas inquired what that last word meant for it was +Anna-Rose's word, and Anna-Rose explained that it meant not minding +things like being housemaids. "Which we don't," said Anna-Rose. +"Upper and Under. I'll be Upper, of course, because I'm the +eldest."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas suggested putting in what it meant then, for she +regarded it with some doubt, but Anna-Rose, it being her word, +liked it, and explained that it Put a whole sentence into a +nut-shell, and wouldn't change it.</p> +<p>No one answered this advertisement except a society in London +for helping alien enemies in distress.</p> +<p>"Charity," said Anna-Rose, turning up her nose.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>And fancy thinking <i>us</i> +enemies," said Anna-Felicitas, "Us. While mummy—" Her eyes +filled with tears. She kept them back, however, behind convenient +long eye-lashes.</p> +<p>Then they saw an advertisement in the front page of <i>The +Times</i> that they instantly answered without saying a word to +Aunt Alice. The advertisement was:</p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Slightly wounded Officer would +be glad to find intelligent and</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">interesting companion who can drive +a 14 h.p. Humber. Emoluments</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">by arrangement.</span></p> +<p>"We'll <i>tell</i> him we're intelligent and interesting," said +Anna-Rose, eagerly.</p> +<p>"Yes—who knows if we wouldn't be really, if we were given +a chance?" said Anna-Felicitas, quite flushed with excitement.</p> +<p>"And if he engages us we'll take him on in turns, so that the +emoluments won't have to be doubled."</p> +<p>"Yes—because he mightn't like paying twice over."</p> +<p>"Yes—and while the preliminaries are being settled we +could be learning to drive Uncle Arthur's car."</p> +<p>"Yes—except that it's a Daimler, and aren't they +different?"</p> +<p>"Yes—but only about the same difference as there is +between a man and a woman. A man and a woman are both human beings, +you know. And Daimlers and Humbers are both cars."</p> +<p>"I see," said Anna-Felicitas; but she didn't.</p> +<p>They wrote an enthusiastic answer that very day.</p> +<p>The only thing they were in doubt about, they explained toward +the end of the fourth sheet, when they had got to politenesses and +were requesting the slightly wounded officer to allow them to +express their sympathy <a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>with his +wounds, was that they had not yet had an opportunity of driving a +Humber car, but that this opportunity, of course, would be +instantly provided by his engaging them. Also, would he kindly tell +them if it was a male companion he desired to have, because if so +it was very unfortunate, for neither of them were males, but quite +the contrary.</p> +<p>They got no answer to this for three weeks, and had given up all +hope and come to the depressing conclusion that they must have +betrayed their want of intelligence and interestingness right away, +when one day a letter came from General Headquarters in France, +addressed <i>To Both the Miss Twinklers</i>, and it was a long +letter, pages long, from the slightly wounded officer, telling them +he had been patched up again and sent back to the front, and their +answer to his advertisement had been forwarded to him there, and +that he had had heaps of other answers to it, and that the one he +had liked best of all was theirs; and that some day he hoped when +he was back again, and able to drive himself, to show them how +glorious motoring was, if their mother would bring +them,—quick motoring in his racing car, sixty miles an hour +motoring, flashing through the wonders of the New Forest, where he +lived. And then there was a long bit about what the New Forest must +be looking like just then, all quiet in the spring sunshine, with +lovely dappled bits of shade underneath the big beeches, and the +heather just coming alive, and all the winding solitary roads so +full of peace, so empty of noise.</p> +<p>"Write to me, you two children," said the letter at the end. +"You've no idea what it's like getting letters from home out here. +Write and tell me what you do and what the garden is like these +fine afternoons. The <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>lilacs must +be nearly done, but I'm sure there's the smell of them still about, +and I'm sure you have a beautiful green close-cut lawn, and tea is +brought out on to it, and there's no sound, no sort of sound, +except birds, and you two laughing, and I daresay a jolly dog +barking somewhere just for fun and not because he's angry."</p> +<p>The letter was signed (Captain) John Desmond, and there was a +scrawl in the corner at the end: "It's for jolly little English +kids like you that we're fighting, God bless you. Write to me again +soon."</p> +<p>"English kids like us!"</p> +<p>They looked at each other. They had not mentioned their +belligerent ancestry in their letter. They felt uncomfortable, and +as if Captain Desmond were fighting for them, as it were, under +false pretences. They also wondered why he should conclude they +were kids.</p> +<p>They wrote to him again, explaining that they were not exactly +what could be described as English, but on the other hand neither +were they exactly what could be described as German. "We would be +very glad indeed if we were really <i>something</i>," they +added.</p> +<p>But after their letter had been gone only a few days they saw in +the list of casualties in <i>The Times</i> that Captain John +Desmond had been killed.</p> +<p>And then one day the real solution was revealed, and it was +revealed to Uncle Arthur as he sat in his library on a wet Sunday +morning considering his troubles in detail.</p> +<p>Like most great ideas it sprang full-fledged into +being,—obvious, unquestionable, splendidly simple,—out +of a trifle. For, chancing to raise his heavy and disgusted eyes to +the bookshelves in front of him, they rested on <a name="Page_27" +id="Page_27"></a>one particular book, and on the back of this book +stood out in big gilt letters the word</p> +<h3>AMERICA</h3> +<p>There were other words on its back, but this one alone stood +out, and it had all the effect of a revelation.</p> +<p>There. That was it. Of course. That was the way out. Why the +devil hadn't Alice thought of <i>that</i>? He knew some Americans; +he didn't like them, but he knew them; and he would write to them, +or Alice would write to them, and tell them the twins were coming. +He would give the twins £200,—damn it, nobody could say +that wasn't handsome, especially in war-time, and for a couple of +girls who had no earthly sort of claim on him, whatever Alice might +choose to think they had on her. Yet it was such a confounded +mixed-up situation that he wasn't at all sure he wouldn't come +under the Defence of the Realm Act, by giving them money, as aiding +the enemy. Well, he would risk that. He would risk anything to be +rid of them. Ship 'em off, that was the thing to do. They would +fall on their feet right enough over there. America still swallowed +Germans without making a face.</p> +<p>Uncle Arthur reflected for a moment with extreme disgust on the +insensibility of the American palate. "Lost their chance, that's +what <i>they've</i> done," he said to himself—for this was +1916, and America had not yet made her magnificent entry into the +war—as he had already said to himself a hundred times. "Lost +their chance of coming in on the side of civilization, and helping +sweep the world up tidy of barbarism. Shoulder to shoulder with us, +that's where <i>they</i> ought to have been. English-speaking +races—duty to the world—" <a name="Page_28" id= +"Page_28"></a>He then damned the Americans; but was suddenly +interrupted by perceiving that if they had been shoulder to +shoulder with him and England he wouldn't have been able to send +them his wife's German nieces to take care of. There was, he +conceded, that advantage resulting from their attitude. He could +not, however, concede any others.</p> +<p>At luncheon he was very nearly gay. It was terrible to see Uncle +Arthur very nearly gay, and both his wife and the twins were most +uncomfortable. "I wonder what's the matter now," sighed Aunt Alice +to herself, as she nervously crumbled her toast.</p> +<p>It could mean nothing good, Arthur in such spirits on a wet +Sunday, when he hadn't been able to get his golf and the cook had +overdone the joint.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><a name="Page_29" +id="Page_29"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> +<p>And so, on a late September afternoon, the <i>St. Luke</i>, +sliding away from her moorings, relieved Uncle Arthur of his +burden.</p> +<p>It was final this time, for the two alien enemies once out of it +would not be let into England again till after the war. The enemies +themselves knew it was final; and the same knowledge that made +Uncle Arthur feel so pleasant as he walked home across his park +from golf to tea that for a moment he was actually of a mind to +kiss Aunt Alice when he got in, and perhaps even address her in the +language of resuscitated passion, which in Uncle Arthur's mouth was +Old Girl,—an idea he abandoned, however, in case it should +make her self-satisfied and tiresome—the same knowledge that +produced these amiable effects in Uncle Arthur, made his alien +nieces cling very close together as they leaned over the side of +the <i>St. Luke</i> hungrily watching the people on the wharf.</p> +<p>For they loved England. They loved it with the love of youth +whose enthusiasms have been led by an adored teacher always in one +direction. And they were leaving that adored teacher, their mother, +in England. It seemed like losing her a second time to go away, so +far away, and leave her there. It was nonsense, they knew, to feel +like that. She was with them just the same; wherever they went now +she would be with them, and they could hear her saying at that very +moment, "Little darlings, <i>don't</i> cry...." But it was <a name= +"Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>a gloomy, drizzling afternoon, the sort +of afternoon anybody might be expected to cry on, and not one of +the people waving handkerchiefs were waving handkerchiefs to +them.</p> +<p>"We ought to have hired somebody," thought Anna-Rose, eyeing the +handkerchiefs with miserable little eyes.</p> +<p>"I believe I've gone and caught a cold," remarked Anna-Felicitas +in her gentle, staid voice, for she was having a good deal of +bother with her eyes and her nose, and could no longer conceal the +fact that she was sniffing.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose discreetly didn't look at her. Then she suddenly +whipped out her handkerchief and waved it violently.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas forgot her eyes and nose and craned her head +forward. "Who are you waving to?" she asked, astonished.</p> +<p>"Good-bye!" cried Anna-Rose, waving, "Good-bye! Good-bye!"</p> +<p>"Who? Where? Who are you talking to?" asked Anna-Felicitas. "Has +any one come to see us off?"</p> +<p>"Good-bye! Good-bye!" cried Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>The figures on the wharf were getting smaller, but not until +they had faded into a blur did Anna-Rose leave off waving. Then she +turned round and put her arm through Anna-Felicitas's and held on +to her very tight for a minute.</p> +<p>"There wasn't anybody," she said. "Of course there wasn't. But +do you suppose I was going to have us <i>looking</i> like people +who aren't seen off?"</p> +<p>And she drew Anna-Felicitas away to the chairs, and when they +were safely in them and rolled up to their chins in the rug, she +added, "That man—" and then stopped. "<a name="Page_31" id= +"Page_31"></a>What man?"</p> +<p>"Standing just behind us—"</p> +<p>"Was there a man?" asked Anna-Felicitas, who never saw men any +more than she, in her brief career at the hospital, had seen +pails.</p> +<p>"Yes. Looking as if in another moment he'd be sorry for us," +said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Sorry for us!" repeated Anna-Felicitas, roused to +indignation.</p> +<p>"Yes. Did you ever?"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas said, with a great deal of energy while she put +her handkerchief finally and sternly away, that she didn't ever; +and after a pause Anna-Rose, remembering one of her many new +responsibilities and anxieties—she had so many that sometimes +for a time she didn't remember some of them—turned her head +to Anna-Felicitas, and fixing a worried eye on her said, "You won't +go forgetting your Bible, will you, Anna F.?"</p> +<p>"My Bible?" repeated Anna-Felicitas, looking blank.</p> +<p>"Your German Bible. The bit about <i>wenn die bösen Buben +locken, so folge sie nicht</i>."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas continued to look blank, but Anna-Rose with a +troubled brow said again, "You won't go and forget that, will you, +Anna F.?"</p> +<p>For Anna-Felicitas was very pretty. In most people's eyes she +was very pretty, but in Anna-Rose's she was the most exquisite +creature God had yet succeeded in turning out. Anna-Rose concealed +this conviction from her. She wouldn't have told her for worlds. +She considered it wouldn't have been at all good for her; and she +had, up to this, and ever since they could both remember, jeered in +a thoroughly sisterly fashion at her defects, concentrating +particularly <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>on her nose, on her +leanness, and on the way, unless constantly reminded not to, she +drooped.</p> +<p>But Anna-Rose secretly considered that the same nose that on her +own face made no sort of a show at all, directly it got on to +Anna-Felicitas's somehow was the dearest nose; and that her +leanness was lovely,—the same sort of slender grace her +mother had had in the days before the heart-breaking emaciation +that was its last phase; and that her head was set so charmingly on +her neck that when she drooped and forgot her father's constant +injunction to sit up,—"For," had said her father at +monotonously regular intervals, "a maiden should be as straight as +a fir-tree,"—she only seemed to fall into even more +attractive lines than when she didn't. And now that Anna-Rose alone +had the charge of looking after this abstracted and so charming +younger sister, she felt it her duty somehow to convey to her while +tactfully avoiding putting ideas into the poor child's head which +might make her conceited, that it behoved her to conduct herself +with discretion.</p> +<p>But she found tact a ticklish thing, the most difficult thing of +all to handle successfully; and on this occasion hers was so +elaborate, and so carefully wrapped up in Scriptural language, and +German Scripture at that, that Anna-Felicitas's slow mind didn't +succeed in disentangling her meaning, and after a space of staring +at her with a mild inquiry in her eyes, she decided that perhaps +she hadn't got one. She was much too polite though, to say so, and +they sat in silence under the rug till the <i>St. Luke</i> whistled +and stopped, and Anna-Rose began hastily to make conversation about +Christopher and Columbus.</p> +<p>She was ashamed of having shown so much of her woe at leaving +England. She hoped Anna-Felicitas <a name="Page_33" id= +"Page_33"></a>hadn't noticed. She certainly wasn't going on like +that. When the <i>St. Luke</i> whistled, she was ashamed that it +wasn't only Anna-Felicitas who jumped. And the amount of brightness +she put into her voice when she told Anna-Felicitas it was pleasant +to go and discover America was such that that young lady, who if +slow was sure, said to herself, "Poor little Anna-R., she's really +taking it dreadfully to heart."</p> +<p>The <i>St. Luke</i> was only dropping anchor for the night in +the Mersey, and would go on at daybreak. They gathered this from +the talk of passengers walking up and down the deck in twos and +threes and passing and repassing the chairs containing the silent +figures with the round heads that might be either the heads of boys +or of girls, and they were greatly relieved to think they wouldn't +have to begin and be sea-sick for some hours yet. "So couldn't we +walk about a little?" suggested Anna-Felicitas, who was already +stiff from sitting on the hard cane chair.</p> +<p>But Aunt Alice had told them that the thing to do on board a +ship if they wished, as she was sure they did, not only to avoid +being sick but also conspicuous, was to sit down in chairs the +moment the ship got under way, and not move out of them till it +stopped again. "Or, at least, as rarely as possible," amended Aunt +Alice, who had never herself been further on a ship than to Calais, +but recognized that it might be difficult to avoid moving sooner or +later if it was New York you were going to. "Two such young girls +travelling alone should be seen as seldom as ever you can manage. +Your Uncle is sending you second-class for that very reason, +because it is so much less conspicuous."</p> +<p>It was also very much less expensive, and Uncle <a name= +"Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>Arthur's generosities were of the kind +that suddenly grow impatient and leave off. Just as in eating he +was as he said, for plain roast and boiled, and messes be damned, +so in benefactions he was for lump sums and done with it; and the +extras, the driblets, the here a little and there a little that +were necessary, or were alleged by Aunt Alice to be necessary, +before he finally got rid of those blasted twins, annoyed him so +profoundly that when it came to taking their passage he could +hardly be got not to send them in the steerage. This was too much, +however, for Aunt Alice, whose maid was going with them as far as +Euston and therefore would know what sort of tickets they had, and +she insisted with such quiet obstinacy that they should be sent +first-class that Uncle Arthur at last split the difference and +consented to make it second. To her maid Aunt Alice also explained +that second-class was less conspicuous.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, mindful of Aunt Alice's words, hesitated as to the +wisdom of walking about and beginning to be conspicuous already, +but she too was stiff, and anything the matter with one's body has +a wonderful effect, as she had already in her brief career had +numerous occasions to observe, in doing away with prudent +determinations. So, after cautiously looking round the corners to +see if the man who was on the verge of being sorry for them were +nowhere in sight, they walked up and down the damp, dark deck; and +the motionlessness, and silence, and mist gave them a sensation of +being hung mid-air in some strange empty Hades between two +worlds.</p> +<p>Far down below there was a faint splash every now and then +against the side of the <i>St. Luke</i> when some other steamer, +invisible in the mist, felt her way slowly <a name="Page_35" id= +"Page_35"></a>by. Out ahead lay the sea, the immense uneasy sea +that was to last ten days and nights before they got to the other +side, hour after hour of it, hour after hour of tossing across it +further and further away; and forlorn and ghostly as the ship felt, +it yet, because on either side of it were still the shores of +England, didn't seem as forlorn and ghostly as the unknown land +they were bound for. For suppose, Anna-Felicitas inquired of +Anna-Rose, who had been privately asking herself the same thing, +America didn't like them? Suppose the same sort of difficulties +were waiting for them over there that had dogged their footsteps in +England?</p> +<p>"First of all," said Anna-Rose promptly, for she prided herself +on the readiness and clearness of her explanations, "America will +like us, because I don't see why it shouldn't. We're going over to +it in exactly the same pleasant spirit, Anna-F.,—and don't +you go forgetting it and showing your disagreeable side—that +the dove was in when it flew across the waters to the ark, and with +olive branches in our beaks just the same as the dove's, only +they're those two letters to Uncle Arthur's friends."</p> +<p>"But do you think Uncle Arthur's friends—" began +Anna-Felicitas, who had great doubts as to everything connected +with Uncle Arthur.</p> +<p>"And secondly," continued Anna-Rose a little louder, for she +wasn't going to be interrupted, and having been asked a question +liked to give all the information in her power, "secondly, America +is the greatest of the neutrals except the <i>liebe Gott</i>, and +is bound particularly to prize us because we're so unusually and +peculiarly neutral. What ever was more neutral than you and me? +We're neither one thing nor the other, and yet at the same time +we're both." <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>Anna-Felicitas +remarked that it sounded rather as if they were the Athanasian +Creed.</p> +<p>"And thirdly," went on Anna-Rose, waving this aside, "there's +£200 waiting for us over there, which is a very nice warm +thing to think of. We never had £200 waiting for us anywhere +in our lives before, did we,—so you remember that, and don't +get grumbling."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas mildly said that she wasn't grumbling but that +she couldn't help thinking what a great deal depended on the +goodwill of Uncle Arthur's friends, and wished it had been Aunt +Alice's friends they had letters to instead, because Aunt Alice's +friends were more likely to like her.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose rebuked her, and said that the proper spirit in which +to start on a great adventure was one of faith and enthusiasm, and +that one didn't have doubts.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas said she hadn't any doubts really, but that she +was very hungry, not having had anything that could be called a +meal since breakfast, and that she felt like the sheep in +"Lycidas," the hungry ones who looked up and were not fed, and she +quoted the lines in case Anna-Rose didn't recollect them (which +Anna-Rose deplored, for she knew the lines by heart, and if there +was any quoting to be done liked to do it herself), and said she +felt just like that,—"Empty," said Anna-Felicitas, "and yet +swollen. When do you suppose people have food on board ships? I +don't believe we'd mind nearly so much about—oh well, about +leaving England, if it was after dinner."</p> +<p>"I'm not minding leaving England," said Anna-Rose quickly. "At +least, not more than's just proper."</p> +<p>"Oh, no more am I, of course," said Anna-Felicitas airily. +"Except what's proper."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>And even if we were feeling +it <i>dreadfully</i>," said Anna-Rose, with a little catch in her +voice, "which, of course, we're not, dinner wouldn't make any +difference. Dinner doesn't alter fundamentals."</p> +<p>"But it helps one to bear them," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Bear!" repeated Anna-Rose, her chin in the air. "We haven't got +much to bear. Don't let me hear you talk of bearing things, +Anna-F."</p> +<p>"I won't after dinner," promised Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>They thought perhaps they had better ask somebody whether there +wouldn't soon be something to eat, but the other passengers had all +disappeared. They were by themselves on the gloomy deck, and there +were no lights. The row of cabin windows along the wall were +closely shuttered, and the door they had come through when first +they came on deck was shut too, and they couldn't find it in the +dark. It seemed so odd to be feeling along a wall for a door they +knew was there and not be able to find it, that they began to +laugh; and the undiscoverable door cheered them up more than +anything that had happened since seeing the last of Uncle +Arthur.</p> +<p>"It's like a game," said Anna-Rose, patting her hands softly and +vainly along the wall beneath the shuttered windows.</p> +<p>"It's like something in 'Alice in Wonderland,'" said +Anna-Felicitas, following in her tracks.</p> +<p>A figure loomed through the mist and came toward them. They left +off patting, and stiffened into straight and motionless dignity +against the wall till it should have passed. But it didn't pass. It +was a male figure in a peaked cap, probably a steward, they +thought, and it stopped in front of them and said in an American +voice, "Hello."</p> +<p><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>Anna-Rose cast rapidly about +in her mind for the proper form of reply to Hello.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas, instinctively responsive to example murmured +"Hello" back again.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, feeling sure that nobody ought to say just Hello to +people they had never seen before, and that Aunt Alice would think +they had brought it on themselves by being conspicuous, decided +that perhaps "Good-evening" would regulate the situation, and said +it.</p> +<p>"You ought to be at dinner," said the man, taking no notice of +this.</p> +<p>"That's what <i>we</i> think," agreed Anna-Felicitas +earnestly.</p> +<p>"Can you please tell us how to get there?" asked Anna-Rose, +still distant, but polite, for she too very much wanted to +know.</p> +<p>"But <i>don't</i> tell us to ask the Captain," said +Anna-Felicitas, even more earnestly.</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose, "because we won't."</p> +<p>The man laughed. "Come right along with me," he said, striding +on; and they followed him as obediently as though such persons as +possible <i>böse Buben</i> didn't exist.</p> +<p>"First voyage I guess," said the man over his shoulder.</p> +<p>"Yes," said the twins a little breathlessly, for the man's legs +were long and they could hardly keep up with him.</p> +<p>"English?" said the man.</p> +<p>"Ye—es," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"That's to say, practically," panted the conscientious +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"What say?" said the man, still striding on. "<a name="Page_39" +id="Page_39"></a>I said," Anna-Felicitas endeavoured to explain, +hurrying breathlessly after him so as to keep within reach of his +ear, "practically."</p> +<p>"Ah," said the man; and after a silence, broken only by the +pantings for breath of the twins, he added: "Mother with you?"</p> +<p>They didn't say anything to that, it seemed such a dreadful +question to have to answer, and luckily he didn't repeat it, but, +having got to the door they had been searching for, opened it and +stepped into the bright light inside, and putting out his arm +behind him pulled them in one after the other over the high wooden +door-frame.</p> +<p>Inside was the same stewardess they had seen earlier in the +afternoon, engaged in heatedly describing what sounded like +grievances to an official in buttons, who seemed indifferent. She +stopped suddenly when the man appeared, and the official took his +hands out of his pockets and became alert and attentive, and the +stewardess hastily picked up a tray she had set down and began to +move away along a passage.</p> +<p>The man, however, briefly called "Hi," and she turned round and +came back even more quickly than she had tried to go.</p> +<p>"You see," explained Anna-Rose in a pleased whisper to +Anna-Felicitas, "it's Hi she answers to."</p> +<p>"Yes," agreed Anna-Felicitas. "It's waste of good +circumlocutions to throw them away on her."</p> +<p>"Show these young ladies the dining-room," said the man.</p> +<p>"Yes, sir," said the stewardess, as polite as you please.</p> +<p>He nodded to them with a smile that developed for some reason +into a laugh, and turned away and beckoned <a name="Page_40" id= +"Page_40"></a>to the official to follow him, and went out again +into the night.</p> +<p>"Who was that nice man?" inquired Anna-Rose, following the +stewardess down a broad flight of stairs that smelt of india-rubber +and machine-oil and cooking all mixed up together.</p> +<p>"And please," said Anna-Felicitas with mild severity, "don't +tell us to ask the Captain, because we really do know better than +that."</p> +<p>"I thought you must be relations," said the stewardess.</p> +<p>"We are," said Anna-Rose. "We're twins."</p> +<p>The stewardess stared. "Twins what of?" she asked.</p> +<p>"What of?" echoed Anna-Rose. "Why, of each other, of +course."</p> +<p>"I meant relations of the Captain's," said the stewardess +shortly, eyeing them with more disfavour than ever.</p> +<p>"You seem to have the Captain greatly on your mind," said +Anna-Felicitas. "He is no relation of ours."</p> +<p>"You're not even friends, then?" asked the stewardess, pausing +to stare round at them at a turn in the stairs as they followed her +down arm-in-arm.</p> +<p>"Of course we're friends," said Anna-Rose with some heat. "Do +you suppose we quarrel?"</p> +<p>"No, I didn't suppose you quarrelled with the Captain," said the +stewardess tartly. "Not on board this ship anyway."</p> +<p>She didn't know which of the two she disliked most, the short +girl or the long girl.</p> +<p>"You seem to be greatly obsessed by the Captain," said +Anna-Felicitas gently. "<a name="Page_41" id= +"Page_41"></a>Obsessed!" repeated the stewardess, tossing her head. +She was unacquainted with the word, but instantly suspected it of +containing a reflection on her respectability. "I've been a widow +off and on for ten years now," she said angrily, "and I guess it +would take more than even the Captain to obsess <i>me</i>."</p> +<p>They had reached the glass doors leading into the dining-room, +and the stewardess, having carried out her orders, paused before +indignantly leaving them and going upstairs again to say, "If +you're friends, what do you want to know his name for, then?"</p> +<p>"Whose name?" asked Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"The Captain's," said the stewardess.</p> +<p>"We don't want to know the Captain's name," said Anna-Felicitas +patiently. "We don't want to know anything about the Captain."</p> +<p>"Then—" began the stewardess. She restrained herself, +however, and merely bitterly remarking: "That gentleman <i>was</i> +the Captain," went upstairs and left them.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose was the first to recover. "You see we took your +advice," she called up after her, trying to soften her heart, for +it was evident that for some reason her heart was hardened, by +flattery. "You <i>told</i> us to ask the Captain."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><a name="Page_42" id= +"Page_42"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> +<p>In their berths that night before they went to sleep, it +occurred to them that perhaps what was the matter with the +stewardess was that she needed a tip. At first, with their recent +experiences fresh in their minds, they thought that she was +probably passionately pro-Ally, and had already detected all those +Junkers in their past and accordingly couldn't endure them. Then +they remembered how Aunt Alice had said, "You will have to give +your stewardess a little something."</p> +<p>This had greatly perturbed them at the time, for up to then they +had been in the easy position of the tipped rather than the +tippers, and anyhow they had no idea what one gave stewardesses. +Neither, it appeared, had Aunt Alice; for, on being questioned, she +said vaguely that as it was an American boat they were going on she +supposed it would have to be American money, which was dollars, and +she didn't know much about dollars except that you divided them by +four and multiplied them by five, or else it was the other way +about; and when, feeling still uninformed, they had begged her to +tell them why one did that, she said it was the quickest way of +finding out what a dollar really was, and would they mind not +talking any more for a little while because her head ached.</p> +<p>The tips they had seen administered during their short lives had +all been given at the end of things, not at the beginning; but +Americans, Aunt Alice told them, <a name="Page_43" id= +"Page_43"></a>were in some respects, in spite of their talking +English, different, and perhaps they were different just on this +point and liked to be tipped at both ends. Anna-Rose wanted to +crane out her head and call up to Anna-Felicitas and ask her +whether she didn't think that might be so, but was afraid of +disturbing the people in the opposite berths.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas was in the top berth on their side of the cabin, +and Anna-Rose as the elder and accordingly as she explained to +Anna-Felicitas, needing more comfort, in the lower one. On the +opposite side were two similar berths, each containing as +Anna-Felicitas whispered after peeping cautiously through their +closed curtains,—for at first on coming in after dinner to go +to bed the cabin seemed empty, except for inanimate things, like +clothes hanging up and an immense smell,—its human freight. +They were awed by this discovery, for the human freight was +motionless and speechless, and yet made none of the noises +suggesting sleep.</p> +<p>They unpacked and undressed as silently and quickly as possible, +but it was very difficult, for there seemed to be no room for +anything, not even for themselves. Every now and then they glanced +a little uneasily at the closed curtains, which bulged, and sniffed +cautiously and delicately, trying to decide what the smell exactly +was. It appeared to be a mixture of the sauce one had with plum +pudding at Christmas, and German bedrooms in the morning. It was a +smell they didn't like the idea of sleeping with, but they saw no +way of getting air. They thought of ringing for the stewardess and +asking her to open a window, though they could see no window, but +came to the conclusion it was better not to stir her up; not yet, +at least, not till they had correctly diagnosed what was the matter +with her. They said <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>nothing out +loud, for fear of disturbing whatever it was behind the curtains, +but they knew what each was thinking, for one isn't, as they had +long ago found out, a twin for nothing.</p> +<p>There was a slight scuffle before Anna-Felicitas was safely +hoisted up into her berth, her legs hanging helplessly down for +some time after the rest of her was in it, and Anna-Rose, who had +already neatly inserted herself into her own berth, after watching +these legs in silence and fighting a desire to give them a tug and +see what would happen, had to get out at last on hearing +Anna-Felicitas begin to make sounds up there as though she were +choking, and push them up in after her. Her head was then on a +level with Anna-Felicitas's berth, and she could see how +Anna-Felicitas, having got her legs again, didn't attempt to do +anything with them in the way of orderly arrangement beneath the +blankets, but lay huddled in an irregular heap, screwing her eyes +up very tight and stuffing one of her pigtails into her mouth, and +evidently struggling with what appeared to be an attack of +immoderate and ill-timed mirth.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose observed her for a moment in silence, then was +suddenly seized herself with a dreadful desire to laugh, and with a +hasty glance round at the bulging curtains scrambled back into her +own berth and pulled the sheet over her mouth.</p> +<p>She was sobering herself by going over her different +responsibilities, checking them off on her fingers,—the two +five-pound notes under her pillow for extra expenses till they were +united in New York to their capital, the tickets, the passports, +and Anna-Felicitas,—when two thick fair pigtails appeared +dangling over the edge of her berth, followed by Anna-Felicitas's +head.</p> +<p>"You've forgotten to turn out the light," whispered <a name= +"Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>Anna-Felicitas, her eyelashes still wet +from her late attack; and stretching her neck still further down +till her face was scarlet with the effort and the blood rushing +into it, she expressed a conviction to Anna-Rose that the human +freight behind the curtains, judging from the suspicious +negativeness of its behaviour, had no business in their cabin at +all and was really stowaways.</p> +<p>"German stowaways," added Anna-Felicitas, nodding her head +emphatically, which was very skilful of her, thought Anna-Rose, +considering that it was upside down. "<i>German</i> stowaways," +whispered Anna-Felicitas, sniffing expressively though +cautiously.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose raised herself on her elbows and stared across at the +bulging curtains. They certainly were very motionless and much +curved. In spite of herself her flesh began to creep a little.</p> +<p>"They're men," whispered Anna-Felicitas, now dangerously +congested. "Stowaways are."</p> +<p>There had been no one in the cabin when first they came on board +and took their things down, and they hadn't been in it since till +they came to bed.</p> +<p>"<i>German</i> men," whispered Anna-Felicitas, again with a +delicate expressive sniff.</p> +<p>"Nonsense," whispered Anna-Rose, stoutly. "Men never come into +ladies' cabins. And there's skirts on the hooks."</p> +<p>"Disguise," whispered Anna-Felicitas, nodding again. "Spies' +disguise." She seemed quite to be enjoying her own horrible +suggestions.</p> +<p>"Take your head back into the berth," ordered Anna-Rose quickly, +for Anna-Felicitas seemed to be on the very brink of an apoplectic +fit.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas, who was herself beginning to feel a little +inconvenienced, obeyed, and was thrilled to see <a name="Page_46" +id="Page_46"></a>Anna-Rose presently very cautiously emerge from +underneath her and on her bare feet creep across to the opposite +side. She knew her to be valiant to recklessness. She sat up to +watch, her eyes round with interest.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose didn't go straight across, but proceeded slowly, with +several pauses, to direct her steps toward the pillow-end of the +berths. Having got there she stood still a moment listening, and +then putting a careful finger between the curtain of the lower +berth and its frame, drew it the smallest crack aside and peeped +in.</p> +<p>Instantly she started back, letting go the curtain. "I beg your +pardon," she said out loud, turning very red. "I—I +thought—"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas, attentive in her berth, felt a cold thrill rush +down her back. No sound came from the berth on the other side any +more than before the raid on it, and Anna-Rose returned quicker +than she had gone. She just stopped on the way to switch off the +light, and then felt along the edge of Anna-Felicitas's berth till +she got to her head, and pulling it near her by its left pigtail +whispered with her mouth close to its left ear, "Wide awake. +Watching me all the time. Not a man. Fat."</p> +<p>And she crawled into her berth feeling unnerved.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><a name="Page_47" id= +"Page_47"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> +<p>The lady in the opposite berth was German, and so was the lady +in the berth above her. Their husbands were American, but that +didn't make them less German. Nothing ever makes a German less +German, Anna-Rose explained to Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Except," replied Anna-Felicitas, "a judicious dilution of their +blood by the right kind of mother."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose. "Only to be found in England."</p> +<p>This conversation didn't take place till the afternoon of the +next day, by which time Anna-Felicitas already knew about the human +freight being Germans, for one of their own submarines came after +the <i>St. Luke</i> and no one was quite so loud in expression of +terror and dislike as the two Germans.</p> +<p>They demanded to be saved first, on the ground that they were +Germans. They repudiated their husbands, and said marriage was +nothing compared to how one had been born. The curtains of their +berths, till then so carefully closed, suddenly yawned open, and +the berths gave up their contents just as if, Anna-Felicitas +remarked afterwards to Anna-Rose, it was the resurrection and the +berths were riven sepulchres chucking up their dead.</p> +<p>This happened at ten o'clock the next morning when the <i>St. +Luke</i> was pitching about off the southwest coast of Ireland. The +twins, waking about seven, found with a pained surprise that they +were not where they <a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>had been +dreaming they were, in the sunlit garden at home playing tennis +happily if a little violently, but in a chilly yet stuffy place +that kept on tilting itself upside down. They lay listening to the +groans coming from the opposite berths, and uneasily wondering how +long it would be before they too began to groan. Anna-Rose raised +her head once with the intention of asking if she could help at +all, but dropped it back again on to the pillow and shut her eyes +tight and lay as quiet as the ship would let her. Anna-Felicitas +didn't even raise her head, she felt so very uncomfortable.</p> +<p>At eight o'clock the stewardess looked in—the same +stewardess, they languidly noted, with whom already they had had +two encounters, for it happened that this was one of the cabins she +attended to—and said that if anybody wanted breakfast they +had better be quick or it would be over.</p> +<p>"Breakfast!" cried the top berth opposite in a heart-rending +tone; and instantly was sick.</p> +<p>The stewardess withdrew her head and banged the door to, and the +twins, in their uneasy berths, carefully keeping their eyes shut so +as not to witness the behaviour of the sides and ceiling of the +cabin, feebly marvelled at the stewardess for suggesting being +quick to persons who were being constantly stood on their heads. +And breakfast,—they shuddered and thought of other things; of +fresh, sweet air, and of the scent of pinks and apricots warm with +the sun.</p> +<p>At ten o'clock the stewardess came in again, this time right in, +and with determination in every gesture.</p> +<p>"Come, come," she said, addressing the twins, and through them +talking at the heaving and groaning occupants of the other side, +"you mustn't give way like this. What you want is to be out of bed. +You must <a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>get up and go on deck. +And how's the cabin to get done if you stay in it all the +time?"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas, the one particularly addressed, because she was +more on the right level for conversation than Anna-Rose, who could +only see the stewardess's apron, turned her head away and murmured +that she didn't care.</p> +<p>"Come, come," said the stewardess. "Besides, there's life-boat +drill at mid-day, and you've got to be present."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas, her eyes shut, again murmured that she didn't +care.</p> +<p>"Come, come," said the stewardess. "Orders are orders. Every +soul on the ship, sick or not, has got to be present at life-boat +drill."</p> +<p>"Oh, I'm not a soul," murmured Anna-Felicitas, who felt at that +moment how particularly she was a body, while the opposite berths +redoubled their groans.</p> +<p>"Come, come—" said the stewardess.</p> +<p>Then the <i>St. Luke</i> whistled five times, and the stewardess +turned pale. For a brief space, before they understood what had +happened, the twins supposed she was going to be sick. But it +wasn't that that was the matter with her, for after a moment's +staring at nothing with horror on her face she pounced on them and +pulled them bodily out of their berths, regardless by which end, +and threw them on the floor anyhow. Then she plunged about and +produced life-jackets; then she rushed down the passage flinging +open the doors of the other cabins; then she whirled back again and +tried to tie the twins into their life-jackets, but with hands that +shook so that the strings immediately came undone again; and all +the time she was calling out "Quick—quick—quick—" +<a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>There was a great tramping of +feet on deck and cries and shouting.</p> +<p>The curtains of the opposite berths yawned asunder and out came +the Germans, astonishingly cured of their sea-sickness, and +struggled vigorously into their life-jackets and then into fur +coats, and had the fur coats instantly pulled off again by a very +energetic steward who ran in and said fur coats in the water were +death-traps,—a steward so much bent on saving people that he +began to pull off the other things the German ladies had on as +well, saying while he pulled, disregarding their protests, that in +the water Mother Nature was the best. "Mother Nature—Mother +Nature," said the steward, pulling; and he was only stopped just in +the nick of time by the stewardess rushing in again and seeing what +was happening to the helpless Germans.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, even at that moment explanatory, pointed out to +Anna-Felicitas, who had already grasped the fact, that no doubt +there was a submarine somewhere about. The German ladies, seizing +their valuables from beneath their pillows, in spite of the steward +assuring them they wouldn't want them in the water, demanded to be +taken up and somehow signalled to the submarine, which would never +dare do anything to a ship containing its own flesh and +blood—and an American ship, too—there must be some +awful mistake—but anyhow they must be saved—there would +be terrible trouble, that they could assure the steward and the +twins and the scurrying passers-by down the passage, if America +allowed two Germans to be destroyed—and anyhow they would +insist on having their passage money refunded....</p> +<p>The German ladies departed down the passage, very <a name= +"Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>incoherent and very unhappy but no +longer sick, and Anna-Felicitas, clinging to the edge of her berth, +feeling too miserable to mind about the submarine, feebly wondered, +while the steward tied her properly into her life-jacket, at the +cure effected in them. Anna-Rose seemed cured too, for she was +buttoning a coat round Anna-Felicitas's shoulders, and generally +seemed busy and brisk, ending by not even forgetting their precious +little bag of money and tickets and passports, and fastening it +round her neck in spite of the steward's assuring her that it would +drag her down in the water like a stone tied to a kitten.</p> +<p>"You're a <i>very</i> cheerful man, aren't you," Anna-Rose said, +as he pushed them out of the cabin and along the corridor, holding +up Anna-Felicitas on her feet, who seemed quite unable to run +alone.</p> +<p>The steward didn't answer, but caught hold of Anna-Felicitas at +the foot of the stairs and carried her up them, and then having got +her on deck propped her in a corner near the life-boat allotted to +the set of cabins they were in, and darted away and in a minute was +back again with a big coat which he wrapped round her.</p> +<p>"May as well be comfortable till you do begin to drown," he said +briskly, "but mind you don't forget to throw it off, Missie, the +minute you feel the water."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas slid down on to the deck, her head leaning +against the wall, her eyes shut, a picture of complete indifference +to whatever might be going to happen next. Her face was now as +white as the frill of the night-gown that straggled out from +beneath her coat, for the journey from the cabin to the deck had +altogether finished her. <a name="Page_52" id= +"Page_52"></a>Anna-Rose was thankful that she felt too ill to be +afraid. Her own heart was black with despair,—despair that +Anna-Felicitas, the dear and beautiful one, should presently, at +any moment, be thrown into that awful heaving water, and certainly +be hurt and frightened before she was choked out of life.</p> +<p>She sat down beside her, getting as close as possible to keep +her warm. Her own twin. Her own beloved twin. She took her cold +hands and put them away beneath the coat the steward had brought. +She slid an arm round her and laid her cheek against her sleeve, so +that she should know somebody was there, somebody who loved her. +"What's the <i>good</i> of it all—<i>why</i> were we +born—" she wondered, staring at the hideous gray waves as +they swept up into sight over the side of the ship and away again +as the ship rose up, and at the wet deck and the torn sky, and the +miserable-looking passengers in their life-jackets collected +together round the life-boat.</p> +<p>Nobody said anything except the German ladies. They, indeed, +kept up a constant wail. The others were silent, the men mostly +smoking cigarettes, the women holding their fluttering wraps about +them, all of them staring out to sea, watching for the track of the +torpedo to appear. One shot had been fired already and had missed. +The ship was zig-zagging under every ounce of steam she could lay +on. An official stood by the life-boat, which was ready with water +in it and provisions. That the submarine must be mad, as the +official remarked, to fire on an American ship, didn't console +anybody, and his further assurance that the matter would not be +allowed to rest there left them cold. They felt too sure that in +all probability they themselves were going to rest there, down +underneath that <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>repulsive icy +water, after a struggle that was going to be unpleasant.</p> +<p>The man who had roused Anna-Rose's indignation as the ship left +the landing-stage by looking as though he were soon going to be +sorry for her, came across from the first class, where his +life-boat was, to watch for the track of the expected torpedo, and +caught sight of the twins huddled in their corner.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose didn't see him, for she was staring with wide eyes out +at the desolate welter of water and cloud, and thinking of home: +the home that was, that used to be till such a little while ago, +the home that now seemed to have been so amazingly, so unbelievably +beautiful and blest, with its daily life of love and laughter and +of easy confidence that to-morrow was going to be just as good. +Happiness had been the ordinary condition there, a simple matter of +course. Its place was taken now by courage. Anna-Rose felt sick at +all this courage there was about. There should be no occasion for +it. There should be no horrors to face, no cruelties to endure. Why +couldn't brotherly love continue? Why must people get killing each +other? She, for her part, would be behind nobody in courage and in +the defying of a Fate that could behave, as she felt, so very +unlike her idea of anything even remotely decent; but it oughtn't +to be necessary, this constant condition of screwed-upness; it was +waste of effort, waste of time, waste of life,—oh the +<i>stupidity</i> of it all, she thought, rebellious and +bewildered.</p> +<p>"Have some brandy," said the man, pouring out a little into a +small cup.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose turned her eyes on him without moving the rest of her. +She recognized him. He was going to be sorry for them again. He had +much better be <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>sorry for himself +now, she thought, because he, just as much as they were, was bound +for a watery bier.</p> +<p>"Thank you," she said distantly, for not only did she hate the +smell of brandy but Aunt Alice had enjoined her with peculiar +strictness on no account to talk to strange men, "I don't +drink."</p> +<p>"Then I'll give the other one some," said the man.</p> +<p>"She too," said Anna-Rose, not changing her position but keeping +a drearily watchful eye on him, "is a total abstainer."</p> +<p>"Well, I'll go and fetch some of your warm things for you. Tell +me where your cabin is. You haven't got enough on."</p> +<p>"Thank you," said Anna-Rose distantly, "we have quite enough on, +considering the occasion. We're dressed for drowning."</p> +<p>The man laughed, and said there would be no drowning, and that +they had a splendid captain, and were outdistancing the submarine +hand over fist. Anna-Rose didn't believe him, and suspected him of +supposing her to be in need of cheering, but a gleam of comfort did +in spite of herself steal into her heart.</p> +<p>He went away, and presently came back with a blanket and some +pillows.</p> +<p>"If you <i>will</i> sit on the floor," he said, stuffing the +pillows behind their backs, during which Anna-Felicitas didn't open +her eyes, and her head hung about so limply that it looked as if it +might at any moment roll off, "you may at least be as comfortable +as you can."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose pointed out, while she helped him arrange +Anna-Felicitas's indifferent head on the pillow, that she saw +little use in being comfortable just a minute or two before +drowning. "<a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>Drowning be hanged," +said the man.</p> +<p>"That's how Uncle Arthur used to talk," said Anna-Rose, feeling +suddenly quite at home, "except that <i>he</i> would have said +'Drowning be damned.'"</p> +<p>The man laughed. "Is he dead?" he asked, busy with +Anna-Felicitas's head, which defied their united efforts to make it +hold itself up.</p> +<p>"Dead?" echoed Anna-Rose, to whom the idea of Uncle Arthur's +ever being anything so quiet as dead and not able to say any swear +words for such a long time as eternity seemed very odd.</p> +<p>"You said he <i>used</i> to talk like that."</p> +<p>"Oh, no he's not dead at all. Quite the contrary."</p> +<p>The man laughed again, and having got Anna-Felicitas's head +arranged in a position that at least, as Anna-Rose pointed out, had +some sort of self-respect in it, he asked who they were with.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose looked at him with as much defiant independence as she +could manage to somebody who was putting a pillow behind her back. +He was going to be sorry for them. She saw it coming. He was going +to say "You poor things," or words to that effect. That's what the +people round Uncle Arthur's had said to them. That's what everybody +had said to them since the war began, and Aunt Alice's friends had +said it to her too, because she had to have her nieces live with +her, and no doubt Uncle Arthur's friends who played golf with him +had said it to him as well, except that probably they put in a damn +so as to make it clearer for him and said "You poor damned thing," +or something like that, and she was sick of the very words poor +things. Poor things, indeed! "We're with each other," she said +briefly, lifting her chin.</p> +<p>"Well, I don't think that's enough," said the man. "<a name= +"Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>Not half enough. You ought to have a +mother or something."</p> +<p>"<i>Everybody</i> can't have mothers," said Anna-Rose very +defiantly indeed, tears rushing into her eyes.</p> +<p>The man tucked the blanket round their resistless legs. "There +now," he said. "That's better. What's the good of catching your +deaths?"</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, glad that he hadn't gone on about mothers, said that +with so much death imminent, catching any of it no longer seemed to +her particularly to matter, and the man laughed and pulled over a +chair and sat down beside her.</p> +<p>She didn't know what he saw anywhere in that dreadful situation +to laugh at, but just the sound of a laugh was extraordinarily +comforting. It made one feel quite different. Wholesome again. Like +waking up to sunshine and one's morning bath and breakfast after a +nightmare. He seemed altogether a very comforting man. She liked +him to sit near them. She hoped he was a good man. Aunt Alice had +said there were very few good men, hardly any in fact except one's +husband, but this one did seem one of the few exceptions. And she +thought that by now, he having brought them all those pillows, he +could no longer come under the heading of strange men. When he +wasn't looking she put out her hand secretly and touched his coat +where he wouldn't feel it. It comforted her to touch his coat. She +hoped Aunt Alice wouldn't have disapproved of seeing her sitting +side by side with him and liking it.</p> +<p>Aunt Alice had been, as her custom was, vague, when Anna-Rose, +having given her the desired promise not to talk or let +Anna-Felicitas talk to strange men, and desiring to collect any +available information for her <a name="Page_57" id= +"Page_57"></a>guidance in her new responsible position had asked, +"But when are men <i>not</i> strange?"</p> +<p>"When you've married them," said Aunt Alice. "After that, of +course, you love them."</p> +<p>And she sighed heavily, for it was bed-time.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><a name="Page_58" id= +"Page_58"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> +<p>Nothing more was seen of the submarine.</p> +<p>The German ladies were certain the captain had somehow let them +know he had them on board, and were as full of the credit of having +saved the ship as if it had been Sodom and Gomorrah instead of a +ship, and they the one just man whose presence would have saved +those cities if he had been in them; and the American passengers +were equally sure that the submarine, on thinking it over, had +decided that President Wilson was not a man to be trifled with, and +had gone in search of some prey which would not have the might and +majesty of America at its back.</p> +<p>As the day went on, and the <i>St. Luke</i> left off +zig-zagging, the relief of those on board was the relief of a +reprieve from death. Almost everybody was cured of sea-sickness, +and quite everybody was ready to overwhelm his neighbour with +cordiality and benevolence. Rich people didn't mind poor people, +and came along from the first class and talked to them just as if +they had been the same flesh and blood as themselves. A +billionairess native to Chicago, who had crossed the Atlantic forty +times without speaking to a soul, an achievement she was as justly +proud of as an artist is of his best creations, actually asked +somebody in a dingy mackintosh, whose little boy still looked pale, +if he had been frightened; and an exclusive young man from Boston +talked quite a long while to an English lady without first having +made sure that she was well-<a name="Page_59" id= +"Page_59"></a>connected. What could have been more like heaven? The +tone on the <i>St. Luke</i> that day was very like what the tone in +the kingdom of heaven must be in its simple politeness. "And so you +see," said Anna-Rose, who was fond of philosophizing in season and +out of season, and particularly out of season, "how good comes out +of evil."</p> +<p>She made this observation about four o'clock in the afternoon to +Anna-Felicitas in an interval of absence on the part of Mr. +Twist—such, the amiable stranger had told them, was his +name—who had gone to see about tea being brought up to them; +and Anna-Felicitas, able by now to sit up and take notice, the +hours of fresh air having done their work, smiled the ready, +watery, foolishly happy smile of the convalescent. It was so nice +not to feel ill; it was so nice not to have to be saved. If she had +been able to talk much, she would have philosophized too, about the +number and size of one's negative blessings—all the things +one hasn't got, all the very horrid things; why, there's no end to +them once you begin to count up, she thought, waterily happy, and +yet people grumble.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas was in that cleaned-out, beatific, convalescent +mood in which one is sure one will never grumble again. She smiled +at anybody who happened to pass by and catch her eye. She would +have smiled just like that, with just that friendly, boneless +familiarity at the devil if he had appeared, or even at Uncle +Arthur himself.</p> +<p>The twins, as a result of the submarine's activities, were +having the pleasantest day they had had for months. It was the +realization of this that caused Anna-Rose's remark about good +coming out of evil. The background, she could not but perceive, was +a very odd one for their pleasantest day for months—a +<a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>rolling steamer and a cold wind +flicking at them round the corner; but backgrounds, she pointed out +to Anna-Felicitas, who smiled her agreement broadly and instantly, +are negligible things: it is what goes on in front of them that +matters. Of what earthly use, for instance, had been those splendid +summer afternoons in the perfect woods and gardens that so +beautifully framed in Uncle Arthur?</p> +<p>No use, agreed Anna-Felicitas, smiling fatuously.</p> +<p>In the middle of them was Uncle Arthur. You always got to him in +the end.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas nodded and shook her head and was all feeble +agreement.</p> +<p>She and Anna-Felicitas had been more hopelessly miserable, +Anna-Rose remarked, wandering about the loveliness that belonged to +him than they could ever have dreamed was possible. She reminded +Anna-Felicitas how they used to rub their eyes to try and see more +clearly, for surely these means of happiness, these elaborate +arrangements for it all round them, couldn't be for nothing? There +must be some of it somewhere, if only they could discover where? +And there was none. Not a trace of it. Not even the faintest little +swish of its skirts.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose left off talking, and became lost in memories. For a +long time, she remembered, she had told herself it was her mother's +death blotting the light out of life, but one day Anna-Felicitas +said aloud that it was Uncle Arthur, and Anna-Rose knew it was +true. Their mother's death was something so tender, so beautiful, +that terrible as it was to them to be left without her they yet +felt raised up by it somehow, raised on to a higher level than +where they had been before, closer in their hearts to real things, +to real <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>values. But Uncle Arthur +came into possession of their lives as a consequence of that death, +and he had towered up between them and every glimpse of the sun. +Suddenly there was no such thing as freedom and laughter. Suddenly +everything one said and did was wrong. "And you needn't think," +Anna-Felicitas had said wisely, "that he's like that because we're +Germans—or <i>seem</i> to be Germans," she amended. "It's +because he's Uncle Arthur. Look at Aunt Alice. <i>She's</i> not a +German. And yet look at her."</p> +<p>And Anna-Rose had looked at Aunt Alice, though only in her +mind's eye, for at that moment the twins were three miles away in a +wood picnicking, and Aunt Alice was at home recovering from a +<i>tête-à-tête</i> luncheon with Uncle Arthur +who hadn't said a word from start to finish; and though she didn't +like most of his words when he did say them, she liked them still +less when he didn't say them, for then she imagined them, and what +she imagined was simply awful,—Anna-Rose had, I say, looked +at Aunt Alice in her mind's eye, and knew that this too was +true.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist reappeared, followed by the brisk steward with a tray +of tea and cake, and their corner became very like a cheerful +picnic.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was most pleasant and polite. Anna-Rose had told him +quite soon after he began to talk to her, in order, as she said, to +clear his mind of misconceptions, that she and Anna-Felicitas, +though their clothes at that moment, and the pigtails in which +their flair was done, might be misleading, were no longer children, +but quite the contrary; that they were, in fact, persons who were +almost ripe for going to dances, and certainly in another year +would be perfectly ripe for dances supposing there were any.</p> +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>Mr. Twist listened +attentively, and begged her to tell him any other little thing she +might think of as useful to him in his capacity of friend and +attendant,—both of which, said Mr. Twist, he intended to be +till he had seen them safely landed in New York.</p> +<p>"I hope you don't think we <i>need</i> anybody," said Anna-Rose. +"We shall like being friends with you very much, but only on terms +of perfect equality."</p> +<p>"Sure," said Mr. Twist, who was an American.</p> +<p>"I thought—"</p> +<p>She hesitated a moment.</p> +<p>"You thought?" encouraged Mr. Twist politely.</p> +<p>"I thought at Liverpool you looked as if you were being sorry +for us."</p> +<p>"Sorry?" said Mr. Twist, in the tone of one who repudiates.</p> +<p>"Yes. When we were waving good-bye to—to our friends."</p> +<p>"Sorry?" repeated Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Which was great waste of your time."</p> +<p>"I should think so," said Mr. Twist with heartiness.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, having cleared the ground of misunderstandings, an +activity in which at all times she took pleasure, accepted Mr. +Twist's attentions in the spirit in which they were offered, which +was, as he said, one of mutual friendliness and esteem. As he was +never sea-sick, he could move about and do things for them that +might be difficult to do for themselves; as he knew a great deal +about stewardesses, he could tell them what sort of tip theirs +expected; as he was American, he could illuminate them about that +country. He had been doing Red Cross work with an American +ambulance in France for ten months, and was going home for a short +visit to see how his mother, who, Anna-Rose <a name="Page_63" id= +"Page_63"></a>gathered, was ancient and widowed, was getting on. +His mother, he said, lived in seclusion in a New England village +with his sister, who had not married.</p> +<p>"Then she's got it all before her," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Like us," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"I shouldn't think she'd got as much of it before her as you," +said Mr. Twist, "because she's considerably more grown up—I +mean," he added hastily, as Anna-Rose's mouth opened, "she's +less—well, less completely young."</p> +<p>"We're not completely young," said Anna-Rose with dignity. +"People are completely young the day they're born, and ever after +that they spend their time becoming less so."</p> +<p>"Exactly. And my sister has been becoming less so longer than +you have. I assure you that's all I meant. She's less so even than +I am."</p> +<p>"Then," said Anna-Rose, glancing at that part of Mr. Twist's +head where it appeared to be coming through his hair, "she must +have got to the stage when one is called a maiden lady."</p> +<p>"And if she were a German," said Anna-Felicitas suddenly, who +hadn't till then said anything to Mr. Twist but only smiled widely +at him whenever he happened to look her way, "she wouldn't be +either a lady or a maiden, but just an It. It's very rude of +Germans, I think," went on Anna-Felicitas, abstractedly smiling at +the cake Mr. Twist was offering her, "never to let us be anything +but Its till we've taken on some men."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist expressed surprise at this way of describing marriage, +and inquired of Anna-Felicitas what she knew about Germans.</p> +<p>"The moment you leave off being sea-sick, Anna-F.," said +Anna-Rose, turning to her severely, "you start <a name="Page_64" +id="Page_64"></a>being indiscreet. Well, I suppose," she added with +a sigh to Mr. Twist, "you'd have had to know sooner or later. Our +name is Twinkler."</p> +<p>She watched him to see the effect of this, and Mr. Twist, +perceiving he was expected to say something, said that he didn't +mind that anyhow, and that he could bear something worse in the way +of revelations.</p> +<p>"Does it convey nothing to you?" asked Anna-Rose, astonished, +for in Germany the name of Twinkler was a mighty name, and even in +England it was well known.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist shook his head. "Only that it sounds cheerful," he +said.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose watched his face. "It isn't only Twinkler," she said, +speaking very distinctly. "It's <i>von</i> Twinkler."</p> +<p>"That's German," said Mr. Twist; but his face remained +serene.</p> +<p>"Yes. And so are we. That is, we would be if it didn't happen +that we weren't."</p> +<p>"I don't think I quite follow," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"It <i>is</i> very difficult," agreed Anna-Rose. "You see, we +used to have a German father."</p> +<p>"But only because our mother married him," explained +Anna-Felicitas. "Else we wouldn't have."</p> +<p>"And though she only did it once," said Anna-Rose, "ages ago, it +has dogged our footsteps ever since."</p> +<p>"It's very surprising," mused Anna-Felicitas, "what marrying +anybody does. You go into a church, and before you know where you +are, you're all tangled up with posterity."</p> +<p>"And much worse than that," said Anna-Rose, staring wide-eyed at +her own past experiences, "posterity's all tangled up with you. +It's really simply awful sometimes for posterity. Look at us."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>If there hadn't been a war +we'd have been all right," said Anna-Felicitas. "But directly +there's a war, whoever it is you've married, if it isn't one of +your own countrymen, rises up against you, just as if he were too +many meringues you'd had for dinner."</p> +<p>"Living or dead," said Anna-Rose, nodding, "he rises up against +you."</p> +<p>"Till the war we never thought at all about it," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Either one way or the other," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"We never used to bother about what we were," said +Anna-Felicitas. "We were just human beings, and so was everybody +else just human beings."</p> +<p>"We didn't mind a bit about being Germans, or about other people +not being Germans."</p> +<p>"But you mustn't think we mind now either," said Anna-Felicitas, +"because, you see, we're not."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked at them in turn. His ears were a little +prominent and pointed, and they gave him rather the air, when he +put his head on one side and looked at them, of an attentive +fox-terrier. "I don't think I quite follow," he said again.</p> +<p>"It <i>is</i> very difficult," agreed Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"It's because you've got into your head that we're German +because of our father," said Anna-Felicitas. "But what's a father, +when all's said and done?"</p> +<p>"Well," said Mr. Twist, "one has to have him."</p> +<p>"But having got him he isn't anything like as important as a +mother," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"One hardly sees one's father," said Anna-Felicitas. "He's +always busy. He's always thinking of something else."</p> +<p>"Except when he looks at one and tells one to sit up straight," +said Anna-Rose pointedly to Anna-Felicitas, <a name="Page_66" id= +"Page_66"></a>whose habit of drooping still persisted in spite of +her father's admonishments.</p> +<p>"Of course he's very kind and benevolent when he happens to +remember that one is there," said Anna-Felicitas, sitting up +beautifully for a moment, "but that's about everything."</p> +<p>"And of course," said Anna-Rose, "one's father's intentions are +perfectly sound and good, but his attention seems to wander. +Whereas one's mother—"</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas, "one's mother—"</p> +<p>They broke off and looked straight in front of them. It didn't +bear speaking of. It didn't bear thinking of.</p> +<p>Suddenly Anna-Felicitas, weak from excessive sea-sickness, began +to cry. The tears just slopped over as though no resistance of any +sort were possible.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose stared at her a moment horror-struck. "Look here, +Anna-F.," she exclaimed, wrath in her voice, "I won't <i>have</i> +you be sentimental—I won't <i>have</i> you be +sentimental...."</p> +<p>And then she too began to cry.</p> +<p>Well, once having hopelessly disgraced and exposed themselves, +there was nothing for it but to take Mr. Twist into their uttermost +confidence. It was dreadful. It was awful. Before that strange man. +A person they hardly knew. Other strangers passing. Exposing their +feelings. Showing their innermost miserable places.</p> +<p>They writhed and struggled in their efforts to stop, to pretend +they weren't crying, that it was really nothing but just +tears,—odd ones left over from last time, which was years and +years ago,—"But <i>really</i> years and years ago," sobbed +Anna-Rose, anxiously explaining,—"the years one falls down on +garden paths in, <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>and cuts one's +knees, and one's mother—one's mother—c-c-c-comforts +one—"</p> +<p>"See here," said Mr. Twist, interrupting these incoherences, and +pulling out a beautiful clean pocket-handkerchief which hadn't even +been unfolded yet, "you've got to tell me all about it right +away."</p> +<p>And he shook out the handkerchief, and with the first-aid +promptness his Red Cross experience had taught him, started +competently wiping up their faces.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><a name="Page_68" +id="Page_68"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> +<p>There was that about Mr. Twist which, once one had begun them, +encouraged confidences; something kind about his eyes, something +not too determined about his chin. He bore no resemblance to those +pictures of efficient Americans in advertisements with which Europe +is familiar,—eagle-faced gentlemen with intimidatingly firm +mouths and chins, wiry creatures, physically and mentally perfect, +offering in capital letters to make you Just Like Them. Mr. Twist +was the reverse of eagle-faced. He was also the reverse of +good-looking; that is, he would have been very handsome indeed, as +Anna-Rose remarked several days later to Anna-Felicitas, when the +friendship had become a settled thing,—which indeed it did as +soon as Mr. Twist had finished wiping their eyes and noses that +first afternoon, it being impossible, they discovered, to have +one's eyes and noses wiped by somebody without being friends +afterwards (for such an activity, said Anna-Felicitas, belonged to +the same order of events as rescue from fire, lions, or drowning, +after which in books you married him; but this having only been +wiping, said Anna-Rose, the case was adequately met by +friendship)—he would have been very handsome indeed if he +hadn't had a face.</p> +<p>"But you have to <i>have</i> a face," said Anna-Felicitas, who +didn't think it much mattered what sort it was so long as you could +eat with it and see out of it.</p> +<p>"And as long as one is as kind as Mr. Twist," said <a name= +"Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>Anna-Rose; but secretly she thought that +having been begun so successfully at his feet, and carried upwards +with such grace of long limbs and happy proportions, he might as +well have gone on equally felicitously for the last little bit.</p> +<p>"I expect God got tired of him over that last bit," she mused, +"and just put on any sort of head."</p> +<p>"Yes—that happened to be lying about," agreed +Anna-Felicitas. "In a hurry to get done with him."</p> +<p>"Anyway he's very kind," said Anna-Rose, a slight touch of +defiance in her voice.</p> +<p>"Oh, <i>very</i> kind," agreed Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"And it doesn't matter about faces for being kind," said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Not in the least," agreed Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"And if it hadn't been for the submarine we shouldn't have got +to know him. So you see," said Anna-Rose,—and again produced +her favourite remark about good coming out of evil.</p> +<p>Those were the days in mid-Atlantic when England was lost in its +own peculiar mists, and the sunshine of America was stretching out +towards them. The sea was getting calmer and bluer every hour, and +submarines more and more unlikely. If a ship could be pleasant, +which Anna-Felicitas doubted, for she still found difficulty in +dressing and undressing without being sea-sick and was unpopular in +the cabin, this ship was pleasant. You lay in a deck-chair all day +long, staring at the blue sky and blue sea that enclosed you as if +you were living in the middle of a jewel, and tried not to +remember—oh, there were heaps of things it was best not to +remember; and when the rail of the ship moved up across the horizon +too far into the sky, or moved down across it and showed too much +water, you <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>just shut your eyes +and then it didn't matter; and the sun shone warm and steady on +your face, and the wind tickled the tassel on the top of your +German-knitted cap, and Mr. Twist came and read aloud to you, which +sent you to sleep quicker than anything you had ever known.</p> +<p>The book he read out of and carried about with him his pocket +was called "Masterpieces You Must Master," and was an American +collection of English poetry, professing in its preface to be a +Short Cut to Culture; and he would read with what at that time, it +being new to them, seemed to the twins a strange exotic +pronunciation, Wordsworth's "Ode to Dooty," and the effect was as +if someone should dig a majestic Gregorian psalm in its ribs, and +make it leap and giggle.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, who had no reason to shut her eyes, for she didn't +mind what the ship's rail did with the horizon, opened them very +round when first Mr. Twist started on his Masterpieces. She was +used to hearing them read by her mother in the adorable husky voice +that sent such thrills through one, but she listened with the +courtesy and final gratitude due to the efforts to entertain her of +so amiable a friend, and only the roundness of her eyes showed her +astonishment at this waltzing round, as it appeared to her, of Mr. +Twist with the Stern Daughter of the Voice of God. He also read +"Lycidas" to her, that same "Lycidas" Uncle Arthur took for a Derby +winner, and only Anna-Rose's politeness enabled her to refrain from +stopping up her ears. As it was, she fidgeted to the point of +having to explain, on Mr. Twist's pausing to gaze at her +questioningly through the smoke-coloured spectacles he wore on +deck, which made him look so like a gigantic dragon-fly, that it +was because her deck-chair was so very much harder than she +was.</p> +<p><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>Anna-Felicitas, who +considered that, if these things were short-cuts to anywhere, +seeing she knew them all by heart she must have long ago got there, +snoozed complacently. Sometimes for a few moments she would drop +off really to sleep, and then her mouth would fall open, which +worried Anna-Rose, who couldn't bear her to look even for a moment +less beautiful than she knew she was, so that she fidgeted more +than ever, unable, pinned down by politeness and the culture being +administered, to make her shut her mouth and look beautiful again +by taking and shaking her. Also Anna-Felicitas had a trick of +waking up suddenly and forgetting to be polite, as one does when +first one wakes up and hasn't had time to remember one is a lady. +"To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures noo," Mr. Twist would +finish, for instance, with a sort of gulp of satisfaction at having +swallowed yet another solid slab of culture; and Anna-Felicitas, +returning suddenly to consciousness, would murmur, with her eyes +still shut and her head lolling limply, things like, "After all, it +<i>does</i> rhyme with blue. I wonder why, then, one still doesn't +like it."</p> +<p>Then Mr. Twist would turn his spectacles towards her in mild +inquiry, and Anna-Rose, as always, would rush in and elaborately +explain what Anna-Felicitas meant, which was so remote from +anything resembling what she had said that Mr. Twist looked more +mildly inquiring than ever.</p> +<p>Usually Anna-Felicitas didn't contradict Anna-Rose, being too +sleepy or too lazy, but sometimes she did, and then Anna-Rose got +angry, and would get what the Germans call a red head and look at +Anna-Felicitas very severely and say things, and Mr. Twist would +close his book and watch with that alert, cocked-up-ear <a name= +"Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>look of a sympathetic and highly +interested terrier; but sooner or later the ship would always give +a roll, and Anna-Felicitas would shut her eyes and fade to paleness +and become the helpless bundle of sickness that nobody could +possibly go on being severe with.</p> +<p>The passengers in the second class were more generally friendly +than those in the first class. The first class sorted itself out +into little groups, and whispered about each other, as Anna-Rose +observed, watching their movements across the rope that separated +her from them. The second class remained to the end one big group, +frayed out just a little at the edge in one or two places.</p> +<p>The chief fraying out was where the Twinkler kids, as the +second-class young men, who knew no better, dared to call them, +interrupted the circle by talking apart with Mr. Twist. Mr. Twist +had no business there. He was a plutocrat of the first class; but +in spite of the regulations which cut off the classes from +communicating, with a view apparently to the continued sanitariness +of the first class, the implication being that the second class was +easily infectious and probably overrun, there he was every day and +several times in every day. He must have heavily squared the +officials, the second-class young men thought until the day when +Mr. Twist let it somehow be understood that he had known the +Twinkler young ladies for years, dandled them in their not very +remote infancy on his already full-grown knee, and had been +specially appointed to look after them on this journey.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist did not specify who had appointed him, except to the +Twinkler young ladies themselves, and to them he announced that it +was no less a thing, being, or creature, than Providence. The +second-class young men, therefore, in spite of their rising spirits +as danger <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>lay further behind, +and their increasing tendency, peculiar to those who go on ships, +to become affectionate, found themselves no further on in +acquaintance with the Misses Twinkler the last day of the voyage +than they had been the first. Not that, under any other conditions, +they would have so much as noticed the existence of the Twinkler +kids. In their blue caps, pulled down tight to their eyebrows and +hiding every trace of hair, they looked like bald babies. They +never came to meals; their assiduous guardian, or whatever he was, +feeding them on deck with the care of a mother-bird for its +fledglings, so that nobody except the two German ladies in their +cabin had seen them without the caps. The young men put them down +as half-grown only, somewhere about fourteen they thought, and +nothing but what, if they were boys instead of girls, would have +been called louts.</p> +<p>Still, a ship is a ship, and it is wonderful what can be managed +in the way of dalliance if one is shut up on one long enough; and +the Misses Twinkler, in spite of their loutishness, their apparent +baldness, and their constant round-eyed solemnity, would no doubt +have been the objects of advances before New York was reached if it +hadn't been for Mr. Twist. There wasn't a girl under forty in the +second class on that voyage, the young men resentfully pointed out +to each other, except these two kids who were too much under it, +and a young lady of thirty who sat manicuring her nails most of the +day with her back supported by a life-boat, and polishing them with +red stuff till they flashed rosily in the sun. This young lady was +avoided for the first two days, while the young men still +remembered their mothers, because of what she looked like; but was +greatly loved for the rest of the voyage precisely for that +reason.</p> +<p><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>Still, every one couldn't get +near her. She was only one; and there were at least a dozen active, +cooped-up young men taking lithe, imprisoned exercise in long, +swift steps up and down the deck, ready for any sort of enterprise, +bursting with energy and sea-air and spirits. So that at last the +left-overs, those of the young men the lady of the rosy nails was +less kind to, actually in their despair attempted ghastly +flirtations with the two German ladies. They approached them with a +kind of angry amorousness. They tucked them up roughly in rugs. +They brought them cushions as though they were curses. And it was +through this <i>rapprochement</i>, in the icy warmth of which the +German ladies expanded like bulky flowers and grew at least ten +years younger, the ten years they shed being their most respectable +ones, that the ship became aware of the nationality of the Misses +Twinkler.</p> +<p>The German ladies were not really German, as they explained +directly there were no more submarines about, for a good woman, +they said, becomes automatically merged into her husband, and they, +therefore, were merged into Americans, both of them, and as loyal +as you could find, but the Twinklers were the real thing, they +said,—real, unadulterated, arrogant Junkers, which is why +they wouldn't talk to anybody; for no Junker, said the German +ladies, thinks anybody good enough to be talked to except another +Junker. The German ladies themselves had by sheer luck not been +born Junkers. They had missed it very narrowly, but they had missed +it, for which they were very thankful seeing what believers they +were, under the affectionate manipulation of their husbands, in +democracy; but they came from the part of Germany where Junkers +most abound, and knew the sort of thing well.</p> +<p><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>It seemed to Mr. Twist, who +caught scraps of conversation as he came and went, that in the +cabin the Twinklers must have alienated sympathy. They had. They +had done more; they had got themselves actively disliked.</p> +<p>From the first moment when Anna-Rose had dared to peep into +their shrouded bunks the ladies had been prejudiced, and this +prejudice had later flared up into a great and justified dislike. +The ladies, to begin with, hadn't known that they were von +Twinklers, but had supposed them mere Twinklers, and the von, as +every German knows, makes all the difference, especially in the +case of Twinklers, who, without it, were a race, the ladies knew, +of small shopkeepers, laundresses and postmen in the Westphalian +district, but with it were one of the oldest families in Prussia; +known to all Germans; possessed of a name ensuring subservience +wherever it went.</p> +<p>In this stage of preliminary ignorance the ladies had treated +the two apparently ordinary Twinklers with the severity their +conduct, age, and obvious want of means deserved; and when, goaded +by their questionings, the smaller and more active Twinkler had let +out her von at them much as one lets loose a dog when one is alone +and weak against the attacks of an enemy, instead of falling in +harmoniously with the natural change of attitude of the ladies, +which became immediately perfectly polite and conciliatory, as well +as motherly in its interest and curiosity, the two young Junkers +went dumb. They would have nothing to do with the most motherly +questioning. And just in proportion as the German ladies found +themselves full of eager milk of kindness, only asking to be +permitted to nourish, so did they find themselves subsequently, +after a day or <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>two of such +uncloaked repugnance to it, left with quantities of it useless on +their hands and all going sour.</p> +<p>From first to last the Twinklers annoyed them. As plain +Twinklers they had been tiresome in a hundred ways in the cabin, +and as von Twinklers they were intolerable in their high-nosed +indifference.</p> +<p>It had naturally been expected by the elder ladies at the +beginning of the journey, that two obscure Twinklers of such +manifest youth should rise politely and considerately each morning +very early, and get themselves dressed and out of the way in at the +most ten minutes, leaving the cabin clear for the slow and careful +putting together bit by bit of that which ultimately emerged a +perfect specimen of a lady of riper years, but the weedy Twinkler +insisted on lying in her berth so late that if the ladies wished to +be in time for the best parts of breakfast, which they naturally +and passionately did wish, they were forced to dress in her +presence, which was most annoying and awkward.</p> +<p>It is true she lay with closed eyes, apparently apathetic, but +you never know with persons of that age. Experience teaches not to +trust them. They shut their eyes, and yet seem, later on, to have +seen; they apparently sleep, and afterwards are heard asking their +spectacled American friend what people do on a ship, a place of so +much gustiness, if their hair gets blown off into the sea. Also the +weedy one had a most tiresome trick of being sick instantly every +time Odol was used, or a little brandy was drunk. Odol is most +refreshing; it has a lovely smell, without which no German bedroom +is complete. And the brandy was not common schnaps, but an old +expensive brandy that, regarded as a smell, was a credit to +anybody's cabin.</p> +<p>The German ladies would have persisted, and indeed <a name= +"Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>did persist in using Odol and drinking a +little brandy, indifferent to the feeble prayer from the upper +berth which floated down entreating them not to, but in their own +interests they were forced to give it up. The objectionable child +did not pray a second time; she passed immediately from prayer to +performance. Of two disagreeables wise women choose the lesser, but +they remain resentful.</p> +<p>The other Twinkler, the small active one, did get up early and +take herself off, but she frequently mixed up her own articles of +toilet with those belonging to the ladies, and would pin up her +hair, preparatory to washing her face, with their hairpins.</p> +<p>When they discovered this they hid them, and she, not finding +any, having come to the end of her own, lost no time in +irresolution but picked up their nail-scissors and pinned up her +pigtails with that.</p> +<p>It was a particularly sacred pair of nail-scissors that almost +everything blunted. To use them for anything but nails was an +outrage, but the grossest outrage was to touch them at all. When +they told her sharply that the scissors were very delicate and she +was instantly to take them out of her hair, she tugged them out in +a silence that was itself impertinent, and pinned up her pigtails +with their buttonhook instead.</p> +<p>Then they raised themselves on their elbows in their berths and +asked her what sort of a bringing up she could have had, and they +raised their voices as well, for though they were grateful, as they +later on declared, for not having been born Junkers, they had +nevertheless acquired by practice in imitation some of the more +salient Junker characteristics.</p> +<p>"You are <i>salop</i>," said the upper berth lady,—which +<a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>is untranslatable, not on +grounds of propriety but of idiom. It is not, however, a term of +praise.</p> +<p>"Yes, that is what you are—<i>salop</i>," echoed the lower +berth lady. "And your sister is <i>salop</i> too—lying in bed +till all hours."</p> +<p>"It is shameful for girls to be <i>salop</i>," said the upper +berth.</p> +<p>"I didn't know it was your buttonhook. I thought it was ours," +said Anna-Rose, pulling this out too with vehemence.</p> +<p>"That is because you are <i>salop</i>," said the lower +berth.</p> +<p>"And I didn't know it wasn't our scissors either."</p> +<p>"<i>Salop, salop</i>," said the lower berth, beating her hand on +the wooden edge of her bunk.</p> +<p>"And—and I'm sorry."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose's face was very red. She didn't look sorry, she looked +angry. And so she was; but it was with herself, for having failed +in discernment and grown-upness. She ought to have noticed that the +scissors and buttonhook were not hers. She had pounced on them with +the ill-considered haste of twelve years old. She hadn't been a +lady,—she whose business it was to be an example and mainstay +to Anna-Felicitas, in all things going first, showing her the +way.</p> +<p>She picked up the sponge and plunged it into the water, and was +just going to plunge her annoyed and heated face in after it when +the upper berth lady said: "Your mother should be ashamed of +herself to have brought you up so badly."</p> +<p>"And send you off like this before she has taught you even the +ABC of manners," said the lower berth.</p> +<p>"Evidently," said the upper berth, "she can have none +herself."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>Evidently," said the lower +berth, "she is herself <i>salop</i>."</p> +<p>The sponge, dripping with water, came quickly out of the basin +in Anna-Rose's clenched fist. For one awful instant she stood there +in her nightgown, like some bird of judgment poised for dreadful +flight, her eyes flaming, her knotted pigtails bristling on the top +of her head.</p> +<p>The wet sponge twitched in her hand. The ladies did not realize +the significance of that twitching, and continued to offer large +angry faces as a target. One of the faces would certainly have +received the sponge and Anna-Rose have been disgraced for ever, if +it hadn't been for the prompt and skilful intervention of +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>For Anna-Felicitas, roused from her morning languor by the +unusual loudness of the German ladies' voices, and smitten into +attention and opening of her eyes, heard the awful things they were +saying and saw the sponge. Instantly she knew, seeing it was +Anna-Rose who held it, where it would be in another second, and +hastily putting out a shaking little hand from her top berth, +caught hold feebly but obstinately of the upright ends of +Anna-Rose's knotted pigtails.</p> +<p>"I'm going to be sick," she announced with great presence of +mind and entire absence of candour.</p> +<p>She knew, however, that she only had to sit up in order to be +sick, and the excellent child—<i>das gute Kind</i>, as her +father used to call her because she, so conveniently from the +parental point of view, invariably never wanted to be or do +anything particularly—without hesitation sacrificed herself +in order to save her sister's honour, and sat up and immediately +was.</p> +<p>By the time Anna-Rose had done attending to her, <a name= +"Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>all fury had died out. She never could +see Anna Felicitas lying back pale and exhausted after one of these +attacks without forgiving her and everybody else everything.</p> +<p>She climbed up on the wooden steps to smoothe her pillow and +tuck her blanket round her, and when Anna-Felicitas, her eyes shut, +murmured, "Christopher—don't mind <i>them</i>—" and she +suddenly realized, for they never called each other by those names +except in great moments of emotion when it was necessary to cheer +and encourage, what Anna-Felicitas had saved her from, and that it +had been done deliberately, she could only whisper back, because +she was so afraid of crying, "No, no, Columbus dear—of +course—who really cares about <i>them</i>—" and came +down off the steps with no fight left in her.</p> +<p>Also the wrath of the ladies was considerably assuaged. They had +retreated behind their curtains until the so terribly unsettled +Twinkler should be quiet again, and when once more they drew them a +crack apart in order to keep an eye on what the other one might be +going to do next and saw her doing nothing except, with meekness, +getting dressed, they merely inquired what part of Westphalia she +came from, and only in the tone they asked it did they convey that +whatever part it was, it was anyhow a contemptible one.</p> +<p>"We don't come from Westphalia," said Anna-Rose, bristling a +little, in spite of herself, at their persistent baiting.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas listened in cold anxiousness. She didn't want to +have to be sick again. She doubted whether she could bear it.</p> +<p>"You must come from somewhere," said the lower berth, "and being +a Twinkler it must be Westphalia."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>We don't really," said +Anna-Rose, mindful of Anna-Felicitas's words and making a great +effort to speak politely. "We come from England."</p> +<p>"England!" cried the lower berth, annoyed by this quibbling. +"You were born in Westphalia. All Twinklers are born in +Westphalia."</p> +<p>"Invariably they are," said the upper berth. "The only +circumstance that stops them is if their mothers happen to be +temporarily absent."</p> +<p>"But we weren't, really," said Anna-Rose, continuing her efforts +to remain bland.</p> +<p>"Are you pretending—pretending to <i>us</i>," said the +lower berth lady, again beating her hand on the edge of her bunk, +"that you are not German?"</p> +<p>"Our father was German," said Anna-Rose, driven into a corner, +"but I don't suppose he is now. I shouldn't think he'd want to go +on being one directly he got to a really neutral place."</p> +<p>"Has he fled his country?" inquired the lower berth sternly, +scenting what she had from the first suspected, something sinister +in the Twinkler background.</p> +<p>"I suppose one might call it that," said Anna-Rose after a pause +of consideration, tying her shoe-laces.</p> +<p>"Do you mean to say," said the ladies with one voice, feeling +themselves now on the very edge of a scandal, "he was forced to fly +from Westphalia?"</p> +<p>"I suppose one might put it that way," said Anna-Rose, again +considering.</p> +<p>She took her cap off its hook and adjusted it over her hair with +a deliberation intended to assure Anna-Felicitas that she was +remaining calm. "Except that it wasn't from Westphalia he flew, but +Prussia," she said.</p> +<p>"Prussia?" cried the ladies as one woman, again rising +themselves on their elbows.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>That's where our father +lived," said Anna-Rose, staring at them in her surprise at their +surprise. "So of course, as he lived there, when he died he did +that there too."</p> +<p>"Prussia?" cried the ladies again. "He died? You said your +father fled his country."</p> +<p>"No. <i>You</i> said that," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>She gave her cap a final tug down over her ears and turned to +the door. She felt as if she quite soon again in spite of +Anna-Felicitas, might not be able to be a lady.</p> +<p>"After all, it <i>is</i> what you do when you go to heaven," she +said as she opened the door, unable to resist, according to her +custom, having the last word.</p> +<p>"But Prussia?" they still cried, still button-holing her, as it +were, from afar. "Then—you were born in Prussia?"</p> +<p>"Yes, but we couldn't help it," said Anna-Rose; and shut the +door quickly behind her.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><a name="Page_83" +id="Page_83"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> +<p>Mr. Twist, who was never able to be anything but kind—he +had the most amiable mouth and chin in the world, and his name was +Edward—took a lively interest in the plans and probable +future of the two Annas. He also took a lively and solicitous +interest in their present, and a profoundly sympathetic one in +their past. In fact, their three tenses interested him to the +exclusion of almost everything else, and his chief desire was to +see them safely through any shoals there might be waiting them in +the shape of Uncle Arthur's friends—he distrusted Uncle +Arthur, and therefore his friends—into the safe and pleasant +waters of real American hospitality and kindliness.</p> +<p>He knew that such waters abounded for those who could find the +tap. He reminded himself of that which he had been taught since +childhood, of the mighty heart of America which, once touched, +would take persons like the twins right in and never let them out +again. But it had to be touched. It had, as it were, to be put in +connection with them by means of advertisement. America, he +reflected, was a little deaf. She had to be shouted to. But once +she heard, once she thoroughly grasped ...</p> +<p>He cogitated much in his cabin—one with a private +bathroom, for Mr. Twist had what Aunt Alice called ample +means—on these two defenceless children. If they had been +Belgians now, or Serbians, or any persons plainly in need of +relief! As it was, America would be <a name="Page_84" id= +"Page_84"></a>likely, he feared, to consider that either Germany or +England ought to be looking after them, and might conceivably +remain chilly and uninterested.</p> +<p>Uncle Arthur, it appeared, hadn't many friends in America, and +those he had didn't like him. At least that was what Mr. Twist +gathered from the conversation of Anna-Rose. She didn't positively +assert but she very candidly conjectured, and Mr. Twist could quite +believe that Uncle Arthur's friends wouldn't be warm ones. Their +hospitality he could imagine fleeting and perfunctory. They would +pass on the Twinklers as soon as possible, as indeed why should +they not? And presently some dreary small job would be found for +them, some job as pupil-teacher or girls' companion in the sterile +atmosphere of a young ladies' school.</p> +<p>As much as a man of habitually generous impulses could dislike, +Mr. Twist disliked Uncle Arthur. Patriotism was nothing at any time +to Mr. Twist compared to humanity, and Uncle Arthur's particular +kind of patriotism was very odious to him. To wreak it on these two +poor aliens! Mr. Twist had no words for it. They had been cut +adrift at a tender age, an age Mr. Twist, as a disciplined American +son and brother, was unable to regard unmoved, and packed off over +the sea indifferent to what might happen to them so long as Uncle +Arthur knew nothing about it. Having flung these kittens into the +water to swim or drown, so long as he didn't have to listen to +their cries while they were doing it, Uncle Arthur apparently cared +nothing.</p> +<p>All Mr. Twist's chivalry, of which there was a great deal, rose +up within him at the thought of Uncle Arthur. He wanted to go and +ask him what he meant by such conduct, and earnestly inquire of him +whether he called himself a man; but as he knew he couldn't do +this, <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>being on a ship heading +for New York, he made up for it by taking as much care of the +ejected nieces as if he were an uncle himself,—but the right +sort of uncle, the sort you have in America, the sort that regards +you as a sacred and precious charge.</p> +<p>In his mind's eye Mr. Twist saw Uncle Arthur as a typical +bullying, red-necked Briton, with short side-whiskers. He pictured +him under-sized and heavy-footed, trudging home from golf through +the soppy green fields of England to his trembling household. He +was quite disconcerted one day to discover from something Anna-Rose +said that he was a tall man, and not fat at all, except in one +place.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said Mr. Twist, hastily rearranging his mind's-eye +view of Uncle Arthur.</p> +<p>"He goes fat suddenly," said Anna-Felicitas, waking from one of +her dozes. "As though he had swallowed a bomb, and it had stuck +when it got to his waistcoat."</p> +<p>"If you can imagine it," added Anna-Rose politely, ready to +explain and describe further if required.</p> +<p>But Mr. Twist could imagine it. He readjusted his picture of +Uncle Arthur, and this time got him right,—the tall, not +bad-looking man, clean-shaven and with more hair a great deal than +he, Mr. Twist, had. He had thought of him as an old ruffian; he now +perceived that he could be hardly more than middle-aged and that +Aunt Alice, a lady for whom he felt an almost painful sympathy, had +a lot more of Uncle Arthur to get through before she was done.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose, accepting the word middle-aged as +correct. "Neither of his ends looks much older than yours do. He's +aged in the middle. That's the only place. Where the bomb is."</p> +<p>"I suppose that's why it's called middle-aged," said <a name= +"Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>Anna-Felicitas dreamily. "One +middle-ages first, and from there it just spreads. It must be +queer," she added pensively, "to watch oneself gradually +rotting."</p> +<p>These were the sorts of observations, Mr. Twist felt, that might +prejudice his mother against the twins If they could be induced not +to say most of the things they did say when in her presence, he +felt that his house, of all houses in America, should be offered +them as a refuge whenever they were in need of one. But his mother +was not, he feared, very adaptable. In her house—it was +legally his, but it never felt as if it were—people adapted +themselves to her. He doubted whether the twins could or would. +Their leading characteristic, he had observed, was candour. They +had no <i>savoir faire</i>. They seemed incapable of anything but +naturalness, and their particular type of naturalness was not one, +he was afraid, that his mother would understand.</p> +<p>She had not been out of her New England village, a place called +briefly, with American economy of time, Clark, for many years, and +her ideal of youthful femininity was still that which she had been +herself. She had, if unconsciously, tried to mould Mr. Twist also +on these lines, in spite of his being a boy, and owing to his +extreme considerateness had not yet discovered her want of success. +For years, indeed, she had been completely successful, and Mr. +Twist arrived at and embarked on adolescence with the manners and +ways of thinking of a perfect lady.</p> +<p>Till he was nineteen he was educated at home, as it were at his +mother's knee, at any rate within reach of that sacred limb, and +she had taught him to reverence women; the reason given, or rather +conveyed, being that he had had and still was having a mother. +Which <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>he was never to forget. In +hours of temptation. In hours of danger. Mr. Twist, with his +virginal white mind, used to wonder when the hours of temptation +and of danger would begin, and rather wish, in the elegant leisure +of his half-holidays, that they soon would so that he might show +how determined he was to avoid them.</p> +<p>For the ten years from his father's death till he went to +Harvard, he lived with his mother and sister and was their +assiduous attendant. His mother took the loss of his father badly. +She didn't get over it, as widows sometimes do, and grow suddenly +ten years younger. The sight of her, so black and broken, of so +daily recurring a patience, of such frequent deliberate brightening +for the sake of her children, kept Mr. Twist, as he grew up, from +those thoughts which sometimes occur to young men and have to do +with curves and dimples. He was too much absorbed by his mother to +think on such lines. He was flooded with reverence and pity. +Through her, all women were holy to him. They were all mothers, +either actual or to be—after, of course, the proper +ceremonies. They were all people for whom one leapt up and opened +doors, placed chairs out of draughts, and fetched black shawls. On +warm spring days, when he was about eighteen, he told himself +earnestly that it would be a profanity, a terrible secret sinning, +to think amorously—yes, he supposed the word was +amorously—while there under his eyes, pervading his days from +breakfast to bedtime, was that mourning womanhood, that lopped +life, that example of brave doing without any hope or expectation +except what might be expected or hoped from heaven. His mother was +wonderful the way she bore things. There she was, with nothing left +to look for<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>ward to in the way of +pleasures except the resurrection, yet she did not complain.</p> +<p>But after he had been at Harvard a year a change came over Mr. +Twist. Not that he did not remain dutiful and affectionate, but he +perceived that it was possible to peep round the corners of his +mother, the rock-like corners that had so long jutted out between +him and the view, and on the other side there seemed to be quite a +lot of interesting things going on. He continued, however, only to +eye most of them from afar, and the nearest he got to temptation +while at Harvard was to read "Madame Bovary."</p> +<p>After Harvard he was put into an engineering firm, for the +Twists only had what would in English money be five thousand pounds +a year, and belonged therefore, taking dollars as the measure of +standing instead of birth, to the middle classes. Aunt Alice would +have described such an income as ample means; Mrs. Twist called it +straitened circumstances, and lived accordingly in a condition of +perpetual self-sacrifice and doings without. She had a car, but it +was only a car, not a Pierce-Arrow; and there was a bathroom to +every bedroom, but there were only six bedrooms; and the house +stood on a hill and looked over the most beautiful woods, but they +were somebody else's woods. She felt, as she beheld the lives of +those of her neighbours she let her eyes rest on, who were the +millionaires dotted round about the charming environs of Clark, +that she was indeed a typical widow,—remote, unfriended, +melancholy, poor.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist might feel poor, but she was certainly comfortable. +It was her daughter Edith's aim in life to secure for her the +comfort and leisure necessary for any grief that wishes to be +thorough. The house was <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>run +beautifully by Edith. There were three servants, of whom Edith was +one. She was the lady's maid, the head cook, and the family butler. +And Mr. Twist, till he went to Harvard, might be described as the +page-boy, and afterwards in his vacations as the odd man about the +house. Everything centred round their mother. She made a good deal +of work, because of being so anxious not to give trouble. She +wouldn't get out of the way of evil, but bleakly accepted it. She +wouldn't get out of a draught, but sat in it till one or other of +her children remembered they hadn't shut the door. When the +inevitable cold was upon her and she was lamentably coughing, she +would mention the door for the first time, and quietly say she +hadn't liked to trouble them to shut it, they had seemed so busy +with their own affairs.</p> +<p>But after he had been in the engineering firm a little while, a +further change came over Mr. Twist. He was there to make money, +more money, for his mother. The first duty of an American male had +descended on him. He wished earnestly to fulfil it creditably, in +spite of his own tastes being so simple that his income of +£5000—it was his, not his mother's, but it didn't feel +as if it were—would have been more than sufficient for him. +Out of engineering, then, was he to wrest all the things that might +comfort his mother. He embarked on his career with as determined an +expression on his mouth as so soft and friendly a mouth could be +made to take, and he hadn't been in it long before he passed out +altogether beyond the line of thinking his mother had laid down for +him, and definitely grew up.</p> +<p>The office was in New York, far enough away from Clark for him +to be at home only for the Sundays. His mother put him to board +with her brother Charles, a <a name="Page_90" id= +"Page_90"></a>clergyman, the rector of the Church of Angelic +Refreshment at the back of Tenth Street, and the teapot out of +which Uncle Charles poured his tea at his hurried and uncomfortable +meals—for he practised the austerities and had no +wife—dribbled at its spout. Hold it as carefully as one might +it dribbled at its spout, and added to the confused appearance of +the table by staining the cloth afresh every time it was used.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, who below the nose was nothing but kindliness and +generosity, his slightly weak chin, his lavishly-lipped mouth, +being all amiability and affection, above the nose was quite +different. In the middle came his nose, a nose that led him to +improve himself, to read and meditate the poets, to be tenacious in +following after the noble; and above were eyes in which simplicity +sat side by side with appreciation; and above these was the +forehead like a dome; and behind this forehead were inventions.</p> +<p>He had not been definitely aware that he was inventive till he +came into daily contact with Uncle Charles's teapot. In his boyhood +he had often fixed up little things for Edith,—she was three +years older than he, and was even then canning and preserving and +ironing,—little simplifications and alleviations of her +labour; but they had been just toys, things that had amused him to +put together and that he forgot as soon as they were done. But the +teapot revealed to him clearly what his forehead was there for. He +would not and could not continue, being the soul of +considerateness, to spill tea on Uncle Charles's table-cloth at +every meal—they had tea at breakfast, and at luncheon, and at +supper—and if he were thirsty he spilled it several times at +every meal. For a long time he coaxed the teapot. He was thoughtful +with it. He handled it <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>with the +most delicate precision. He gave it time. He never hurried it. He +never filled it more than half full. And yet at the end of every +pouring, out came the same devastating dribble on to the cloth.</p> +<p>Then he went out and bought another teapot, one of a different +pattern, with a curved spout instead of a straight one.</p> +<p>The same thing happened.</p> +<p>Then he went to Wanamaker's, and spent an hour in the teapot +section trying one pattern after the other, patiently pouring +water, provided by a tipped but languid and supercilious assistant, +out of each different make of teapot into cups.</p> +<p>They all dribbled.</p> +<p>Then Mr. Twist went home and sat down and thought. He thought +and thought, with his dome-like forehead resting on his long thin +hand; and what came out of his forehead at last, sprang out of it +as complete in every detail as Pallas Athene when she very +similarly sprang, was that now well-known object on every breakfast +table, Twist's Non-Trickler Teapot.</p> +<p>In five years Mr. Twist made a fortune out of the teapot. His +mother passed from her straitened circumstances to what she still +would only call a modest competence, but what in England would have +been regarded as wallowing in money. She left off being +middle-class, and was received into the lower upper-class, the +upper part of this upper-class being reserved for great names like +Astor, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. With these Mrs. Twist could not +compete. She would no doubt some day, for Edward was only thirty +and there were still coffee-pots; but what he was able to add to +the family income helped her for a time to bear the loss of the +elder Twist with less of bleakness in her <a name="Page_92" id= +"Page_92"></a>resignation. It was as though an east wind veered +round for a brief space a little to the south.</p> +<p>Being naturally, however, inclined to deprecation, when every +other reason for it was finally removed by her assiduous son she +once more sought out and firmly laid hold of the departed Twist, +and hung her cherished unhappiness up on him again as if he were a +peg. When the novelty of having a great many bedrooms instead of +six, and a great deal of food not to eat but to throw away, and ten +times of everything else instead of only once, began to wear off, +Mrs. Twist drooped again, and pulled the departed Twist out of the +decent forgetfulness of the past, and he once more came to dinner +in the form of his favourite dishes, and assisted in the family +conversations by means of copious quotations from his alleged +utterances.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's income was anything between sixty and seventy +thousand pounds a year by the time the war broke out. Having +invented and patented the simple device that kept the table-cloths +of America, and indeed of Europe, spotless, all he had to do was to +receive his percentages; sit still, in fact, and grow richer. But +so much had he changed since his adolescence that he preferred to +stick to his engineering and his office in New York rather than go +home and be happy with his mother.</p> +<p>She could not understand this behaviour in Edward. She +understood his behaviour still less when he went off to France in +1915, himself equipping and giving the ambulance he drove.</p> +<p>For a year his absence, and the dangers he was running, divided +Mrs. Twist's sorrows into halves. Her position as a widow with an +only son in danger touched the imagination of Clark, and she was +never so much <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>called upon as +during this year. Now Edward was coming home for a rest, and there +was a subdued flutter about her, rather like the stirring of the +funeral plumes on the heads of hearse-horses.</p> +<p>While he was crossing the Atlantic and Red-Crossing the +Twinklers—this was one of Anna-Felicitas's epigrams and she +tried Anna-Rose's patience severely by asking her not once but +several times whether she didn't think it funny, whereas Anna-Rose +disliked it from the first because of the suggestion it contained +that Mr. Twist regarded what he did for them as works of +mercy—while Mr. Twist was engaged in these activities, at his +home in Clark all the things Edith could think of that he used most +to like to eat were being got ready. There was an immense +slaughtering of chickens, and baking and churning. Edith, who being +now the head servant of many instead of three was more than double +as hard-worked as she used to be, was on her feet those last few +days without stopping. And she had to go and meet Edward in New +York as well. Whether Mrs. Twist feared that he might not come +straight home or whether it was what she said it was, that dear +Edward must not be the only person on the boat who had no one to +meet him, is not certain; what is certain is that when it came to +the point, and Edith had to start, Mrs. Twist had difficulty in +maintaining her usual brightness.</p> +<p>Edith would be a whole day away, and perhaps a night if the +<i>St. Luke</i> got in late, for Clark is five hours' train journey +from New York, and during all that time Mrs. Twist would be uncared +for. She thought Edith surprisingly thoughtless to be so much +pleased to go. She examined her flat and sinewy form with +disapproval when she came in hatted and booted to say good-bye. +<a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>No wonder nobody married Edith. +And the money wouldn't help her either now—she was too old. +She had missed her chances, poor thing.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist forgot the young man there had been once, years +before, when Edward was still in the school room, who had almost +married Edith. He was a lusty and enterprising young man, who had +come to Clark to stay with a neighbour, and he had had nothing to +do through a long vacation, and had taken to dropping in at all +hours and interrupting Edith in her housekeeping; and Edith, even +then completely flat but of a healthy young uprightness and bright +of eyes and hair, had gone silly and forgotten how to cook, and had +given her mother, who surely had enough sorrows already, an attack +of indigestion.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist, however, had headed the young man off. Edith was too +necessary to her at that time. She could not possibly lose Edith. +And besides, the only way to avoid being a widow is not to marry. +She told herself that she could not bear the thought of poor +Edith's running the risk of an affliction similar to her own. If +one hasn't a husband one cannot lose him, Mrs. Twist clearly saw. +If Edith married she would certainly lose him unless he lost her. +Marriage had only two solutions, she explained to her silent +daughter,—she would not, of course, discuss with her that +third one which America has so often flown to for solace and +relief,—only two, said Mrs. Twist, and they were that either +one died oneself, which wasn't exactly a happy thing, or the other +one did. It was only a question of time before one of the married +was left alone to mourn. Marriage began rosily no doubt, but it +always ended black. "And think of my having to see you like +<i>this</i>" she said, with a gesture indicating her sad dress.</p> +<p><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>Edith was intimidated; and +the young man presently went away whistling. He was the only one. +Mrs. Twist had no more trouble. He passed entirely from her mind; +and as she looked at Edith dressed for going to meet Edward in the +clothes she went to church in on Sundays, she unconsciously felt a +faint contempt for a woman who had had so much time to get married +in and yet had never achieved it. She herself had been married at +twenty; and her hair even now, after all she had gone through, was +hardly more gray than Edith's.</p> +<p>"Your hat's crooked," she said, when Edith straightened herself +after bending down to kiss her good-bye; and then, after all unable +to bear the idea of being left alone while Edith, with that pleased +face, went off to New York to see Edward before she did, she asked +her, if she still had a minute to spare, to help her to the sofa, +because she felt faint.</p> +<p>"I expect the excitement has been too much for me," she +murmured, lying down and shutting her eyes; and Edith, disciplined +in affection and attentiveness, immediately took off her hat and +settled down to getting her mother well again in time for +Edward.</p> +<p>Which is why nobody met Mr. Twist on his arrival in New York, +and he accordingly did things, as will be seen, which he mightn't +otherwise have done.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><a name="Page_96" id= +"Page_96"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> +<p>When the <i>St. Luke</i> was so near its journey's end that +people were packing up, and the word Nantucket was frequent in the +scraps of talk the twins heard, they woke up from the unworried +condition of mind Mr. Twist's kindness and the dreamy monotony of +the days had produced in them, and began to consider their +prospects with more attention. This attention soon resulted in +anxiety. Anna-Rose showed hers by being irritable. Anna-Felicitas +didn't show hers at all.</p> +<p>It was all very well, so long as they were far away from America +and never quite sure that a submarine mightn't settle their future +for them once and for all, to feel big, vague, heroic things about +a new life and a new world and they two Twinklers going to conquer +it; but when the new world was really upon them, and the new life, +with all the multitudinous details that would have to be tackled, +going to begin in a few hours, their hearts became uneasy and sank +within them. England hadn't liked them. Suppose America didn't like +them either? Uncle Arthur hadn't liked them. Suppose Uncle Arthur's +friends didn't like them either? Their hearts sank to, and remained +in, their boots.</p> +<p>Round Anna-Rose's waist, safely concealed beneath her skirt from +what Anna-Felicitas called the predatory instincts of their +fellow-passengers, was a chamois-leather bag containing their +passports, a letter to the bank where their £200 was, a +letter to those friends of <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>Uncle +Arthur's who were to be tried first, a letter to those other +friends of his who were to be the second line of defence supposing +the first one failed, and ten pounds in two £5 notes.</p> +<p>Uncle Arthur, grievously grumbling, and having previously used +in bed most of those vulgar words that made Aunt Alice so +miserable, had given Anna-Rose one of the £5 notes for the +extra expenses of the journey till, in New York, she should be able +to draw on the £200, though what expenses there could be for +a couple of girls whose passage was paid Uncle Arthur was damned, +he alleged, if he knew; and Aunt Alice had secretly added the +other. This was all Anna-Rose's ready money, and it would have to +be changed into dollars before reaching New York so as to be ready +for emergencies on arrival. She judged from the growing +restlessness of the passengers that it would soon be time to go and +change it. How many dollars ought she to get?</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was absent, packing his things. She ought to have +asked him long ago, but they seemed so suddenly to have reached the +end of their journey. Only yesterday there was the same old +limitless sea everywhere, the same old feeling that they were never +going to arrive. Now the waves had all gone, and one could actually +see land. The New World. The place all their happiness or +unhappiness would depend on.</p> +<p>She laid hold of Anna-Felicitas, who was walking about just as +if she had never been prostrate on a deck-chair in her life, and +was going to say something appropriate and encouraging on the +Christopher and Columbus lines; but Anna-Felicitas, who had been +pondering the £5 notes problem, wouldn't listen.</p> +<p>"A dollar," said Anna-Felicitas, worrying it out, "<a name= +"Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>isn't like a shilling or a mark, but on +the other hand neither is it like a pound."</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose, brought back to her immediate +business.</p> +<p>"It's four times more than one, and five times less than the +other," said Anna-Felicitas. "That's how you've got to count. +That's what Aunt Alice said."</p> +<p>"Yes. And then there's the exchange," said Anna-Rose, frowning. +"As if it wasn't complicated enough already, there's the exchange. +Uncle Arthur said we weren't to forget that."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas wanted to know what was meant by the exchange, +and Anna-Rose, unwilling to admit ignorance to Anna-Felicitas, who +had to be kept in her proper place, especially when one was just +getting to America and she might easily become above herself, said +that it was something that varied. ("The exchange, you know, +varies," Uncle Arthur had said when he gave her the £5 note. +"You must keep your eye on the variations." Anna-Rose was all +eagerness to keep her eye on them, if only she had known what and +where they were. But one never asked questions of Uncle Arthur. His +answers, if one did, were confined to expressions of anger and +amazement that one didn't, at one's age, already know.)</p> +<p>"Oh," said Anna-Felicitas, for a moment glancing at Anna-Rose +out of the corner of her eye, considerately not pressing her +further.</p> +<p>"I wish Mr. Twist would come," said Anna-Rose uneasily, looking +in the direction he usually appeared from.</p> +<p>"We won't always have <i>him</i>" remarked Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"I never said we would," said Anna-Rose shortly.</p> +<p><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>The young lady of the nails +appeared at that moment in a hat so gorgeous that the twins stopped +dead to stare. She had a veil on and white gloves, and looked as if +she were going for a walk in Fifth Avenue the very next minute.</p> +<p>"Perhaps we ought to be getting ready too," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Yes. I wish Mr. Twist would come—"</p> +<p>"Perhaps we'd better begin and practise not having Mr. Twist," +said Anna-Felicitas, as one who addresses nobody specially and +means nothing in particular.</p> +<p>"If anybody's got to practise that, it'll be you," said +Anna-Rose. "There'll be no one to roll you up in rugs now, +remember. I won't."</p> +<p>"But I don't want to be rolled up in rugs," said Anna-Felicitas +mildly. "I shall be walking about New York."</p> +<p>"Oh, <i>you'll</i> see," said Anna-Rose irritably.</p> +<p>She was worried about the dollars. She was worried about the +tipping, and the luggage, and the arrival, and Uncle Arthur's +friends, whose names were Mr. and Mrs. Clouston K. Sack; so +naturally she was irritable. One is. And nobody knew and understood +this better than Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Let's go and put on our hats and get ready," she said, after a +moment's pause during which she wondered whether, in the interests +of Anna-Rose's restoration to calm, she mightn't have to be sick +again. She did hope she wouldn't have to. She had supposed she had +done with that. It is true there were now no waves, but she knew +she had only to go near the engines and smell the oil. "Let's go +and put on our hats," she suggested, slipping her hand through +Anna-Rose's arm.</p> +<p><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>Anna-Rose let herself be +led away, and they went to their cabin; and when they came out of +it half an hour later, no longer with that bald look their caps had +given them, the sun catching the little rings of pale gold hair +that showed for the first time, and clad, instead of in the +disreputable jerseys that they loved, in neat black coats and +skirts—for they still wore mourning when properly +dressed—with everything exactly as Aunt Alice had directed +for their arrival, the young men of the second class could hardly +believe their eyes.</p> +<p>"You'll excuse me saying so," said one of them to Anna-Felicitas +as she passed him, "but you're looking very well to-day."</p> +<p>"I expect that's because I <i>am</i> well," said Anna-Felicitas +amiably.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, when he saw them, threw up his hands and ejaculated +"My!"</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas, who was herself puzzled by the +difference the clothes had made in Anna-Rose after ten solid days +of cap and jersey, "I think it's our hats. They do somehow seem +very splendid."</p> +<p>"Splendid?" echoed Mr. Twist. "Why, they'd make the very angels +jealous, and get pulling off their haloes and kicking them over the +edge of heaven."</p> +<p>"What is so wonderful is that Aunt Alice should ever have +squeezed them out of Uncle Arthur," said Anna-Rose, gazing lost in +admiration at Anna-Felicitas. "He didn't disgorge nice hats easily +at all."</p> +<p>And one of the German ladies muttered to the other, as her eye +fell on Anna-Felicitas, "<i>Ja, ja, die hat Rasse.</i>"</p> +<p>And it was only because it was the other German lady's hair that +spent the night in a different part of the cabin from her head and +had been seen doing it by <a name="Page_101" id= +"Page_101"></a>Anna-Felicitas, that she cavilled and was grudging. +"<i>Gewiss</i>," she muttered back, "<i>bis auf der Nase. Die Nase +aber entfremdet mich. Die ist keine echte Junkernase</i>."</p> +<p>So that the Twinklers had quite a success, and their hearts came +a little way out of their boots; only a little way, though, for +there were the Clouston K. Sacks looming bigger into their lives +every minute now.</p> +<p>Really it was a beautiful day, and, as Aunt Alice used to say, +that does make such a difference. A clear pale loveliness of light +lay over New York, and there was a funny sprightliness in the air, +a delicate dry crispness. The trees on the shore, when they got +close, were delicate too—delicate pale gold, and green, and +brown, and they seemed so composed and calm, the twins thought, +standing there quietly after the upheavals and fidgetiness of the +Atlantic. New York was well into the Fall, the time of year when it +gets nearest to beauty. The beauty was entirely in the atmosphere, +and the lights and shadows it made. It was like an exquisite veil +flung over an ugly woman, hiding, softening, encouraging hopes.</p> +<p>Everybody on the ship was crowding eagerly to the sides. +Everybody was exhilarated, and excited, and ready to be friendly +and talkative. They all waved whenever another boat passed. Those +who knew America pointed out the landmarks to those who didn't. Mr. +Twist pointed them out to the twins, and so did the young man who +had remarked favourably on Anna-Felicitas's looks, and as they did +it simultaneously and there was so much to look at and so many +boats to wave to, it wasn't till they had actually got to the +statue of Liberty that Anna-Rose remembered her £10 and the +dollars.</p> +<p><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>The young man was saying +how much the statue of Liberty had cost, and the word dollars made +Anna-Rose turn with a jump to Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Oh," she exclaimed, clutching at her chamois leather bag where +it very visibly bulged out beneath her waistband, "I forgot—I +must get change. And how much do you think we ought to tip the +stewardess? I've never tipped anybody yet ever, and I wish—I +wish I hadn't to."</p> +<p>She got quite red. It seemed to her dreadful to offer money to +someone so much older than herself and who till almost that very +morning had treated her and Anna-Felicitas like the naughtiest of +tiresome children. Surely she would be most offended at being +tipped by people such years younger than herself?</p> +<p>Mr. Twist thought not.</p> +<p>"A dollar," said the young man. "One dollar. That's the figure. +Not a cent more, or you girls'll get inflating prices and Wall +Street'll bust up."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, not heeding him and clutching nervously the place +where her bag was, told Mr. Twist that the stewardess hadn't seemed +to mind them quite so much last night, and still less that morning, +and perhaps some little memento—something that wasn't +money—</p> +<p>"Give her those caps of yours," said the young man, bursting +into hilarity; but indeed it wasn't his fault that he was a low +young man.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, shutting him out of the conversation by interposing a +shoulder, told Anna-Rose he had noticed stewardesses, and also +stewards, softened when journeys drew near their end, but that it +didn't mean they wanted mementos. They wanted money; and he would +do the tipping for her if she liked.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose jumped at it. This tipping of the stewardess <a name= +"Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>had haunted her at intervals +throughout the journey whenever she woke up at night. She felt +that, not having yet in her life tipped anybody, it was very hard +that she couldn't begin with somebody more her own size.</p> +<p>"Then if you don't mind coming behind the funnel," she said, "I +can give you my £5 notes, and perhaps you would get them +changed for me and deduct what you think the stewardess ought to +have."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, and also Anna-Felicitas, who wasn't allowed to stay +behind with the exuberant young man though she was quite +unconscious of his presence, went with Anna-Rose behind the funnel, +where after a great deal of private fumbling, her back turned to +them, she produced the two much-crumpled £5 notes.</p> +<p>"The steward ought to have something too," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Oh, I'd be glad if you'd do him as well," said Anna-Rose +eagerly. "I don't think I <i>could</i> offer him a tip. He has been +so fatherly to us. And imagine offering to tip one's father."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist laughed, and said she would get over this feeling in +time. He promised to do what was right, and to make it clear that +the tips he bestowed were Twinkler tips; and presently he came back +with messages of thanks from the tipped—such polite ones from +the stewardess that the twins were astonished—and gave +Anna-Rose a packet of very dirty-looking slices of green paper, +which were dollar bills, he said, besides a variety of strange +coins which he spread out on a ledge and explained to her.</p> +<p>"The exchange was favourable to you to-day," said Mr. Twist, +counting out the money.</p> +<p>"How nice of it," said Anna-Rose politely. "Did <a name= +"Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>you keep your eye on its variations?" +she added a little loudly, with a view to rousing respect in +Anna-Felicitas who was lounging against a seat and showing a total +absence of every kind of appropriate emotion.</p> +<p>"Certainly," said Mr. Twist after a slight pause. "I kept both +my eyes on all of them."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist had, it appeared, presented the steward and stewardess +each with a dollar on behalf of the Misses Twinkler, but because +the exchange was so favourable this had made no difference to the +£5 notes. Reducing each £5 note into German marks, +which was the way the Twinklers, in spite of a year in England, +still dealt in their heads with money before they could get a clear +idea of it, there would have been two hundred marks; and as it +took, roughly, four marks to make a dollar, the two hundred marks +would have to be divided by four; which, leaving aside that extra +complication of variations in the exchange, and regarding the +exchange for a moment and for purposes of simplification as keeping +quiet for a bit and resting, should produce, also roughly, said +Anna-Rose a little out of breath as she got to the end of her +calculation, fifty dollars.</p> +<p>"Correct," said Mr. Twist, who had listened with respectful +attention. "Here they are."</p> +<p>"I said roughly," said Anna-Rose. "It can't be <i>exactly</i> +fifty dollars. The tips anyhow would alter that."</p> +<p>"Yes, but you forget the exchange."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose was silent. She didn't want to go into that before +Anna-Felicitas. Of the two, she was supposed to be the least bad at +sums. Their mother had put it that way, refusing to say, as +Anna-Rose industriously tried to trap her into saying, that she was +the better of the two. But even so, the difference entitled +<a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>her to authority on the +subject with Anna-Felicitas, and by dint of doing all her +calculations roughly, as she was careful to describe her method, +she allowed room for withdrawal and escape where otherwise the +inflexibility of figures might have caught her tight and held her +down while Anna-Felicitas looked on and was unable to respect +her.</p> +<p>Evidently the exchange was something beneficent. She decided to +rejoice in it in silence, accept whatever it did, and refrain from +asking questions.</p> +<p>"So I did. Of course. The exchange," she said, after a +little.</p> +<p>She gathered up the dollar bills and began packing them into her +bag. They wouldn't all go in, and she had to put the rest into her +pocket, for which also there were too many; but she refused +Anna-Felicitas's offer to put some of them in hers on the ground +that sooner or later she would be sure to forget they weren't her +handkerchief and would blow her nose with them.</p> +<p>"Thank you very much for being so kind," she said to Mr. Twist, +as she stuffed her pocket full and tried by vigorous patting to get +it to look inconspicuous. "We're never going to forget you, Anna-F. +and me. We'll write to you often, and we'll come and see you as +often as you like."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas dreamily, as she watched the shore of +Long Island sliding past. "Of course you've got your relations, but +relations soon pall, and you may be quite glad after a while of a +little fresh blood."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist thought this very likely, and agreed with several +other things Anna-Felicitas, generalizing from Uncle Arthur, said +about relations, again with that air of addressing nobody specially +and meaning nothing <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>in +particular, while Anna-Rose wrestled with the obesity of her +pocket.</p> +<p>"Whether you come to see me or not," said Mr. Twist, whose +misgivings as to the effect of the Twinklers on his mother grew +rather than subsided, "I shall certainly come to see you."</p> +<p>"Perhaps Mr. Sack won't allow followers," said Anna-Felicitas, +her eyes far away. "Uncle Arthur didn't. He wouldn't let the maids +have any, so they had to go out and do the following themselves. We +had a follower once, didn't we, Anna-R.?" she continued her voice +pensive and reminiscent. "He was a friend of Uncle Arthur's. Quite +old. At least thirty or forty. I shouldn't have thought he +<i>could</i> follow. But he did. And he used to come home to tea +with Uncle Arthur and produce boxes of chocolate for us out of his +pockets when Uncle Arthur wasn't looking. We ate them and felt +perfectly well disposed toward him till one day he tried to kiss +one of us—I forget which. And that, combined with the +chocolates, revealed him in his true colours as a follower, and we +told him they weren't allowed in that house and urged him to go to +some place where they were, or he would certainly be overtaken by +Uncle Arthur's vengeance, and we said how surprised we were, +because he was so old and we didn't know followers were as old as +that ever."</p> +<p>"It seemed a very shady thing," said Anna-Rose, having subdued +the swollenness of her pocket, "to eat his chocolates and then not +want to kiss him, but we don't hold with kissing, Anna-F. and me. +Still, we were full of his chocolates; there was no getting away +from that. So we talked it over after he had gone, and decided that +next day when he came we'd tell him he might kiss one of us if he +still wanted to, and we drew <a name="Page_107" id= +"Page_107"></a>lots which it was to be, and it was me, and I filled +myself to the brim with chocolates so as to feel grateful enough to +bear it, but he didn't come."</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas. "He didn't come again for a long +while, and when he did there was no follow left in him. Quite the +contrary."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist listened with the more interest to this story because +it was the first time Anna-Felicitas had talked since he knew her. +He was used to the inspiriting and voluble conversation of +Anna-Rose who had looked upon him as her best friend since the day +he had wiped up her tears; but Anna-Felicitas had been too unwell +to talk. She had uttered languid and brief observations from time +to time with her eyes shut and her head lolling loosely on her +neck, but this was the first time she had been, as it were, an +ordinary human being, standing upright on her feet, walking about, +looking intelligently if pensively at the scenery, and in a +condition of affable readiness, it appeared, to converse.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was a born mother. The more trouble he was given the +more attached he became. He had rolled Anna-Felicitas up in rugs so +often that to be not going to roll her up any more was depressing +to him. He was beginning to perceive this motherliness in him +himself, and he gazed through his spectacles at Anna-Felicitas +while she sketched the rise and fall of the follower, and wondered +with an almost painful solicitude what her fate would be in the +hands of the Clouston Sacks.</p> +<p>Equally he wondered as to the other one's fate; for he could not +think of one Twinkler without thinking of the other. They were +inextricably mixed together in the impression they had produced on +him, and they dwelt together in his thoughts as one person called, +<a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>generally, Twinklers. He stood +gazing at them, his motherly instincts uppermost, his hearty +yearning over them now that the hour of parting was so near and his +carefully tended chickens were going to be torn from beneath his +wing. Mr. Twist was domestic. He was affectionate. He would have +loved, though he had never known it, the sensation of pattering +feet about his house, and small hands clinging to the apron he +would never wear. And it was entirely characteristic of him that +his invention, the invention that brought him his fortune, should +have had to do with a teapot.</p> +<p>But if his heart was uneasy within him at the prospect of +parting from his charges their hearts were equally uneasy, though +not in the same way. The very name of Clouston K. Sack was +repugnant to Anna-Rose; and Anna-Felicitas, less quick at +disliking, turned it over cautiously in her mind as one who turns +over an unknown and distasteful object with the nose of his +umbrella. Even she couldn't quite believe that any good thing could +come out of a name like that, especially when it had got into their +lives through Uncle Arthur. Mr. Twist had never heard of the +Clouston Sacks, which made Anna-Rose still more distrustful. She +wasn't in the least encouraged when he explained the bigness of +America and that nobody in it ever knew everybody—she just +said that everybody had heard of Mr. Roosevelt, and her heart was +too doubtful within her even to mind being told, as he did +immediately tell her within ear-shot of Anna-Felicitas, that her +reply was unreasonable.</p> +<p>Just at the end, as they were all three straining their eyes, no +one with more anxiety than Mr. Twist, to try and guess which of the +crowd on the landing-stage were <a name="Page_109" id= +"Page_109"></a>the Clouston Sacks, they passed on their other side +the <i>Vaterland</i>, the great interned German liner at its +moorings, and the young man who had previously been so very +familiar, as Anna-Rose said, but who was only, Mr. Twist explained, +being American, came hurrying boldly up.</p> +<p>"You mustn't miss this," he said to Anna-Felicitas, actually +seizing her by the arm. "Here's something that'll make you feel +home-like right away."</p> +<p>And he led her off, and would have dragged her off but for +Anna-Felicitas's perfect non-resistance.</p> +<p>"He <i>is</i> being familiar," said Anna-Rose to Mr. Twist, +turning very red and following quickly after him. "That's not just +being American. Everybody decent knows that if there's any laying +hold of people's arms to be done one begins with the eldest +sister."</p> +<p>"Perhaps he doesn't realize that you <i>are</i> the elder," said +Mr. Twist. "Strangers judge, roughly, by size."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I'm going to have trouble with her," said Anna-Rose, +not heeding his consolations. "It isn't a sinecure, I assure you, +being left sole guardian and protector of somebody as pretty as all +that. And the worst of it is she's going on getting prettier. She +hasn't nearly come to the end of what she can do in that direction. +I see it growing on her. Every Sunday she's inches prettier than +she was the Sunday before. And wherever I take her to live, and +however out of the way it is, I'm sure the path to our front door +is going to be black with suitors."</p> +<p>This dreadful picture so much perturbed her, and she looked up +at Mr. Twist with such worried eyes, that he couldn't refrain from +patting her on her shoulder.</p> +<p>"There, there," said Mr. Twist, and he begged her to be sure to +let him know directly she was in the least <a name="Page_110" id= +"Page_110"></a>difficulty, or even perplexity,—"about the +suitors, for instance, or anything else. You must let me be of some +use in the world, you know," he said.</p> +<p>"But we shouldn't like it at all if we thought you were +practising being useful on us," said Anna-Rose "It's wholly foreign +to our natures to enjoy being the objects of anybody's +philanthropy."</p> +<p>"Now I just wonder where you get all your long words from," said +Mr. Twist soothingly; and Anna-Rose laughed, and there was only one +dimple in the Twinkler family and Anna-Rose had got it.</p> +<p>"What do you want to get looking at <i>that</i> for?" she asked +Anna-Felicitas, when she had edged through the crowd staring at the +<i>Vaterland</i>, and got to where Anna-Felicitas stood listening +abstractedly to the fireworks of American slang the young man was +treating her to,—that terse, surprising, swift +hitting-of-the-nail-on-the-head form of speech which she was +hearing in such abundance for the first time.</p> +<p>The American passengers appeared one and all to be rejoicing +over the impotence of the great ship. Every one of them seemed to +be violently pro-Ally, derisively conjecturing the feelings of the +<i>Vaterland</i> as every day under her very nose British ships +arrived and departed and presently arrived again,—the same +ships she had seen depart coming back unharmed, unhindered by her +country's submarines. Only the two German ladies, once more +ignoring their American allegiance, looked angry. It was incredible +to them, simply <i>unfassbar</i> as they said in their thoughts, +that any nation should dare inconvenience Germans, should dare lay +a finger, even the merest friendliest detaining one, on anything +belonging to the mighty, the inviolable Empire. Well, these +Americans, these dollar-grubbing <a name="Page_111" id= +"Page_111"></a>Yankees, would soon get taught a sharp, deserved +lesson—but at this point they suddenly remembered they were +Americans themselves, and pulled up their thoughts violently, as it +were, on their haunches.</p> +<p>They turned, however, bitterly to the Twinkler girl as she +pushed her way through to her sister,—those renegade Junkers, +those contemptible little apostates—and asked her, after +hearing her question to Anna-Felicitas, with an extraordinary +breaking out of pent-up emotion where she, then, supposed she would +have been at that moment if it hadn't been for Germany.</p> +<p>"Not here I think," said Anna-Rose, instantly and fatally ready +as she always was to answer back and attempt what she called +reasoned conversation. "There wouldn't have been a war, so of +course I wouldn't have been here."</p> +<p>"Why, you wouldn't so much as have been born without Germany," +said the lady whose hair came off, with difficulty controlling a +desire to shake this insolent and perverted Junker who could repeat +the infamous English lie as to who began the war. "You owe your +very existence to Germany. You should be giving thanks to her on +your knees for her gift to you of life, instead of jeering at this +representative—" she flung a finger out toward the +<i>Vaterland</i>—"this patient and dignified-in +-temporary-misfortune representative, of her power."</p> +<p>"I wasn't jeering," said Anna-Rose, defending herself and +clutching at Anna-Felicitas's sleeve to pull her away.</p> +<p>"You wouldn't have had a father at all but for Germany," said +the other lady, the one whose hair grew.</p> +<p>"And perhaps you will tell me," said the first one, "where you +would have been <i>then</i>."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>I don't believe," said +Anna-Rose, her nose in the air, "I don't believe I'd have ever been +at a loss for a father."</p> +<p>The ladies, left speechless a moment by the arrogance as well as +several other things about this answer gave Anna-Rose an +opportunity for further reasoning with them, which she was unable +to resist. "There are lots of fathers," she said, "in England, who +would I'm sure have been delighted to take me on if Germany had +failed me."</p> +<p>"England!"</p> +<p>"Take you on!"</p> +<p>"An English father for you? For a subject of the King of +Prussia?"</p> +<p>"I—I'm afraid I—I'm going to be sick," gasped +Anna-Felicitas suddenly.</p> +<p>"You're never going to be sick in this bit of bathwater, Miss +Twinkler?" exclaimed the young man, with the instant ungrudging +admiration of one who is confronted by real talent. "My, what a +gift!"</p> +<p>Anna-Rose darted at Anna-Felicitas's drooping head, that which +she had been going to say back to the German ladies dissolving on +her tongue. "Oh no—<i>no</i>—" she wailed. "Oh +<i>no</i>—not in your best hat, Columbus darling—you +can't—it's not done—and your hat'll shake off into the +water, and then there'll only be one between us and we shall never +be able to go out paying calls and things at the same +time—come away and sit down—Mr. Twist—Mr. +Twist—oh, please come—"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas allowed herself to be led away, just in time as +she murmured, and sat down on the nearest seat and shut her eyes. +She was thankful Anna-Rose's attention had been diverted to her so +instantly, for it would have been very difficult to be sick with +the <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>ship as quiet as one's own +bedroom. Nothing short of the engine-room could have made her sick +now. She sat keeping her eyes shut and Anna-Rose's attention +riveted, wondering what she would do when there was no ship and +Anna-Rose was on the verge of hasty and unfortunate argument. Would +she have to learn to faint? But that would terrify poor Christopher +so dreadfully.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas pondered, her eyes shut, on this situation. Up to +now in her life she had always found that situations solved +themselves. Given time. And sometimes a little assistance. So, no +doubt, would this one. Anna-Rose would ripen and mellow. The German +ladies would depart hence and be no more seen; and it was unlikely +she and Anna-Rose would meet at such close quarters as a ship's +cabin any persons so peculiarly and unusually afflicting again. All +situations solved themselves; or, if they showed signs of not going +to, one adopted the gentle methods that helped them to get solved. +Early in life she had discovered that objects which cannot be +removed or climbed over can be walked round. A little deviousness, +and the thing was done. She herself had in the most masterly manner +when she was four escaped church-going for several years by a +simple method, that seemed to her looking back very like an +inspiration, of getting round it. She had never objected to going, +had never put into words the powerful if vague dislike with which +it filled her when Sunday after Sunday she had to go and dangle her +legs helplessly for two hours from the chair she was put on in the +enclosed pew reserved for the <i>hohe gräfliche +Herrschaften</i> from the Slosh.</p> +<p>Her father, a strict observer of the correct and a <a name= +"Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>pious believer in God for other +people, attended Divine Service as regularly as he wound the clocks +and paid the accounts. He <i>repräsentierte</i>, as the German +phrase went; and his wife and children were expected to +<i>repräsentieren</i> too. Which they did uncomplainingly; for +when one has to do with determined husbands and fathers it is +quickest not to complain. But the pins and needles that patient +child endured, Anna-Felicitas remembered, looking back through the +years at the bunched-up figure on the chair as at a stranger, were +something awful. The edge of the chair just caught her legs in the +pins and needles place. If she had been a little bigger or a little +smaller it wouldn't have happened; as it was, St. Paul wrestling +with beasts at Ephesus wasn't more heroic than Anna-Felicitas +perceived that distant child to have been, silently Sunday after +Sunday bearing her legs. Then one Sunday something snapped inside +her, and she heard her own voice floating out into the void above +the heads of the mumbling worshippers, and it said with a terrible +distinctness in a sort of monotonous wail: "I only had a cold +potato for breakfast,"—and a second time, in the breathless +suspension of mumbling that followed upon this: "I only had a cold +potato for breakfast,"—and a third time she opened her mouth +to repeat the outrageous statement, regardless of her mother's +startled hand laid on her arm, and of Anna-Rose's petrified stare, +and of the lifted faces of the congregation, and of the bent, +scandalized brows of the pastor,—impelled by something that +possessed her, unable to do anything but obey it; but her father, a +man of deeds, rose up in his place, took her in his arms, and +carried her down the stairs and out of the church. And the minute +she found herself really rescued, and out where <a name="Page_115" +id="Page_115"></a>the sun and wind, her well-known friends, were +larking about among the tombstones, she laid her cheek as +affectionately against her father's head as if she were a daughter +to be proud of, and would have purred if she had had had a purr as +loudly as the most satisfied and virtuous of cats.</p> +<p>"<i>Mein Kind</i>," said her father, standing her up on a +convenient tomb so that her eyes were level with his, "is it then +true about the cold potato?"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas patting his face, pleased at what her +legs were feeling like again.</p> +<p>"<i>Mein Kind</i>," said her father, "do you not know it is +wrong to lie?"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas placidly, the heavenly blue of her +eyes, gazing straight into his, exactly like the mild sky above the +trees.</p> +<p>"No?" echoed her father, staring at her. "But, <i>Kind</i>, you +know what a lie is?"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas, gazing at him tenderly in her +satisfaction at being restored to a decent pair of legs; and as he +still stood staring at her she put her hands one on each of his +cheeks and squeezed his face together and murmured, "Oh, I do +<i>love</i> you."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><a name="Page_116" id= +"Page_116"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> +<p>Lost in the contemplation of a distant past Anna-Felicitas sat +with her eyes shut long after she needn't have.</p> +<p>She had forgotten about the German ladies, and America, and the +future so instantly pressing on her, and was away on the shores of +the Baltic again, where bits of amber where washed up after a +storm, and the pale rushes grew in shallow sunny water that was +hardly salt, and the air seemed for ever sweet with lilac. All the +cottage gardens in the little village that clustered round a +clearing in the trees had lilac bushes in them, for there was +something in the soil that made lilacs be more wonderful there than +anywhere else in the world, and in May the whole forest as far as +one could walk was soaked with the smell of it. After rain on a May +evening, what a wonder it was; what a wonder, that running down the +black, oozing forest paths between wet pine stems, out on to the +shore to look at the sun setting below the great sullen clouds of +the afternoon over on one's left where Denmark was, and that +lifting of one's face to the exquisite mingling of the delicate sea +smell and the lilac. And then there was home to come back to when +the forest began to look too dark and its deep silence made one's +flesh creep—home, and a light in the window where ones mother +was. Incredible the security of those days, the safe warmth of +them, the careless roominess....</p> +<p>"You know if you <i>could</i> manage to feel a little better, +<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>Anna-F.," said Anna-Rose's +voice entreatingly in her ear, "it's time we began to get off this +ship."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas opened her eyes, and got up all confused and +self-reproachful. Everybody had melted away from that part of the +deck except herself and Anna-Rose. The ship was lying quiet at last +alongside the wharf. She had over-done being ill this time. She was +ashamed of herself for having wandered off so easily and +comfortably into the past, and left poor Christopher alone in the +difficult present.</p> +<p>"I'm so sorry," she said smiling apologetically, and giving her +hat a tug of determination symbolic of her being ready for +anything, especially America. "I think I must have gone to sleep. +Have you—" she hesitated and dropped her voice. "Are +they—are the Clouston Sacks visible yet?"</p> +<p>"I thought I saw them," said Anna-Rose, dropping her voice too, +and looking round uneasily over her shoulder. "I'd have come here +sooner to see how you were getting on, but I thought I saw them, +and they looked so like what I think they will look like that I +went into our cabin again for a few minutes. But it wasn't them. +They've found the people they were after, and have gone."</p> +<p>"There's a great crowd waiting," said Mr. Twist, coming up, "and +I think we ought to go and look for your friends. As you don't know +what they're like and they don't know what you're like it may be +difficult. Heaven forbid," he continued, "that I should hurry you, +but I have to catch a train if I'm to get home to-night, and I +don't intend to catch it until I've handed you over safely to the +Sacks."</p> +<p>"Those Sacks—" began Anna-Rose; and then she finished +irrelevantly by remarking that it was the details <a name= +"Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>of life that were +discouraging,—from which Anna Felicitas knew that +Christopher's heart was once more in her boots.</p> +<p>"Come along," said Mr. Twist, urging them to wards the gangway. +"Anything you've got to say about life I shall be glad to hear, but +at some time when we're more at leisure."</p> +<p>It had never occurred to either of the twins that the Clouston +Sacks would not meet them. They had taken it for granted from the +beginning that some form of Sack, either male or female, or at +least their plenipotentiary, would be on the wharf to take them +away to the Sack lair, as Anna-Felicitas alluded to the family +mansion. It was, they knew, in Boston, but Boston conveyed nothing +to them. Only Mr. Twist knew how far away it was. He had always +supposed the Sacks would meet their young charges, stay that night +in New York, and continue on to Boston next day. The twins were so +certain they would be met that Mr. Twist was certain too. He had +concluded, with a growingly empty feeling in his heart as the time +of separation drew near, that all that now remained for him to do +on behalf of the Twinklers was to hand them over to the Sacks. And +then leave them. And then go home to that mother he loved but had +for some time known he didn't like,—go home a bereft and +lonely man.</p> +<p>But out of the crowd on the pier, any of whom might have been +Sacks for all the Twinklers, eagerly scanning faces, knew, nobody +in fact seemed to be Sacks. At least, nobody came forward and said, +"Are you the Twinklers?" Other people fell into each other's arms; +the air was full of the noise of kissing, the loud legitimate +kissing of relations; but nobody took any <a name="Page_119" id= +"Page_119"></a>notice of the twins. For a long while they stood +waiting. Their luggage was examined, and Mr. Twist's +luggage—only his was baggage—was examined, and the +kissing and exclaiming crowd swayed hither and thither, and broke +up into groups, and was shot through by interviewers, and got +packed off into taxis, and grew thinner and thinner, and at last +was so thin that the concealment of the Sacks in it was no longer +possible.</p> +<p>There were no Sacks.</p> +<p>To the last few groups of people left in the great glass-roofed +hall piled with bags of wool and sulphur, Mr. Twist went up boldly +and asked if they were intending to meet some young ladies called +Twinkler. His tone, owing to perturbation, was rather more than one +of inquiry, it almost sounded menacing; and the answers he got were +cold. He wandered about uncertainly from group to group, his soft +felt hat on the back of his head and his brow getting more and more +puckered; and Anna-Rose, anxiously looking on from afar, became +impatient at last of these refusals of everybody to be Sacks, and +thought that perhaps Mr. Twist wasn't making himself clear.</p> +<p>Impetuous by nature and little given to calm waiting, she +approached a group on her own account and asked them, enunciating +her words very clearly, whether they were by any chance Mr. and +Mrs. Clouston Sack.</p> +<p>The group, which was entirely female, stared round and down at +her in astonished silence, and shook its heads; and as she saw Mr. +Twist being turned away for the fifth time in the distance a wave +of red despair came over her, and she said, reproach in her voice +and tears in her eyes, "But <i>somebody's</i> got to be the +Sacks."</p> +<p>Upon which the group she was addressing stared at her in a more +astonished silence than ever.</p> +<p><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>Mr. Twist came up mopping +his brow and took he arm and led her back to Anna-Felicitas, who +was taking care of the luggage and had sat down philosophically to +await developments on a bag of sulphur. She didn't yet know what +sulphur looked like on one's clothes after one has sat on it, and +smiled cheerfully and encouragingly at Anna-Rose as she came +towards her.</p> +<p>"There <i>are</i> no Sacks," said Anna-Rose, facing the +truth.</p> +<p>"It's exactly like that Uncle Arthur of yours," said Mr. Twist, +mopping his forehead and speaking almost vindictively. "Exactly +like him. A man like that <i>would</i> have the sort of friends +that don't meet one."</p> +<p>"Well, we must do without the Sacks," said Anna-Felicitas, +rising from the sulphur bag with the look of serene courage that +can only dwell on the face of one who is free from care as to what +has happened to him behind. "And it isn't," she added sweetly to +Mr. Twist, "as if we hadn't got <i>you</i>."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose, suddenly seeing daylight. "Of course. +What do Sacks really matter? I mean, for a day or two? You'll take +us somewhere where we can wait till we've found them."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas. "Some nice quiet old-fashioned +coffee-house sort of place, like the one the Brontes went to in St. +Paul's Churchyard the first time they were launched into the +world."</p> +<p>"Yes. Some inexpensive place."</p> +<p>"Suited to the frugal."</p> +<p>"Because although we've got £200, even that will need +watching or it will go."</p> +<p>During this conversation Mr. Twist stood mopping his forehead. +As often as he mopped it it broke out <a name="Page_121" id= +"Page_121"></a>afresh and had to be mopped again. They were the +only passengers left now, and had become very conspicuous. He +couldn't but perceive that a group of officials with grim, +locked-up-looking mouths were eyeing him and the Twinklers +attentively.</p> +<p>Always zealous in the cause of virtue, America provided her +wharves and landing-places with officials specially appointed to +guard the purity of family life. Family life obviously cannot be +pure without a marriage being either in it or having at some time +or other passed through it. The officials engaged in eyeing Mr. +Twist and the twins were all married themselves, and were well +acquainted with that awful purity. But eye the Twist and Twinkler +party as they might, they could see no trace of marriage anywhere +about it.</p> +<p>On the contrary, the man of the party looked so uneasy that it +amounted to conscious illegality.</p> +<p>"Sisters?" said the chief official, stepping forward +abruptly.</p> +<p>"Eh?" said Mr. Twist, pausing in the wiping of his forehead.</p> +<p>"These here—" said the official, jerking his thumb at the +twins. "They your sisters?"</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist stiffly.</p> +<p>"No," said the twins, with one voice. "Do you think we look like +him?"</p> +<p>"Daughters?"</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist stiffly.</p> +<p>"No," said the twins, with an ever greater vigour of +repudiation. "You <i>can't</i> really think we look as much like +him as all that?"</p> +<p>"Wife and sister-in-law?"</p> +<p>Then the Twinklers laughed. They laughed aloud, even Anna-Rose +forgetting her cares for a moment. <a name="Page_122" id= +"Page_122"></a>But they were flattered, because it was at least a +proof that they looked thoroughly grown-up.</p> +<p>"Then if they ain't your sisters, and they ain't your daughters, +and they ain't your wife and sister-in-law, p'raps you'll tell +me—"</p> +<p>"These young ladies are not anything at all of mine, sir," said +Mr. Twist vehemently.</p> +<p>"Don't you get sir-ing me, now," said the official sticking out +his jaw. "This is a free country, and I'll have no darned +cheek."</p> +<p>"These young ladies in no way belong to me," said Mr. Twist more +patiently. "They're my friends."</p> +<p>"Oh. Friends, are they? Then p'raps you'll tell me what you're +going to do with them next."</p> +<p>"Do with them?" repeated Mr. Twist, as he stared with puckered +brow at the twins. "That's exactly what I wish I knew."</p> +<p>The official scanned him from head to foot with triumphant +contempt. He had got one of them, anyhow. He felt quite refreshed +already. There had been a slump in sinners the past week, and he +was as full of suppressed energy and as much tormented by it as an +unexercised and overfed horse. "Step this way," he ordered curtly, +waving Mr. Twist towards a wooden erection that was apparently an +office. "Oh, don't you worry about the girls," he added, as his +prey seemed disinclined to leave them.</p> +<p>But Mr. Twist did worry. He saw Ellis Island looming up behind +the two figures that were looking on in an astonishment that had +not yet had time to turn into dismay as he was marched off out of +sight. "I'll be back in a minute," he called over his shoulder.</p> +<p>"That's as may be," remarked the official grimly.</p> +<p><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>But he was back; if not in +a minute in a little more than five minutes, still accompanied by +the official, but an official magically changed into tameness and +amiability, desirous to help, instructing his inferiors to carry +Mr. Twist's and the young ladies' baggage to a taxi.</p> +<p>It was the teapot that had saved him,—that blessed teapot +that was always protruding itself benevolently into his life. Mr. +Twist had identified himself with it, and it had instantly saved +him. In the shelter of his teapot Mr. Twist could go anywhere and +do anything in America. Everybody had it. Everybody knew it. It was +as pervasive of America as Ford's cars, but cosily, quietly +pervasive. It was only less visible because it stayed at home. It +was more like a wife than Ford's cars were. From a sinner caught +red-handed, Mr. Twist, its amiable creator, leapt to the position +of one who can do no wrong, for he had not only placed his teapot +between himself and judgment but had accompanied his proofs of +identity by a suitable number of dollar bills, pressed +inconspicuously into the official's conveniently placed hand.</p> +<p>The twins found themselves being treated with distinction. They +were helped into the taxi by the official himself, and what was to +happen to them next was left entirely to the decision and +discretion of Mr. Twist—a man so much worried that at that +moment he hadn't any of either. He couldn't even answer when asked +where the taxi was to go to. He had missed his train, and he tried +not to think of his mother's disappointment, the thought was so +upsetting. But he wouldn't have caught it if he could, for how +could he leave these two poor children?</p> +<p>"I'm more than ever convinced," he said, pushing his <a name= +"Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>hat still further off his forehead, +and staring at the back of the Twinkler trunks piled up in front of +him next to the driver, while the disregarded official at the door +still went on asking him where he wished the cab to go to, "that +children should all have parents."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><a name="Page_125" id= +"Page_125"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> +<p>The hotel they were finally sent to by the official, goaded at +last by Mr. Twist's want of a made-up mind into independent +instructions to the cabman, was the Ritz. He thought this very +suitable for the evolver of Twist's Non-Trickler, and it was only +when they were being rushed along at what the twins, used to the +behaviour of London taxis and not altogether unacquainted with the +prudent and police-supervised deliberation of the taxis of Berlin, +regarded as a skid-collision-and-mutilation-provoking speed, that a +protest from Anna-Rose conveyed to Mr. Twist where they were +heading for.</p> +<p>"An hotel called Ritz sounds very expensive," she said. "I've +heard Uncle Arthur talk of one there is in London and one there is +in Paris, and he said that only damned American millionaires could +afford to stay in them. Anna-Felicitas and me aren't American +millionaires—"</p> +<p>"Or damned," put in Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"—but quite the contrary," said Anna-Rose, "hadn't you +better take us somewhere else?"</p> +<p>"Somewhere like where the Brontes stayed in London," said +Anna-Felicitas harping on this idea. "Where cheapness is combined +with historical associations."</p> +<p>"Oh Lord, it don't matter," said Mr. Twist, who for the first +time in their friendship seemed ruffled.</p> +<p>"Indeed it does," said Anna-Rose anxiously.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>You forget we've got to +husband our resources," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"You mustn't run away with the idea that because we've got +£200 we're the same as millionaires," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Uncle Arthur," said Anna-Felicitas, "frequently told us that +£200 is a very vast sum; but he equally frequently told us +that it isn't."</p> +<p>"It was when he was talking about having given to us that he +said it was such a lot," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"He said that as long as we had it we would be rich," said +Anna-Felicitas, "but directly we hadn't it we would be poor."</p> +<p>"So we'd rather not go to the Ritz, please," said Anna-Rose, "if +you don't mind."</p> +<p>The taxi was stopped, and Mr. Twist got out and consulted the +driver. The thought of his Uncle Charles as a temporary refuge for +the twins floated across his brain, but was rejected because Uncle +Charles would speak to no woman under fifty except from his pulpit, +and approached those he did speak to with caution till they were +sixty. He regarded them as one of the chief causes of modern +unrest. He liked them so much that he hated them. He could practise +abstinence, but not temperance. Uncle Charles was no good as a +refuge.</p> +<p>"Well now, see here," said the driver at last, after Mr. Twist +had rejected such varied suggestions of something small and quiet +as the Waldorf-Astoria, the Plaza and the Biltmore, "you tell me +where you want to go to and I'll take you there."</p> +<p>"I want to go to the place your mother would stay in if she came +up for a day or two from the country," said Mr. Twist +helplessly.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>Get right in then, and +I'll take you back to the Ritz," said the driver.</p> +<p>But finally, when his contempt for Mr. Twist, of whose identity +he was unaware, had grown too great even for him to bandy +pleasantries with him, he did land his party at an obscure hotel in +a street off the less desirable end of Fifth Avenue, and got rid of +him.</p> +<p>It was one of those quiet and cheap New York hotels that yet are +both noisy and expensive. It was full of foreigners,—real +foreigners, the twins perceived, not the merely technical sort like +themselves, but people with yellow faces and black eyes. They +looked very seedy and shabby, and smoked very much, and talked +volubly in unknown tongues. The entrance hall, a place of mottled +marble, with clerks behind a counter all of whose faces looked as +if they were masks, was thick with them; and it was when they +turned to stare and whisper as Anna-Felicitas passed and Anna-Rose +was thinking proudly, "Yes, you don't see anything like that every +day, do you," and herself looked fondly at her Columbus, that she +saw that it wasn't Columbus's beauty at all but the sulphur on the +back of her skirt.</p> +<p>This spoilt Anna-Rose's arrival in New York. All the way up in +the lift to the remote floor on which their bedroom was she was +trying to brush it off, for the dress was Anna-F.'s very best +one.</p> +<p>"That's all your grips, ain't it?" said the youth in buttons who +had come up with them, dumping their bags down on the bedroom +floor.</p> +<p>"Our what?" said Anna-Rose, to whom the expression was new. "Do +you mean our bags?"</p> +<p>"No. Grips. These here," said the youth.</p> +<p>"Is that what they're called in America?" asked Anna-Felicitas, +with the intelligent interest of a traveller <a name="Page_128" id= +"Page_128"></a>determined to understand and appreciate everything, +while Anna-Rose, still greatly upset by the condition of the best +skirt but unwilling to expatiate upon it before the youth, +continued to brush her down as best she could with her +handkerchief.</p> +<p>"I don't call them. It's what they are," said the youth. "What I +want to know is, are they all here?"</p> +<p>"How interesting that you don't drop your h's," said +Anna-Felicitas, gazing at him. "The rest of you is so <i>like</i> +no h's."</p> +<p>The youth said nothing to that, the line of thought being one he +didn't follow.</p> +<p>"Those <i>are</i> all our—grips, I think," said Anna-Rose +counting them round the corner of Anna-Felicitas's skirt. "Thank +you very much," she added after a pause, as he still lingered.</p> +<p>But this didn't cause him to disappear as it would have in +England. Instead, he picked up a metal bottle with a stopper off +the table, and shook it and announced that their ice-water bottle +was empty. "Want some ice water?" he inquired.</p> +<p>"What for?" asked Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"What for?" echoed the youth.</p> +<p>"Thank you," said Anna-Rose, who didn't care about the youth's +manner which seemed to her familiar, "we don't want ice water, but +we should be glad of a little hot water."</p> +<p>"You'll get all you want of that in there," said the youth, +jerking his head towards a door that led into a bathroom. "It's ice +water and ink that you get out of me."</p> +<p>"Really?" said Anna-Felicitas, gazing at him with even more +intelligent interest, almost as if she were prepared, it being +America, a country, she had heard, of <a name="Page_129" id= +"Page_129"></a>considerable mechanical ingenuity, to find his +person bristling with taps which only needed turning.</p> +<p>"We don't want either, thank you," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>The youth lingered. Anna-Rose's brushing began to grow vehement. +Why didn't he go? She didn't want to have to be rude to him and +hurt his feelings by asking him to go, but why didn't he? +Anna-Felicitas, who was much too pleasantly detached, thought +Anna-Rose, for such a situation, the door being wide open to the +passage and the ungetridable youth standing there staring, was +leisurely taking off her hat and smoothing her hair.</p> +<p>"Suppose you're new to this country," said the youth after a +pause.</p> +<p>"Brand," said Anna-Felicitas pleasantly.</p> +<p>"Then p'raps," said the youth, "you don't know that the feller +who brings up your grips gets a tip."</p> +<p>"Of course we know that," said Anna-Rose, standing up straight +and trying to look stately.</p> +<p>"Then if you know why don't you do it?"</p> +<p>"Do it?" she repeated, endeavouring to chill him into +respectfulness by haughtily throwing back her head. "Of course we +shall do it. At the proper time and place."</p> +<p>"Which is, as you must have noticed," added Anna-Felicitas +gently, "departure and the front door."</p> +<p>"That's all right," said the youth, "but that's only one of the +times and places. That's the last one. Where we've got to now is +the first one."</p> +<p>"Do I understand," said Anna-Rose, trying to be very dignified, +while her heart shrank within her, for what sort of sum did one +offer people like this?—"that to America one tips at the +beginning as well?"</p> +<p>"Yep," said the youth. "And in the middle too. <a name= +"Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>Right along through. Never miss an +opportunity, is as good a slogan as you'll get when it comes to +tipping."</p> +<p>"I believe you'd have liked Kipps," said Anna-Felicitas +meditatively, shaking some dust off her hat and remembering the +orgy of tipping that immortal young man went in for at the seaside +hotel.</p> +<p>"What I like now," said the youth, growing more easy before +their manifest youth and ignorance, "is tips. Guess you can call it +Kipps if it pleases you."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose began to fumble nervously in her purse "It's horrid, I +think, to ask for presents," she said to the youth in deep +humiliation, more on his account than hers.</p> +<p>"Presents? I'm not asking for presents. I'm telling you what's +done," said the youth. And he had spots on his face. And he was +repugnant to her.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose gave him what looked like a shilling. He took it, and +remarking that he had had a lot of trouble over it went away; and +Anna-Rose was still flushed by this encounter when Mr. Twist +knocked and asked if they were ready to be taken down to tea.</p> +<p>"He might have said thank you," she said indignantly to +Anna-Felicitas, giving a final desperate brushing to the +sulphur.</p> +<p>"I expect he'll come to a bad end," said Anna-Felicitas +soothingly.</p> +<p>They had tea in the restaurant and were the only people doing +such a thing, a solitary cluster in a wilderness of empty tables +laid for dinner. It wasn't the custom much in America, explained +Mr. Twist, to have tea, and no preparations were made for it in +hotels of that sort. The very waiters, feeling it was a meal to be +discouraged, were showing their detachment from it by sitting in a +corner of the room playing dominoes. <a name="Page_131" id= +"Page_131"></a>It was a big room, all looking-glasses and windows, +and the street outside was badly paved and a great noise of passing +motor-vans came in and drowned most of what Mr. Twist was saying. +It was an unlovely place, a place in which one might easily feel +homesick and that the world was empty of affection, if one let +oneself go that way. The twins wouldn't. They stoutly refused, in +their inward recesses, to be daunted by these externals. For there +was Mr. Twist, their friend and stand-by, still with them, and +hadn't they got each other? But they felt uneasy all the same; for +Mr. Twist, though he plied them with buttered toast and macaroons +and was as attentive as usual, had a somnambulatory quality in his +attention. He looked like a man who is doing things in a dream. He +looked like one who is absorbed in something else. His forehead +still was puckered, and what could it be puckered about, seeing +that he had got home, and was going back to his mother, and had a +clear and uncomplicated future ahead of him, and anyhow was a +man?</p> +<p>"Have you got something on your mind?" asked Anna-Rose at last, +when he hadn't even heard a question she asked,—he, the +polite, the interested, the sympathetic friend of the journey +across.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, sitting tilted back in his chair, his hands deep in +his pockets, looked up from the macaroons he had been staring at +and said, "Yes."</p> +<p>"Tell us what it is," suggested Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"You," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Me?"</p> +<p>"Both of you. You both of you go together. You're in one lump in +my mind. And on it too," finished Mr. Twist ruefully.</p> +<p>"That's only because," explained Anna-Felicitas, "<a name= +"Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>you've got the idea we want such a lot +of taking care of. Get rid of that, and you'll feel quite +comfortable again. Why not regard us merely as pleasant +friends?"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked at her in silence.</p> +<p>"Not as objects to be protected," continued Anna Felicitas, "but +as co-equals. Of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist continued to look at her in silence.</p> +<p>"We didn't come to America to be on anybody's mind," said +Anna-Rose, supporting Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"We had a good deal of that in England," said Anna-Felicitas. +"For instance, we're quite familiar with Uncle Arthur's mind, we +were on it so heavily and so long."</p> +<p>"It's our fixed determination," said Anna-Rose, "now that we're +starting a new life, to get off any mind we find ourselves on +<i>instantly</i>."</p> +<p>"We wish to carve out our own destinies," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"We more than wish to," corrected Anna-Rose, "we intend to. What +were we made in God's image for if it wasn't to stand upright on +our own feet?"</p> +<p>"Anna-Rose and I had given this a good deal of thought," said +Anna-Felicitas, "first and last, and we're prepared to be friends +with everybody, but only as co-equals and of a reasonable soul and +human flesh subsisting."</p> +<p>"I don't know exactly," said Mr. Twist, "what that means, but it +seems to give you a lot of satisfaction."</p> +<p>"It does. It's out of the Athanasian Creed, and suggests such +perfect equality. If you'll regard us as co-equals instead of as +objects to be looked after, you'll see how happy we shall all +be."</p> +<p>"Not," said Anna-Rose, growing tender, for indeed <a name= +"Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>in her heart she loved and clung to +Mr. Twist, "that we haven't very much liked all you've done for us +and the way you were so kind to us on the boat,—we've been +<i>most</i> obliged to you, and we shall miss you very much indeed, +I know."</p> +<p>"But we'll get over that of course in time," put in +Anna-Felicitas, "and we've got to start life now in earnest."</p> +<p>"Well then," said Mr. Twist, "will you two Annas kindly tell me +what it is you propose to do next?"</p> +<p>"Next? After tea? Go and look at the sights."</p> +<p>"I mean to-morrow," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"To-morrow," said Anna-Rose, "we proceed to Boston."</p> +<p>"To track the Clouston Sacks to their lair," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Ah. You've made up your minds to do that. They've behaved +abominably," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Perhaps they missed the train," said Anna-Felicitas mildly.</p> +<p>"It's the proper course to pursue," said Anna-Rose. "To proceed +to Boston."</p> +<p>"I suppose it is," said Mr. Twist, again thinking that the +really proper and natural course was for him to have been able to +take them to his mother. Pity one's mother wasn't—</p> +<p>He pulled himself up on the brink of an unfiliality. He was on +the verge of thinking it a pity one's mother wasn't a different +one.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><a name="Page_134" +id="Page_134"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> +<p>"Then," said Mr. Twist, "if this is all you're going to see of +New York, this one evening, let us go and look at it."</p> +<p>He beckoned to the waiter who came up with the bill. Anna-Rose +pulled out her purse. Mr. Twist put up his hand with severe +determination.</p> +<p>"You're my guest," he said, "as long as I am with you. Useless +to protest, young lady. You'll not get me to belie my American +manhood. I only listened with half an ear to all the things you +both said in the taxi, because I hadn't recovered from the surprise +of finding myself still with you instead of on the train for Clark, +and because you both of you do say so very many things. But +understand once and for all that in this country everything female +has to be paid for by some man. I'm that man till I've left you on +the Sack doorstep, and then it'll be Sack—confound him," +finished Mr. Twist suddenly.</p> +<p>And he silenced Anna-Rose's protests, which persisted and were +indignant, by turning on her with, an irascibility she hadn't yet +seen in him, and inquiring of her whether then she really wished to +put him to public shame? "You wouldn't wish to go against an +established custom, surely," he said more gently.</p> +<p>So the twins gave themselves up for that one evening to what +Anna-Felicitas called government by wealth, otherwise plutocracy, +while reserving complete freedom of action in regard to Mr. Sack, +who was, in their <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>ignorance of +his circumstances, an unknown quantity. They might be going to be +mothers' helps in the Sack <i>ménage</i> for all they +knew,—they might, they said, be going to be anything, from +honoured guests to typists.</p> +<p>"Can you type?" asked Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"No," said the twins.</p> +<p>He took them in a taxi to Riverside Drive, and then they walked +down to the charming footpath that runs along by the Hudson for +three enchanting miles. The sun had set some time before they got +there, and had left a clear pale yellow sky, and a wonderful light +on the river. Lamps were being lit, and hung like silver globes in +the thin air. Steep grass slopes, and groups of big trees a little +deeper yellow than the sky, hid that there were houses and a street +above them on their right. Up and down the river steamers passed, +pierced with light, their delicate smoke hanging in the air long +after they had gone their way. It was so great a joy to walk in all +this after ten days shut up on the <i>St. Luke</i> and to see such +blessed things as grass and leaves again, that the twins felt +suddenly extraordinarily brisked up and cheerful. It was impossible +not to be cheerful, translated from the <i>St. Luke</i> into such a +place, trotting along in the peculiar dry air that made one all +tingly.</p> +<p>The world seemed suddenly quite good,—the simplest, +easiest of objects to tackle. All one had to do was not to let it +weigh on one, to laugh rather than cry. They trotted along humming +bits of their infancy's songs, feeling very warm and happy inside, +felicitously full of tea and macaroons and with their feet +comfortably on something that kept still and didn't heave or lurch +beneath them. Mr. Twist, too, was gayer than he had been for some +hours. He seemed relieved; and he was. He had sent a telegram to +his <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>mother, expressing proper +sorrow at being detained in New York, but giving no reason for it, +and promising he would be with her rather late the next evening; +and he had sent a telegram to the Clouston Sacks saying the +Twinklers, who had so unfortunately missed them in New York, would +arrive in Boston early next afternoon. His mind was clear again +owing to the determination of the twins to go to the Sacks. He was +going to take them there, hand them over, and then go back to +Clark, which fortunately was only three hours' journey from +Boston.</p> +<p>If the twins had shown a disinclination to go after the Sacks +who, in Mr. Twist's opinion, had behaved shamefully already, he +wouldn't have had the heart to press them to go; and then what +would he have done with them? Their second and last line of +defence, supposing they had considered the Sacks had failed and +were to be ruled out, was in California, a place they spoke of as +if it were next door to Boston and New York. How could he have let +them set out alone on that four days' journey, with the possibility +of once more at its end not being met? No wonder he had been +abstracted at tea. He was relieved to the extent of his forehead +going quite smooth again at their decision to proceed to the Sacks. +For he couldn't have taken them to his mother without preparation +and explanation, and he couldn't have left them in New York while +he went and prepared and explained. Great, reflected Mr. Twist, the +verb dropping into his mind with the <i>aplomb</i> of an +inspiration, are the difficulties that beset a man directly he +begins to twinkle. Already he had earnestly wished to knock the +reception clerk in the hotel office down because of, first, his +obvious suspicion of the party before he had heard Mr. Twist's +name, and <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>because of, second, +his politeness, his confidential manner as of an understanding +sympathizer with a rich man's recreations, when he had. The tea, +which he, had poured out of one of his own teapots, had been +completely spoilt by the knowledge that it was only this teapot +that had saved him from being treated as a White Slave Trafficker. +He wouldn't have got into that hotel at all with the Twinklers, or +into any other decent one, except for his teapot. What a country, +Mr. Twist had thought, fresh from his work in France, fresh from +where people were profoundly occupied with the great business of +surviving at all. Here he came back from a place where civilization +toppled, where deadly misery, deadly bravery, heroism that couldn't +be uttered, staggered month after month among ruins, and found +America untouched, comfortable, fat, still with time to worry over +the suspected amorousness of the rich, still putting people into +uniforms in order to buttonhole a man on landing and cross-question +him as to his private purities.</p> +<p>He had been much annoyed, but he too couldn't resist the extreme +pleasure of real exercise on such a lovely evening, nor could he +resist the infection of the cheerfulness of the Twinklers. They +walked along, talking and laughing, and seeming to walk much faster +than he did, especially Anna-Rose who had to break into a run every +few steps because of his so much longer legs, his face restored to +all its usual kindliness as he listened benevolently to their +remarks, and just when they were beginning to feel as if they soon +might be tired and hungry a restaurant with lamp-hung gardens +appeared as punctually as if they had been in Germany, that land of +nicely arranged distances between meals. They had an extremely +cheerful little supper out of <a name="Page_138" id= +"Page_138"></a>doors, with things to eat that thrilled the +Twinklers in their delicious strangeness; heavenly food, they +thought it after the rigours of the second-class cooking on the +<i>St. Luke</i>, and the biggest ices they had seen in their +lives,—great dollops of pink and yellow divineness.</p> +<p>Then Mr. Twist took them in a taxi to look at the illuminated +advertisements in Broadway, and they forgot everything but the joy +of the moment. Whatever the next day held, this evening was sheer +happiness. Their eyes shone and their cheeks flushed, and Mr. Twist +was quite worried that they were so pretty. People at the other +tables at the restaurant had stared at them with frank admiration, +and so did the people in the streets whenever the taxi was blocked. +On the ship he had only sometimes been aware of it,—there +would come a glint of sunshine and settle on Anna-Rose's little +cheek where the dimple was, or he would lift his eyes from the +Culture book and suddenly see the dark softness of Anna-Felicitas's +eyelashes as she slept in her chair. But now, dressed properly, and +in their dryland condition of cheerful animation, he perceived that +they were very pretty indeed, and that Anna-Felicitas was more than +very pretty. He couldn't help thinking they were a most unsuitable +couple to be let loose in America with only two hundred pounds to +support them. Two hundred pounds was just enough to let them slip +about if it should enter their heads to slip about,—go off +without explanation, for instance, if they wanted to leave the +Clouston Sacks,—but of course ridiculous as a serious +background to life. A girl should either have enough money or be +completely dependent on her male relations. As a girl was usually +young reflected Mr. Twist, his spectacles with the Broadway lights +in them blazing <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>on the two +specimens opposite him, it was safest for her to be dependent. So +were her actions controlled, and kept within the bounds of +wisdom.</p> +<p>And next morning, as he sat waiting for the twins for breakfast +at ten o'clock according to arrangement the night before, their +grape-fruit in little beds of ice on their plates and every sort of +American dish ordered, from griddle cakes and molasses to chicken +pie, a page came in with loud cries for Mr. Twist, which made him +instantly conspicuous—a thing he particularly +disliked—and handed him a letter.</p> +<p>The twins had gone.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><a name="Page_140" +id="Page_140"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> +<p>They had left early that morning for Boston, determined, as they +wrote, no longer to trespass on his kindness. There had been a +discussion in their bedroom the night before when they got back in +which Anna-Rose supplied the heat and Anna-Felicitas the arguments, +and it ended in Anna-Felicitas succeeding in restoring Anna-Rose to +her original standpoint of proud independence, from which, lured by +the comfort and security of Mr. Twist's companionship, she had been +inclined to slip.</p> +<p>It took some time, because of Anna-Rose being the eldest. +Anna-Felicitas had had to be as wary, and gentle, and persistently +affectionate as a wife whom necessity compels to try and get reason +into her husband. Anna-Rose's feathers, even as the feathers of a +husband, bristled at the mere breath of criticism of her superior +intelligence and wisdom. She was the leader of the party, the head +and guide, the one who had the dollars in her pocket, and being the +eldest naturally must know best. Besides, she was secretly nervous +about taking Anna-Felicitas about alone. She too had observed the +stares of the public, and had never supposed that any of them might +be for her. How was she to get to Boston successfully with so +enchanting a creature, through all the complications of travel in +an unknown country, without the support and counsel of Mr. Twist? +Just the dollars and quarters and dimes and cents cowed her. The +strangeness of <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>everything, +while it delighted her so long as she could peep at it from behind +Mr. Twist, appalled her the minute she was left alone with it. +America seemed altogether a foreign country, a strange place whose +inhabitants by accident didn't talk in a strange language. They +talked English; or rather what sounded like English till you found +that it wasn't really.</p> +<p>But Anna-Felicitas prevailed. She had all Anna-Rose's inborn +horror of accepting money or other benefits from people who had no +natural right to exercise their benevolences upon her, to appeal +to. Christopher, after long wrestling restored at last to pride, +did sit down and write the letter that so much spoilt Mr. Twist's +breakfast next morning, while Columbus slouched about the room +suggesting sentences.</p> +<p>It was a letter profuse in thanks for all Mr. Twist had done for +them, and couched in language that betrayed the particular share +Anna-Felicitas had taken in the plan; for though they both loved +long words Anna-Felicitas's were always a little the longer. In +rolling sentences that made Mr. Twist laugh in spite of his +concern, they pointed out that his first duty was to his mother, +and his second was not to squander his possessions in paying the +hotel and railway bills of persons who had no sort of claim on him, +except those general claims of humanity which he had already on the +<i>St. Luke</i> so amply discharged. They would refrain from paying +their hotel bill, remembering his words as to the custom of the +country, though their instincts were altogether against this +course, but they could and would avoid causing him the further +expense and trouble and waste of his no doubt valuable time of +taking them to Boston, by the simple process of going there without +him. They promised to write from the Sacks and let <a name= +"Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>him know of their arrival to the +address at Clark he had given them, and they would never forget him +as long as they lived and remained his very sincerely, A.-R., and +A.-F. Twinkler.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist hurried out to the office.</p> +<p>The clerk who had been so confidential in his manner the evening +before looked at him curiously. Yes, the young ladies had left on +the 8.15 for Boston. They had come downstairs, baggage and all, at +seven o'clock, had asked for a taxi, had said they wished to go to +Boston, inquired about the station, etc., and had specially +requested that Mr. Twist should not be disturbed.</p> +<p>"They seemed in a slight hurry to be off," said the clerk, "and +didn't like there being no train before the 8.15. I thought you +knew all about it, Mr. Twist," he added inquisitively.</p> +<p>"So I did—so I did," said Mr. Twist, turning away to go +back to his breakfast for three.</p> +<p>"So he did—so he did," muttered the clerk with a wink to +the other clerk; and for a few minutes they whispered, judging from +the expressions on their faces, what appeared to be very exciting +things to each other.</p> +<p>Meanwhile the twins, after a brief struggle of extraordinary +intensity at the station in getting their tickets, trying to +understand the black man who seized and dealt with their luggage, +and closely following him wherever he went in case he should +disappear, were sitting in a state of relaxation and relief in the +Boston express, their troubles over for at least several hours.</p> +<p>The black porter, whose heart happened not to be black and who +had children of his own, perceived the helpless ignorance that lay +behind the twins' assumption <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>a +of severe dignity, and took them in hand and got seats for them in +the parlour car. As they knew nothing about cars, parlour or +otherwise, but had merely and quite uselessly reiterated to the +booking-clerk, till their porter intervened, that they wanted +third-class tickets, they accepted these seats, thankful in the +press and noise round them to get anything so roomy and calm as +these dignified arm-chairs; and it wasn't till they had been in +them some time, their feet on green footstools, with attendants +offering them fruit and chocolates and magazines at intervals just +as if they had been in heaven, as Anna-Felicitas remarked +admiringly, that counting their money they discovered what a hole +the journey had made in it. But they were too much relieved at +having accomplished so much on their own, quite uphelped for the +first time since leaving Aunt Alice, to take it particularly to +heart; and, as Anna-Felicitas said, there was still the £200, +and, as Anna-Rose said, it wasn't likely they'd go in a train again +for ages; and anyhow, as Anna-Felicitas said, whatever it had cost +they were bound to get away from being constant drains on Mr. +Twist's purse.</p> +<p>The train journey delighted them. To sit so comfortably and +privately in chairs that twisted round, so that if a passenger +should start staring at Anna-Felicitas one could make her turn her +back altogether on him; to have one's feet on footstools when they +were the sort of feet that don't reach the ground; to see the +lovely autumn country flying past, hills and woods and fields and +gardens golden in the October sun, while the horrible Atlantic was +nowhere in sight; to pass through towns so queerly reminiscent of +English and German towns shaken up together and yet not a bit like +either; to be able to have the window wide open <a name="Page_144" +id="Page_144"></a>without getting soot in one's eyes because one of +the ministering angels—clad, this one, appropriately to +heaven, in white, though otherwise black—pulled up the same +sort of wire screen they used to have in the windows at home to +keep out the mosquitoes; to imitate about twelve, when they grew +bold because they were so hungry, the other passengers and cause +the black angel to spread a little table between them and bring +clam broth, which they ordered in a spirit of adventure and +curiosity and concealed from each other that they didn't like; to +have the young man who passed up and down with the candy, and whose +mouth was full of it, grow so friendly that he offered them toffee +from his own private supply at last when they had refused +regretfully a dozen suggestions to buy—"Have a bit," he said, +thrusting it under their noses. "As a gentleman to ladies—no +pecuniary obligations—come on, now;" all this was to the +twins too interesting and delightful for words.</p> +<p>They accepted the toffee in the spirit in which it was offered, +and since nobody can eat somebody's toffee without being pleasant +in return, intermittent amenities passed between them and the young +man as he journeyed up and down through the cars.</p> +<p>"First visit to the States?" he inquired, when with some +reluctance, for presently it appeared to the twins that the clam +broth and the toffee didn't seem to be liking each other now they +had got together inside them, and also for fear of hurting his +feelings if they refused, they took some more.</p> +<p>They nodded and smiled stickily.</p> +<p>"English, I guess."</p> +<p>They hesitated, covering their hesitation with the earnest +working of their toffee-filled jaws.</p> +<p><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>Then Anna-Felicitas, her +cheek distorted, gave him the answer she had given the captain of +the <i>St. Luke,</i> and said, "Practically."</p> +<p>"Ah," said the young man, turning this over in his mind, the r +in "practically" having rolled as no English or American r ever +did; but the conductor appearing in the doorway he continued on his +way.</p> +<p>"It's evident," said Anna-Rose, speaking with difficulty, for +her jaws clave together because of the toffee, "that we're going to +be asked that the first thing every time a fresh person speaks to +us. We'd better decide what we're going to say, and practise saying +it without hesitation."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas made a sound of assent.</p> +<p>"That answer of yours about practically," continued Anna-Rose, +swallowing her bit of toffee by accident and for one moment afraid +it would stick somewhere and make her die, "causes first surprise, +then reflection, and then suspicion."</p> +<p>"But," said Anna-Felicitas after a pause during which she had +disentangled her jaws, "it's going to be difficult to say one is +German when America seems to be so very neutral and doesn't like +Germans. Besides, it's only in the eye of the law that we are. In +God's eye we're not, and that's the principal eye after all."</p> +<p>Her own eyes grew thoughtful. "I don't believe," she said, "that +parents when they marry have any idea of all the difficulties +they're going to place their children in."</p> +<p>"I don't believe they think about it at all," said Anna-Rose. "I +mean," she added quickly, lest she should be supposed to be +questioning the perfect love and forethought of their mother, +"fathers don't."</p> +<p>They were silent a little after this, each thinking <a name= +"Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>things tinged to sobriety by the +effect of the inner conflict going on between the clam broth and +the toffee. Also Boston was rushing towards them, and the Clouston +Sacks. Quite soon they would have to leave the peaceful security of +the train and begin to be active again, and quick and clever. +Anna-Felicitas, who was slow, found it difficult ever to be clever +till about the week after, and Anna-Rose, who was impetuous, was so +impetuous that she entirely outstripped her scanty store of +cleverness and landed panting and surprised in situations she +hadn't an idea what to do with. The Clouston Sacks, now—Aunt +Alice had said, "You must take care to be very tactful with Mr. and +Mrs. Clouston Sack;" and when Anna-Rose, her forehead as much +puckered as Mr. Twist's in her desire to get exactly at what +tactful was in order to be able diligently to be it, asked for +definitions, Aunt Alice only said it was what gentlewomen were +instinctively.</p> +<p>"Then," observed Anna-Felicitas, when on nearing Boston +Anna-Rose repeated Aunt Alice's admonishment and at the same time +provided Anna-Felicitas for her guidance with the definition, +"seeing that we're supposed to be gentlewomen, all we've got to do +is to behave according to our instincts."</p> +<p>But Anna-Rose wasn't sure. She doubted their instincts, +especially Anna-Felicitas's. She thought her own were better, being +older, but even hers were extraordinarily apt to develop in +unexpected directions according to the other person's behaviour. +Her instinct, for instance, when engaged by Uncle Arthur in +conversation had usually been to hit him. Was that tact? Yet she +knew she was a gentlewoman. She had heard that, since first she had +heard words at all, from every servant, teacher, visitor and +relation—except her <a name="Page_147" id= +"Page_147"></a>mother—in her Prussian home. Indeed, over +there she had been told she was more than a gentlewoman, for she +was a noblewoman and therefore her instincts ought positively to +drip tact.</p> +<p>"Mr. Dodson," Aunt Alice had said one afternoon towards the end, +when the twins came in from a walk and found the rector having tea, +"says that you can't be too tactful in America. He's been +there."</p> +<p>"Sensitive—sensitive," said Mr. Dodson, shaking his head +at his cup. "Splendidly sensitive, just as they are splendidly +whatever else they are. A great country. Everything on a vast +scale, including sensitiveness. It has to be met vastly. But quite +easy really—-" He raised a pedagogic finger at the twins. +"You merely add half as much again to the quantity of your tact as +the quantity you encounter of their sensitiveness, and it's all +right."</p> +<p>"Be sure you remember that now," said Aunt Alice, pleased.</p> +<p>As Boston got nearer, Anna-Rose, trying to learn Mr. Dodson's +recipe for social success by heart, became more silent. On the +ship, when the meeting with the Sacks was imminent, she had fled in +sudden panic to her cabin to hide from them. That couldn't have +been tact. But it was instinct. And she was a gentlewoman. Now once +again dread took possession of her and she wanted to hide, not to +get there, to stay in the train and go on and on. She said nothing, +of course, of her dread to Anna-Felicitas in order not to undermine +that young person's <i>morale</i>, but she did very much wish that +principles weren't such important things and one needn't have cut +oneself off from the protecting figure of Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Now remember what Aunt Alice said," she whispered <a name= +"Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>severely to Anna-Felicitas, gripping +her arm as they stood jammed in the narrow passage to the door +waiting to be let out at Boston.</p> +<p>On the platform, they both thought, would be the +Sacks,—certainly one Sack, and they had feverishly made +themselves tidy and composed their faces into pleasant smiles +preparatory to the meeting. But once again no Sacks were there. The +platform emptied itself just as the great hall of the landing-stage +had emptied itself, and nobody came to claim the Twinklers.</p> +<p>"These Sacks," remarked Anna-Felicitas patiently at last, when +it was finally plain that there weren't any, "don't seem to have +acquired the meeting habit."</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose, vexed but relieved. "They're like what +Aunt Alice used to complain about the housemaids,—neither +punctual nor methodical."</p> +<p>"But it doesn't matter," said Anna-Felicitas. "They shall not +escape us. I'm getting quite hungry for the Sacks as a result of +not having them. We will now proceed to track them to their +lair."</p> +<p>For one instant Anna-Rose looked longingly at the train. It was +still there. It was going on further and further away from the +Sacks. Happy train. One little jump, and they'd be in it again. But +she resisted, and engaged a porter.</p> +<p>Even as soon as this the twins were far less helpless than they +had been the day before. The Sack address was in Anna-Rose's hand, +and they knew what an American porter looked like. The porter and a +taxi were engaged with comparative ease and assurance, and on +giving the porter, who had staggered beneath the number of their +grips, a dime, and seeing a cloud on his face, they doubled it +instantly sooner than have trouble, and trebled it equally quickly +on his displaying <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>yet further +dissatisfaction, and they departed for the Sacks, their grips piled +up round them in the taxi as far as their chins, congratulating +themselves on how much easier it was to get away from a train than +to get into one.</p> +<p>But the minute their activities were over and they had time to +think, silence fell upon them again. They were both nervous. They +both composed their faces to indifference to hide that they were +nervous, examining the streets they passed through with a calm and +<i>blasé</i> stare worthy of a lorgnette. It was the tact +part of the coming encounter that was chiefly unnerving Anna-Rose, +and Anna-Felicitas was dejected by her conviction that nobody who +was a friend of Uncle Arthur's could possibly be agreeable. "By +their friends ye shall know them," thought Anna-Felicitas, staring +out of the window at the Boston buildings. Also the persistence of +the Sacks in not being on piers and railway stations was +discouraging. There was no eagerness about this persistence; there +wasn't even friendliness. Perhaps they didn't like her and +Anna-Rose being German.</p> +<p>This was always the twins' first thought when anybody wasn't +particularly cordial. Their experiences in England had made them a +little jumpy. They were conscious of this weak spot, and like a +hurt finger it seemed always to be getting in the way and being +knocked. Anna-Felicitas once more pondered on the inscrutable +behaviour of Providence which had led their mother, so safely and +admirably English, to leave that blessed shelter and go and marry +somebody who wasn't. Of course there was this to be said for it, +that she wasn't their mother then. If she had been, Anna-Felicitas +felt sure she wouldn't have. Then, <a name="Page_150" id= +"Page_150"></a>perceiving that her thoughts were getting difficult +to follow she gave them up, and slid her hand through Anna-Rose's +arm and gave it a squeeze.</p> +<p>"Now for the New World, Christopher," she said, pretending to be +very eager and brave and like the real Columbus, as the taxi +stopped.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><a name="Page_151" +id="Page_151"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> +<p>The taxi had stopped in front of a handsome apartment house, and +almost before it was quiet a boy in buttons darted out across the +intervening wide pavement and thrust his face through the +window.</p> +<p>"Who do you want?" he said, or rather jerked out.</p> +<p>He then saw the contents of the taxi, and his mouth fell open; +for it seemed to him that grips and passengers were piled up inside +it in a seething mass.</p> +<p>"We want Mr. and Mrs. Clouston Sack," said Anna-Rose in her most +grown-up voice. "They're expecting us."</p> +<p>"They ain't," said the boy promptly.</p> +<p>"They ain't?" repeated Anna-Rose, echoing his language in her +surprise.</p> +<p>"How do you know?" asked Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"That they ain't? Because they ain't," said the boy. "I bet you +my Sunday shirt they ain't."</p> +<p>The twins stared at him. They were not accustomed in their +conversations with the lower classes to be talked to about +shirts.</p> +<p>The boy seemed extraordinarily vital. His speech was so quick +that it flew out with the urgency and haste of squibs going +off.</p> +<p>"Please open the door," said Anna-Rose recovering herself. +"We'll go up and see for ourselves."</p> +<p>"You won't see," said the boy.</p> +<p>"Kindly open the door," repeated Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>You won't see," he said, +pulling it open, "but you can look. If you do see Sacks up there +I'm a Hun."</p> +<p>The minute the door opened, grips fell out. There were two +umbrellas, two coats, a knapsack of a disreputable bulged +appearance repugnant to American ideas of baggage which run on big +simple lines of huge trunks, an <i>attaché</i> case, a suit +case, a hold-all, a basket and a hat-box. Outside beside the driver +were two such small and modest trunks that they might almost as +well have been grips themselves.</p> +<p>"Do you mind taking those in?" asked Anna-Rose, getting out with +difficulty over the umbrella that had fallen across the doorway, +and pointing to the gutter in which the other umbrella and the +knapsack lay and into which the basket, now that her body no longer +kept it in, was rolling.</p> +<p>"In where?" crackled the boy.</p> +<p>"In," said Anna-Rose severely. "In to wherever Mr. and Mrs. +Clouston Sack are."</p> +<p>"It's no good your saying they are when they ain't," said the +boy, increasing the loudness of his crackling.</p> +<p>"Do you mean they don't live here?" asked Anna-Felicitas, in her +turn disentangling herself from that which was still inside the +taxi, and immediately followed on to the pavement by the hold-all +and the <i>attaché</i> case.</p> +<p>"They did live here till yesterday," said the boy, "but now they +don't. One does. But that's not the same as two. Which is what I +meant when you said they're expecting you and I said they +ain't."</p> +<p>"Do you mean to say—" Anna-Rose stopped with a catch of +her breath. "Do you mean," she went on in an awe-struck voice, +"that one of them—one of them is dead?"</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>Dead? Bless you, no. +Anything but dead. The exact opposite. Gone. Left. Got," said the +boy.</p> +<p>"Oh," said Anna-Rose greatly relieved, passing over his last +word, whose meaning escaped her, "oh—you mean just gone to +meet us. And missed us. You see," she said, turning to +Anna-Felicitas, "they did try to after all."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas said nothing, but reflected that whichever Sack +had tried to must have a quite unusual gift for missing people.</p> +<p>"Gone to meet you?" repeated the boy, as one surprised by a new +point of view. "Well, I don't know about that—"</p> +<p>"We'll go up and explain," said Anna-Rose. "Is it Mr. or Mrs. +Clouston Sack who is here?"</p> +<p>"Mr.," said the boy.</p> +<p>"Very well then. Please bring in our things." And Anna-Rose +proceeded, followed by Anna-Felicitas, to walk into the house.</p> +<p>The boy, instead of bringing them in, picked up the articles +lying on the pavement and put them back again into the taxi. "No +hurry about them, I guess," he said to the driver. "Time enough to +take them up when the gurls ask again—" and he darted after +the gurls to hand them over to his colleague who worked what he +called the elevator.</p> +<p>"Why do you call it the elevator," inquired Anna-Felicitas, +mildly inquisitive, of this boy, who on hearing that they wished to +see Mr. Sack stared at them with profound and unblinking interest +all the way up, "when it is really a lift?"</p> +<p>"Because it is an elevator," said the boy briefly.</p> +<p>"But we, you see," said Anna-Felicitas, "are equally convinced +that it's a lift."</p> +<p><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>The boy didn't answer this. +He was as silent as the other one wasn't; but there was a thrill +about him too, something electric and tense. He stared at +Anna-Felicitas, then turned quickly and stared at Anna-Rose, then +quickly back to Anna-Felicitas, and so on all the way up. He was +obviously extraordinarily interested. He seemed to have got hold of +an idea that had not struck the squib-like boy downstairs, who was +entertaining the taxi-driver with descriptions of the domestic life +of the Sacks.</p> +<p>The lift stopped at what the twins supposed was going to be the +door of a landing or public corridor, but it was, they discovered, +the actual door of the Sack flat. At any moment the Sacks, if they +wished to commit suicide, could do so simply by stepping out of +their own front door. They would then fall, infinitely far, on to +the roof of the lift lurking at the bottom.</p> +<p>The lift-boy pressed a bell, the door opened, and there, at once +exposed to the twins, was the square hall of the Sack flat with a +manservant standing in it staring at them.</p> +<p>Obsessed by his idea, the lift-boy immediately stepped out of +his lift, approached the servant, introduced his passengers to him +by saying, "Young ladies to see Mr. Sack," took a step closer, and +whispered in his ear, but perfectly audibly to the twins who, +however, regarded it as some expression peculiarly American and +were left unmoved by it, "The co-respondents."</p> +<p>The servant stared uncertainly at them. His mistress had only +been gone a few hours, and the flat was still warm with her +presence and authority. She wouldn't, he well knew, have permitted +co-respondents to be about the place if she had been there, but on +the other hand she wasn't there. Mr. Sack was in sole <a name= +"Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>possession now. Nobody knew where Mrs. +Sack was. Letters and telegrams lay on the table for her unopened, +among them Mr. Twist's announcing the arrival of the Twinklers. In +his heart the servant sided with Mr. Sack, but only in his heart, +for the servant's wife was the cook, and she, as she frequently +explained, was all for strict monogamy. He stared therefore +uncertainly at the twins, his brain revolving round their colossal +impudence in coming there before Mrs. Sack's rooms had so much as +had time to get, as it were, cold.</p> +<p>"We want to see Mr. Clouston Sack," began Anna-Rose in her clear +little voice; and no sooner did she begin to speak than a door was +pulled open and the gentleman himself appeared.</p> +<p>"I heard a noise of arrival—" he said, stopping suddenly +when he saw them. "I heard a noise of arrival, and a woman's +voice—"</p> +<p>"It's us," said Anna-Rose, her face covering itself with the +bright conciliatory smiles of the arriving guest. "Are you Mr. +Clouston Sack?"</p> +<p>She went up to him and held out her hand. They both went up to +him and held out their hands.</p> +<p>"We're the Twinklers," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"We've come," said Anna-Felicitas, in case he shouldn't have +noticed it.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack let his hand be shaken, and it was a moist hand. He +looked like a Gibson young man who has grown elderly. He had the +manly profile and shoulders, but they sagged and stooped. There was +a dilapidation about him, a look of blurred edges. His hair lay on +his forehead in disorder, and his tie had been put on carelessly +and had wriggled up to the rim of his collar.</p> +<p>"The Twinklers," he repeated. "The Twinklers. Do I remember, I +wonder?"</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>There hasn't been much +time to forget," said Anna-Felicitas. "It's less than two months +since there were all those letters."</p> +<p>"Letters?" echoed Mr. Sack. "Letters?"</p> +<p>"So now we've got here," said Anna-Rose, the more brightly that +she was unnerved.</p> +<p>"Yes. We've come," said Anna-Felicitas, also with feverish +brightness.</p> +<p>Bewildered, Mr. Sack, who felt that he had had enough to bear +the last few hours, stood staring at them. Then he caught sight of +the lift-boy, lingering and he further saw the expression on his +servant's face Even to his bewilderment it was clear what he was +thinking.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack turned round quickly and led the way into the +dining-room. "Come in, come in," he said distractedly.</p> +<p>They went in. He shut the door. The lift-boy and the servant +lingered a moment making faces at each other; then the lift-boy +dropped away in his lift, and the servant retired to the kitchen. +"I'm darned," was all he could articulate. "I'm darned."</p> +<p>"There's our luggage," said Anna-Rose, turning to Mr. Sack on +getting inside the room, her voice gone a little shrill in her +determined cheerfulness. "Can it be brought up?"</p> +<p>"Luggage?" repeated Mr. Sack, putting his hand to his forehead. +"Excuse me, but I've got such a racking headache to-day—it +makes me stupid—"</p> +<p>"Oh, I'm <i>very</i> sorry," said Anna-Rose solicitously.</p> +<p>"And so am I—<i>very</i>," said Anna-Felicitas, equally +solicitous. "Have you tried aspirin? Sometimes some simple remedy +like that—"</p> +<p>"Oh thank you—it's good of you, it's good of you. <a name= +"Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>The effect, you see, is that I can't +think very clearly. But do tell me—why luggage? +Luggage—luggage. You mean, I suppose, baggage."</p> +<p>"Why luggage?" asked Anna-Rose nervously. "Isn't +there—isn't there always luggage in America too when people +come to stay with one?"</p> +<p>"You've come to stay with me," said Mr. Sack, putting his hand +to his forehead again.</p> +<p>"You see," said Anna-Felicitas, "we're the Twinklers."</p> +<p>"Yes, yes—I know. You've told me that."</p> +<p>"So naturally we've come."</p> +<p>"But <i>is</i> it natural?" asked Mr. Sack, looking at them +distractedly.</p> +<p>"We sent you a telegram," said Anna-Rose, "or rather one to Mrs. +Sack, which is the same thing—"</p> +<p>"It isn't, it isn't," said the distressed Mr. Sack. "I wish it +were. It ought to be. Mrs. Sack isn't here—"</p> +<p>"Yes—we're very sorry to have missed her. Did she go to +meet us in New York, or where?"</p> +<p>"Mrs. Sack didn't go to meet you. She's—gone."</p> +<p>"Gone where?"</p> +<p>"Oh," cried Mr. Sack, "somewhere else, but not to meet you. Oh," +he went on after a moment in which, while the twins gazed at him, +he fought with and overcame emotion, "when I heard you speaking in +the hall I thought—I had a moment's hope—for a minute I +believed—she had come back. So I went out. Else I couldn't +have seen you. I'm not fit to see strangers—"</p> +<p>The things Mr. Sack said, and his fluttering, unhappy voice, +were so much at variance with the stern lines of his Gibson profile +that the twins viewed him <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>with +the utmost surprise. They came to no conclusion and passed no +judgment because they didn't know but what if one was an American +one naturally behaved like that.</p> +<p>"I don't think," said Anna-Felicitas gently, "that you can call +us strangers. We're the Twinklers."</p> +<p>"Yes, yes—I know—you keep on telling me that," said +Mr. Sack. "But I can't call to mind—"</p> +<p>"Don't you remember all Uncle Arthur's letters about us? We're +the nieces he asked you to be kind to for a bit—as I'm sure," +Anna-Felicitas added politely, "you're admirably adapted for +being."</p> +<p>Mr. Sack turned his bewildered eyes on to her. "Oh, aren't you a +pretty girl," he said, in the same distressed voice.</p> +<p>"You mustn't make her vain," said Anna-Rose, trying not to smile +all over her face, while Anna-Felicitas remained as manifestly +unvain as a person intent on something else would be.</p> +<p>"We know you got Uncle Arthur's letters about us," she +continued, "because he showed us your answers back. You invited us +to come and stay with you. And, as you perceive, we've done +it."</p> +<p>"Then it must have been months ago—months ago," said Mr. +Sack, "before all this—do I remember something about it? I've +had such trouble since—I've been so distracted one way and +another—it may have slipped away out of my memory under the +stress—Mrs. Sack—" He paused and looked round the room +helplessly. "Mrs. Sack—well, Mrs. Sack isn't here now."</p> +<p>"We're <i>very</i> sorry you've had trouble," said +Anna-Felicitas sympathetically. "It's what everybody has, though. +Man that is born of woman is full of misery. <a name="Page_159" id= +"Page_159"></a>That's what the Burial Service says, and it ought to +know."</p> +<p>Mr. Sack again turned bewildered eyes on to her. "Oh, aren't you +a pretty—" he again began.</p> +<p>"When do you think Mrs. Sack will be back?" interrupted +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"I wish I knew—I wish I could hope—but she's gone +for a long while, I'm afraid—"</p> +<p>"Gone not to come back at all, do you mean?" asked +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack gulped. "I'm afraid that is her intention," he said +miserably.</p> +<p>There was a silence, in which they all stood looking at each +other.</p> +<p>"Didn't she like you?" then inquired Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, sure that this wasn't tactful, gave her sleeve a +little pull.</p> +<p>"Were you unkind to her?" asked Anna-Felicitas, disregarding the +warning.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack, his fingers clasping and unclasping themselves behind +his back, started walking up and down the room. Anna-Felicitas, +forgetful of what Aunt Alice would have said, sat down on the edge +of the table and began to be interested in Mrs. Sack.</p> +<p>"The wives I've seen," she remarked, watching Mr. Sack with +friendly and interested eyes, "who were chiefly Aunt +Alice—that's Uncle Arthur's wife, the one we're the nieces +of—seemed to put up with the utmost contumely from their +husbands and yet didn't budge. You must have been something awful +to yours."</p> +<p>"I worshipped Mrs. Sack," burst out Mr. Sack. "I worshipped her. +I do worship her. She was the handsomest, brightest woman in +Boston. I was as proud of her as any man has ever been of his +wife."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>Then why did she go?" +asked Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"I don't think that's the sort of thing you should ask," rebuked +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"But if I don't ask I won't be told," said Ann Felicitas, "and +I'm interested."</p> +<p>"Mrs. Sack went because I was able—I was so +constructed—that I could be fond of other people as well as +of her," said Mr. Sack.</p> +<p>"Well, <i>that's</i> nothing unusual," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose, "I don't see anything in that."</p> +<p>"I think it shows a humane and friendly spirit," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Besides, it's enjoined in the Bible," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"I'm sure when we meet Mrs. Sack," said Anna-Felicitas very +politely indeed, "much as we expect to like her we shall +nevertheless continue to like other people as well. You, for +instance. Will she mind that?"</p> +<p>"It wasn't so much that I liked other people," said Mr. Sack, +walking about and thinking tumultuously aloud rather than +addressing anybody, "but that I liked other people so +<i>much</i>."</p> +<p>"I see," said Anna-Felicitas, nodding. "You overdid it. Like +over-eating whipped cream. Only it wasn't you but Mrs. Sack who got +the resulting ache."</p> +<p>"And aren't I aching? Aren't I suffering?"</p> +<p>"Yes, but you did the over-eating," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"The world," said the unhappy Mr. Sack, quickening his pace, "is +so full of charming and delightful people. Is one to shut one's +eyes to them?"</p> +<p>"Of course not," said Anna-Felicitas. "One must love them."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>Yes, yes," said Mr. Sack. +"Exactly. That's what I did."</p> +<p>"And though I wouldn't wish," said Anna-Felicitas, "to say +anything against somebody who so very nearly was my hostess, yet +really, you know, wasn't Mrs. Sack's attitude rather churlish?"</p> +<p>Mr. Sack gazed at her. "Oh, aren't you a pretty—" he began +again, with a kind of agonized enthusiasm; but he was again cut +short by Anna-Rose, on whom facts of a disturbing nature were +beginning to press.</p> +<p>"Aunt Alice," she said, looking and feeling extremely perturbed +as the situation slowly grew clear to her, "told us we were never +to stay with people whose wives are somewhere else. Unless they +have a mother or other female relative living with them. She was +most particular about it, and said whatever else we did we weren't +ever to do this. So I'm afraid," she continued in her politest +voice, determined to behave beautifully under circumstances that +were trying, "much as we should have enjoyed staying with you and +Mrs. Sack if she had been here to stay with, seeing that she isn't +we manifestly can't."</p> +<p>"You can't stay with me," murmured Mr. Sack, turning his +bewildered eyes to her. "Were you going to?"</p> +<p>"Of course we were going to. It's what we've come for," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"And I'm afraid," said-Anna-Rose, "disappointed as we are, +unless you can produce a mother—"</p> +<p>"But where on earth are we to go to, Anna-R.?" inquired +Anna-Felicitas, who, being lazy, having got to a place preferred if +possible to stay in it, and who besides was sure that in their +forlorn situation a Sack <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>in +the hand was worth two Sacks not in it, any day. Also she liked the +look of Mr. Sack, in spite of his being so obviously out of repair. +He badly wanted doing up she said to herself, but on the other hand +he seemed to her lovable in his distress, with much of the pathetic +helplessness her own dear Irish terrier, left behind in Germany, +had had the day he caught his foot in a rabbit trap. He had looked +at Anna-Felicitas, while she was trying to get him out of it, with +just the same expression on his face that Mr. Sack had on his as he +walked about the room twisting and untwisting his fingers behind +his back. Only, her Irish terrier hadn't had a Gibson profile. +Also, he had looked much more efficient.</p> +<p>"Can't you by any chance produce a mother?" she asked.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack stared at her.</p> +<p>"Of course we're very sorry," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>Mr. Sack stared at her.</p> +<p>"But you understand, I'm sure, that under the +circumstances—"</p> +<p>"Do you say," said Mr. Sack, stopping still after a few more +turns in front of Anna-Rose, and making a great effort to collect +his thoughts, "that I—that we—had arranged to look +after you?"</p> +<p>"Arranged with Uncle Arthur," said Anna-Rose. "Uncle Arthur +Abinger. Of course you had. That's why we're here. Why, you wrote +bidding us welcome. He showed us the letter."</p> +<p>"Abinger. Abinger. Oh—<i>that</i> man," said Mr. Sack, his +mind clearing.</p> +<p>"We thought you'd probably feel like that about him," said +Anna-Felicitas sympathetically.</p> +<p>"Why, then," said Mr. Sack, his mind getting suddenly <a name= +"Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>quite clear, "you must be—why, +you <i>are</i> the Twinklers."</p> +<p>"We've been drawing your attention to that at frequent intervals +since we got here," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"But whether you now remember or still don't realize," said +Anna-Rose with great firmness, "I'm afraid we've got to say +good-bye."</p> +<p>"That's all very well, Anna-R.," again protested Anna-Felicitas, +"but where are we to go to?"</p> +<p>"Go?" said Anna-Rose with a dignity very creditable in one of +her size, "Ultimately to California, of course, to Uncle Arthur's +other friends. But now, this afternoon, we get back into a train +and go to Clark, to Mr. Twist. He at least has a mother."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><a name="Page_164" id= +"Page_164"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> +<p>And so it came about that just as the reunited Twists, mother, +son and daughter, were sitting in the drawing-room, a little tired +after a long afternoon of affection, waiting for seven o'clock to +strike and, with the striking, Amanda the head maid to appear and +announce supper, but waiting with lassitude, for they had not yet +recovered from an elaborate welcoming dinner, the Twinklers, in the +lovely twilight of a golden day, were hastening up the winding road +from the station towards them. Silent, and a little exhausted, the +unconscious Twists sat in their drawing-room, a place of marble and +antimacassars, while these light figures, their shoes white with +the dust of a country-side that had had no rain for weeks, sped +every moment nearer.</p> +<p>The road wound gently upwards through fields and woods, through +quiet, delicious evening country, and there was one little star +twinkling encouragingly at the twins from over where they supposed +Clark would be. At the station there had been neither porter nor +conveyance, nor indeed anybody or anything at all except +themselves, their luggage, and a thin, kind man who represented +authority. Clark is two miles away from its station, and all the +way to it is uninhabited. Just at the station are a cluster of +those hasty buildings America flings down in out-of-the-way places +till she shall have leisure to make a splendid city; but the road +immediately curved away from these up into solitude and the evening +sky.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>You can't miss it," +encouraged the station-master. "Keep right along after your noses +till they knock up against Mrs. Twist's front gate. I'll look after +the menagerie—" thus did he describe the Twinkler luggage. +"Guess Mrs. Twist'll be sending for it as soon as you get there. +Guess she forgot you. Guess she's shaken up by young Mr. Twist's +arriving this very day. <i>I</i> wouldn't have forgotten you. No, +not for a dozen young Mr. Twists," he added gallantly.</p> +<p>"Why do you call him young Mr. Twist," inquired Anna-Felicitas, +"when he isn't? He must be at least thirty or forty or fifty."</p> +<p>"You see, we know him quite well," said Anna-Rose proudly, as +they walked off. "He's a <i>great</i> friend of ours."</p> +<p>"You don't say," said the station-master, who was chewing gum; +and as the twins had not yet seen this being done they concluded he +had been interrupted in the middle of a meal by the arrival of the +train.</p> +<p>"Now mind," he called after them, "you do whatever the road +does. Give yourselves up to it, and however much it winds about +stick to it. You'll meet other roads, but don't you take any notice +of them."</p> +<p>Freed from their luggage, and for a moment from all care, the +twins went up the hill. It was the nicest thing in the world to be +going to see their friend again in quite a few minutes. They had, +ever since the collapse of the Sack arrangements, been missing him +very much. As they hurried on through the scented woods, past quiet +fields, between yellow-leaved hedges, the evening sky growing +duskier and the beckoning star lighter, they remembered Mr. Twist's +extraordinary kindness, his devoted and unfailing care, with the +warmest feelings of gratitude and affection. Even <a name= +"Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>Anna-Felicitas felt warm. How often +had he rearranged her head when it was hopelessly rolling about; +how often had he fed her when she felt better enough to be hungry. +Anna-Felicitas was very hungry. She still thought highly of pride +and independence, but now considered their proper place was after a +good meal. And Anna-Rose, with all the shameless cheerfulness of +one who for a little has got rid of her pride and is feeling very +much more comfortable in consequence remarked that one mustn't +overdo independence.</p> +<p>"Let's hurry," said Anna-Felicitas. "I'm so dreadfully hungry. I +do so terribly want supper. And I'm sure it's supper-time, and the +Twists will have finished and we mightn't get any."</p> +<p>"As though Mr. Twist wouldn't see to that!" exclaimed Anna-Rose, +proud and confident.</p> +<p>But she did begin to run, for she too was very hungry, and they +raced the rest of the way; which is why they arrived on the Twist +doorstep panting, and couldn't at first answer Amanda the head +maid's surprised and ungarnished inquiry as to what they wanted, +when she opened the door and found them there.</p> +<p>"We want Mr. Twist," said Anna-Rose, as soon as she could +speak.</p> +<p>Amanda eyed them. "You from the village?" she asked, thinking +perhaps they might be a deputation of elder school children sent to +recite welcoming poems to Mr. Twist on his safe return from the +seat of war. Yet she knew all the school children and everybody +else in Clark, and none of them were these.</p> +<p>"No—from the station," panted Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"We didn't see any village," panted Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"We want Mr. Twist please," said Anna-Rose struggling with her +breath.</p> +<p><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>Amanda eyed them. "Having +supper," she said curtly.</p> +<p>"Fortunate creature," gasped Anna-Felicitas, "I hope he isn't +eating it all."</p> +<p>"Will you announce us please?" said Anna-Rose putting on her +dignity. "The Miss Twinklers."</p> +<p>"The who?" said Amanda.</p> +<p>"The Miss Twinklers," said Anna-Rose, putting on still more +dignity, for there was that in Amanda's manner which roused the +Junker in her.</p> +<p>"Can't disturb him at supper," said Amanda briefly.</p> +<p>"I assure you," said Anna-Felicitas, with the earnestness of +conviction, "that he'll like it. I think I can undertake to promise +he'll show no resentment whatever."</p> +<p>Amanda half shut the door.</p> +<p>"We'll come in please," said Anna-Rose, inserting herself into +what was left of the opening. "Will you kindly bear in mind that +we're totally unaccustomed to the doorstep?"</p> +<p>Amanda, doubtful, but unpractised in such a situation, permitted +herself, in spite of having as she well knew the whole of free and +equal America behind her, to be cowed. Well, perhaps not cowed, but +taken aback. It was the long words and the awful politeness that +did it. She wasn't used to beautiful long words like that, except +on Sundays when the clergyman read the prayers in church, and she +wasn't used to politeness. That so much of it should come out of +objects so young rendered Amanda temporarily dumb.</p> +<p>She wavered with the door. Instantly Anna-Rose slipped through +it; instantly Anna-Felicitas followed her.</p> +<p>"Kindly tell your master the Miss Twinklers have <a name= +"Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>arrived," said Anna-Rose, looking +every inch a Junker. There weren't many inches of Anna-Rose, but +every one of them at that moment, faced by Amanda's want of +discipline, was sheer Junker.</p> +<p>Amanda, who had never met a Junker in her happy democratic life, +was stirred into bristling emotion by the word master. She was +about to fling the insult of it from her by an impetuous and +ill-considered assertion that if he was her master she was his +mistress and so there now, when the bell which had rung once +already since they had been standing parleying rang again and more +impatiently, and the dining-room door opened and a head appeared. +The twins didn't know that it was Edith's head, but it was.</p> +<p>"Amanda—" began Edith, in the appealing voice that was the +nearest she ever dared get to rebuke without Amanda giving notice; +but she stopped on seeing what, in the dusk of the hall, looked +like a crowd. "Oh—" said Edith, taken aback. "Oh—" And +was for withdrawing her head and shutting the door.</p> +<p>But the twins advanced towards her and the stream of light +shining behind her and the agreeable smell streaming past her, with +outstretched hands.</p> +<p>"How do you do," they both said cordially. "<i>Don't</i> go away +again."</p> +<p>Edith, feeling that here was something to protect her quietly +feeding mother from, came rather hastily through the door and held +it to behind her, while her unresponsive and surprised hand was +taken and shaken even as Mr. Sack's had been.</p> +<p>"We've come to see Mr. Twist," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"He's our friend," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"He's our best friend," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Is he in there?" asked Anna-Felicitas, appreciatively <a name= +"Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>moving her nose, a particularly +delicate instrument, round among the various really heavenly smells +that were issuing from the dining-room and sorting them out and +guessing what they probably represented, the while water rushed +into her mouth.</p> +<p>The sound of a chair being hastily pushed back was heard and Mr. +Twist suddenly appeared in the doorway.</p> +<p>"What is it, Edward?" a voice inside said.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was a pale man, whose skin under no circumstances +changed colour except in his ears. These turned red when he was +stirred, and they were red now, and seemed translucent with the +bright light behind him shining through them.</p> +<p>The twins flew to him. It was wonderful how much pleased they +were to see him again. It was as if for years they had been +separated from their dearest friend. The few hours since the night +before had been enough to turn their friendship and esteem for him +into a warm proprietary affection. They felt that Mr. Twist +belonged to them. Even Anna-Felicitas felt it, and her eyes as she +beheld him were bright with pleasure.</p> +<p>"Oh there you are," cried Anna-Rose darting forward, gladness in +her voice, and catching hold of his arm.</p> +<p>"We've come," said Anna-Felicitas, beaming and catching hold of +his other arm.</p> +<p>"We got into difficulties," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"We got into them at once," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"They weren't our difficulties—"</p> +<p>"They were the Sacks'—"</p> +<p>"But they reacted on us—"</p> +<p>"And so here we are."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>Who is it, Edward?" asked +the voice inside.</p> +<p>"Mrs. Sack ran away yesterday from Mr. Sack," went on Anna-Rose +eagerly.</p> +<p>"Mr. Sack was still quite warm and moist from it when we got +there," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Aunt Alice said we weren't ever to stay in a house where they +did that," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Where there wasn't a lady," said Anna-Felicitas</p> +<p>"So when we saw that she wasn't there because she'd gone, we +turned straight round to you," said Anna. Rose.</p> +<p>"Like flowers turning to the sun," said Anna-Felicitas, even in +that moment of excitement not without complacency at her own +aptness.</p> +<p>"And left our things at the station," Anna-Rose rushed on.</p> +<p>"And ran practically the whole way," said Anna-Felicitas, +"because of perhaps being late for supper and you're having eaten +it all, and we so dreadfully hungry—"</p> +<p>"Who is it, Edward?" again called the voice inside, louder and +more insistently.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist didn't answer. He was quickly turning over the +situation in his mind.</p> +<p>He had not mentioned the twins to his mother, which would have +been natural, seeing how very few hours he had of reunion with her, +if she hadn't happened to have questioned him particularly as to +his fellow-passengers on the boat. Her questions had been confined +to the first-class passengers, and he had said, truthfully, that he +had hardly spoken to one of them, and not at all to any of the +women.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist had been relieved, for she lived in dread of Edward's +becoming, as she put it to herself, entangled <a name="Page_171" +id="Page_171"></a>with ladies. Sin would be bad enough—for +Mrs. Twist was obliged reluctantly to know that even with ladies it +is possible to sin—but marriage for Edward would be even +worse, because it lasted longer. Sin, terrible though it was, had +at least this to be said for it, that it could be repented of and +done with, and repentance after all was a creditable activity; but +there was no repenting of marriage with any credit. It was a holy +thing, and you don't repent of holy things,—at least, you +oughtn't to. If, as ill-advised young men so often would, Edward +wanted as years went on to marry in spite of his already having an +affectionate and sympathetic home with feminine society in it, then +it seemed to Mrs. Twist most important, most vital to the future +comfort of the family, that it should be someone she had chosen +herself. She had observed him from infancy, and knew much better +than he what was needed for his happiness; and she also knew, if +there must be a wife, what was needed for the happiness of his +mother and sister. She had not thought to inquire about the +second-class passengers, for it never occurred to her that a son of +hers could drift out of his natural first-class sphere into the +slums of a ship, and Mr. Twist had seen no reason for hurrying the +Twinklers into her mental range. Not during those first hours, +anyhow. There would be plenty of hours, and he felt that sufficient +unto the day would be the Twinklers thereof.</p> +<p>But the part that was really making his ears red was that he had +said nothing about the evening with the twins in New York. When his +mother asked with the fondness of the occasion what had detained +him, he said as many another honest man, pressed by the searching +affection of relations, has said before him, <a name="Page_172" id= +"Page_172"></a>that it was business. Now it appeared that he would +have to go into the dining-room and say, "No. It wasn't business. +It was these."</p> +<p>His ears glowed just to think of it. He hated to lie. Specially +he hated to have lied,—at the moment, one plunged in spurred +by sudden necessity, and then was left sorrowfully contemplating +one's degradation. His own desire was always to be candid; but his +mother, he well knew, could not bear the pains candour gave her. +She had been so terribly hurt, so grievously wounded when, fresh +from praying,—for before he went to Harvard he used to +pray—he had on one or two occasions for a few minutes +endeavoured not to lie to her that sheer fright at the effect of +his unfiliality made him apologize and beg her to forget it and +forgive him. Now she was going to be still more wounded by his +having lied.</p> +<p>The meticulous tortuousness of family life struck Mr. Twist with +a sudden great impatience. After that large life over there in +France, to come back to this dreary petticoat lying, this feeling +one's way about among tender places ...</p> +<p>"Who is it, Edward?" called the voice inside for the third +time.</p> +<p>"There's someone in there seems quite particularly to want to +know who we are," said Anna-Felicitas. "Why not tell her?"</p> +<p>"I expect it's your mother," said Anna-Rose, feeling the full +satisfaction of having got to a house from which the lady hadn't +run anywhere.</p> +<p>"It is," said Mr. Twist briefly.</p> +<p>"Edith!" called the voice, much more peremptorily.</p> +<p>Edith started and half went in, but hesitated and quite stayed +out. She was gazing at the Twinklers <a name="Page_173" id= +"Page_173"></a>with the same kind eyes her brother had, but without +the disfiguring spectacles. Astonishment and perplexity and anxiety +were mixed with the kindness. Amanda also gazed; and if the twins +hadn't been so sure of their welcome, even they might gradually +have begun to perceive that it wasn't exactly open-armed.</p> +<p>"Edith—Edward—Amanda," called the voice, this time +with unmistakable anger.</p> +<p>For one more moment Mr. Twist stood uncertain, looking down at +the happy confident faces turned up to him exactly, as +Anna-Felicitas had just said, like flowers turning to the sun. +Visions of France flashed before him, visions of what he had known, +what he had just come back from. His friends over there, the gay +courage, the helpfulness, the ready, uninquiring affection, the +breadth of outlook, the quick friendliness, the careless assumption +that one was decent, that one's intentions were good,—why +shouldn't he pull some of the splendid stuff into his poor, lame +little home? Why should he let himself drop back from heights like +those to the old ridiculous timidities, the miserable habit of +avoiding the truth? Rebellion, hope, determination, seized Mr. +Twist. His eyes shone behind his spectacles. His ears were two red +flags of revolution. He gripped hold of the twins, one under each +arm.</p> +<p>"You come right in," he said, louder than he had ever spoken in +his life. "Edith, see these girls? They're the two Annas. Their +other name is Twinkler, but Anna'll see you through. They want +supper, and they want beds, and they want affection, and they're +going to get it all. So hustle with the food, and send the Cadillac +for their baggage, and fix up things for them as comfortably as you +know how. And as for Mrs. Sack," he said, looking first at one twin +and then <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>at the other, "if it +hadn't been for her running away from her worthless +husband—I'm convinced that fellow Sack is worthless—you +might never have come here at all. So you see," he finished, +laughing at Anna-Rose, "how good comes out of evil."</p> +<p>And with the sound of these words preceding him he pushed open +the dining-room door and marched them in.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><a name="Page_175" +id="Page_175"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> +<p>At the head of the table sat his mother; long, straight, and +grave. She was in the seat of authority, the one with its back to +the windows and its face to the door, from whence she could see +what everybody did, especially Amanda. Having seen what Amanda did, +she then complained to Edith. She didn't complain direct to Amanda, +because Amanda could and did give notice.</p> +<p>Her eyes were fixed on the door. Between it and her was the +table, covered with admirable things to eat, it being supper and +therefore, according to a Twist tradition surviving from penurious +days, all the food, hot and cold, sweet and salt, being brought in +together, and Amanda only attending when rung for. Half-eaten +oyster patties lay on Mrs. Twist's plate. In her glass neglected +champagne had bubbled itself flat. Her hand still held her fork, +but loosely, as an object that had lost its interest, and her eyes +and ears for the last five minutes had not departed from the +door.</p> +<p>At first she had felt mere resigned annoyance that Amanda +shouldn't have answered the bell, but she didn't wish to cast a +shadow over Edward's homecoming by drawing poor Edith's attention +before him to how very badly she trained the helps, and therefore +she said nothing at the moment; then, when Edith, going in search +of Amanda, had opened the door and let in sounds of argument, she +was surprised, for she knew no one so intimately that they would be +likely to <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>call at such an +hour; but when Edward too leapt up, and went out and stayed out and +failed to answer her repeated calls, she was first astonished, then +indignant, and then suddenly was overcome by a cold foreboding.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist often had forebodings, and they were always cold. +They seized her with bleak fingers; and one of Edith's chief +functions was to comfort and reassure her for as long a while each +time as was required to reach the stage of being able to shake them +off. Here was one, however, too icily convincing to be shaken off. +It fell upon her with the swiftness of a revelation. Something +unpleasant was going to happen to her; something perhaps worse than +unpleasant,—disastrous. And something immediate.</p> +<p>Those excited voices out in the hall,—they were young, +surely, and they were feminine. Also they sounded most intimate +with Edward. What had he been concealing from her? What +disgracefulness had penetrated through him, through the son the +neighbourhood thought so much of, into her very home? She was a +widow. He was her only son. Impossible to believe he would betray +so sacred a position, that he whom she had so lovingly and proudly +welcomed a few hours before would allow his—well, she really +didn't know what to call them, but anyhow female friends of whom +she had been told nothing, to enter that place which to every +decent human being is inviolable, his mother's home. Yet Mrs. Twist +did instantly believe it.</p> +<p>Then Edward's voice, raised and defiant—surely +defiant?—came through the crack in the door, and every word +he said was quite distinct. Anna; supper; affection ... Mrs. Twist +sat frozen. And then <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>the door +was flung open and Edward tumultuously entered, his ears crimson, +his face as she had never seen it and in each hand, held tightly by +the arm, a girl.</p> +<p>Edward had been deceiving her.</p> +<p>"Mother—" he began.</p> +<p>"How do you do," said the girls together, and actually with +smiles.</p> +<p>Edward had been deceiving her. That whole afternoon how quiet he +had been, how listless. Quite gentle, quite affectionate, but +listless and untalkative. She had thought he must be tired; worn +out with his long journey across from Europe. She had made +allowances for him; been sympathetic, been considerate. And look at +him now. Never had she seen him with a face like that. He +was—Mrs. Twist groped for the word and reluctantly found +it—rollicking. Yes; that was the word that exactly described +him—rollicking. If she hadn't observed his languor up to a +few minutes ago at supper, and seen him with her own eyes refuse +champagne and turn his back on cocktails, she would have been +forced to the conclusion, dreadful though it was to a mother, that +he had been drinking. And the girls! Two of them. And so young.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist had known Edward, as she sometimes informed Edith, +all his life, and had not yet found anything in his morals which +was not blameless. Watch him with what loving care she might she +had found nothing; and she was sure her mother's instinct would not +have failed her. Nevertheless, even with that white past before +her—he hadn't told her about "Madame Bovary"—she now +instantly believed the worst.</p> +<p>It was the habit of Clark to believe the worst. Clark was very +small, and therefore also very virtuous. Each inhabitant was the +careful guardian of his neigh<a name="Page_178" id= +"Page_178"></a>hour's conduct. Nobody there ever did anything that +was wrong; there wasn't a chance. But as Nature insists on a +balance, the minds of Clark dwelt curiously on evil. They were +minds active in suspicion. They leapt with an instantaneous agility +at the worst conclusions. Nothing was ever said in Clark, but +everything was thought. The older inhabitants, made fast prisoners +in their mould of virtue by age, watched with jealous care the +behaviour of those still young enough to attract temptation. The +younger ones, brought up in inhibitions, settled down to +wakefulness in regard to each other. Everything was provided and +encouraged in Clark, a place of pleasant orchards and gentle +fields, except the things that had to do with love. Husbands were +there; and there was a public library, and social afternoons, and +an Emerson society. The husbands died before the wives, being less +able to cope with virtue; and a street in Clark of smaller houses +into which their widows gravitated had been christened by the +stationmaster—a more worldly man because of his three miles +off and all the trains—Lamentation Lane.</p> +<p>In this village Mrs. Twist had lived since her marriage, full of +dignity and honour. As a wife she had been full of it, for the +elder Mr. Twist had been good even when alive, and as a widow she +had been still fuller, for the elder Mr. Twist positively improved +by being dead. Not a breath had ever touched her and her children. +Not the most daring and distrustful Clark mind had ever thought of +her except respectfully. And now here was this happening to her; at +her age; when she was least able to bear it.</p> +<p>She sat in silence, staring with sombre eyes at the three +figures.</p> +<p>"Mother—" began Edward again; but was again <a name= +"Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>interrupted by the twins, who said +together, as they had now got into the habit of saying when +confronted by silent and surprised Americans, "We've come."</p> +<p>It wasn't that they thought it a particularly good +conversational opening, it was because silence and surprise on the +part of the other person seemed to call for explanation on theirs, +and they were constitutionally desirous of giving all the +information in their power.</p> +<p>"How do you do," they then repeated, loosening themselves from +Mr. Twist and advancing down the room with outstretched hands.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist came with them. "Mother," he said, "these are the +Twinkler girls. Their name's Twinkler. They—-"</p> +<p>Freed as he felt he was from his old bonds, determined as he +felt he was on emulating the perfect candour and simplicity of the +twins and the perfect candour and simplicity of his comrades in +France, his mother's dead want of the smallest reaction to this +announcement tripped him up for a moment and prevented his going +on.</p> +<p>But nothing ever prevented the twins going on. If they were +pleased and excited they went on with cheerful gusto, and if they +were unnerved and frightened they still went on,—perhaps even +more volubly, anxiously seeking cover behind a multitude of +words.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist had not yet unnerved and frightened them, because +they were too much delighted that they had got to her at all. The +relief Anna-Rose experienced at having safely piloted that +difficult craft, the clumsy if adorable Columbus, into a +respectable Port was so immense that it immediately vented itself +in words of warmest welcome to the lady in the chair to her own +home.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>We're <i>so</i> glad to +see you here," she said, smiling till her dimple seemed to be +everywhere at once hardly able to refrain from giving the lady a +welcome hug instead of just inhospitably shaking her hand. She +couldn't even shake her hand, however, because it still held, +immovably, the fork. "It would have been too awful," Anna-Rose +therefore finished, putting the heartiness of the handshake she +wanted to give into her voice instead, "if <i>you</i> had happened +to have run away too."</p> +<p>"As Mrs. Sack has done from her husband," Anna-Felicitas +explained, smiling too, benevolently, at the black lady who +actually having got oyster patties on her plate hadn't bothered to +eat them. "But of course you couldn't," she went on, remembering in +time to be tactful and make a Sympathetic reference to the lady's +weeds; which, indeed, considering Mr. Twist had told her and +Anna-Rose that his father had died when he was ten, nearly a +quarter of a century ago, seemed to have kept their heads up +astonishingly and stayed very fresh. And true to her German +training, and undaunted by the fork, she did that which Anna-Rose +in her contentment had forgotten, and catching up Mrs. Twist's +right hand, fork and all, to her lips gave it the brief ceremonious +kiss of a well brought up Junker.</p> +<p>Like Amanda's, Mrs. Twist's life had been up to this empty of +Junkers. She had never even heard of them till the war, and +pronounced their name, and so did the rest of Clark following her +lead, as if it had been junket, only with an r instead of a t at +the end. She didn't therefore recognize the action; but even she, +outraged as she was, could not but see its grace. And looking up in +sombre hostility at the little head bent over her hand and at the +dark line of eyelashes on the <a name="Page_181" id= +"Page_181"></a>the flushed face, she thought swiftly, "<i>She's</i> +the one."</p> +<p>"You see, mother," said Mr. Twist, pulling a chair vigorously +and sitting on it with determination, "it's like this. (Sit down, +you two, and get eating. Start on anything you see in this show +that hits your fancy. Edith'll be fetching you something hot, I +expect—soup, or something—but meanwhile here's enough +stuff to go on with.) You see, mother—" he resumed, turning +squarely to her, while the twins obeyed him with immense alacrity +and sat down and began to eat whatever happened to be nearest them, +"these two girls—well, to start with they're +twins—-"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was stopped again by his mother's face. She couldn't +conceive why he should lie. Twins the world over matched in size +and features; it was notorious that they did. Also, it was the +custom for them to match in age, and the tall one of these was at +least a year older than the other one. But still, thought Mrs. +Twist, let that pass. She would suffer whatever it was she had to +suffer in silence.</p> +<p>The twins too were silent, because they were so busy eating. +Perfectly at home under the wing they knew so well, they behaved +with an easy naturalness that appeared to Mrs. Twist outrageous. +But still—let that too pass. These strangers helped +themselves and helped each other, as if everything belonged to +them; and the tall one actually asked her—her, the mistress +of the house—if she could get <i>her</i> anything. Well, let +that pass too.</p> +<p>"You see, mother—" began Mr. Twist again.</p> +<p>He was finding it extraordinarily difficult. What a tremendous +hold one's early training had on one, he reflected, casting about +for words; what a deeply <a name="Page_182" id= +"Page_182"></a>rooted fear there was in one, subconscious, lurking +in one's foundations, of one's mother, of her authority, of her +quickly wounded affection. Those Jesuits, with their conviction +that they could do what they liked with a man if they had had the +bringing up of him till he was seven, were pretty near the truth. +It took a lot of shaking off, the unquestioning awe, the habit of +obedience of one's childhood.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist sat endeavouring to shake it off. He also tried to +bolster himself up by thinking he might perhaps be able to assist +his mother to come out from her narrowness, and discover too how +warm and glorious the sun shone outside, where people loved and +helped each other. Then he rejected that as priggish.</p> +<p>"You see, mother," he started again, "I came across +them—across these two girls—they're both called Anna, +by the way, which seems confusing but isn't really—I came +across them on the boat——"</p> +<p>He again stopped dead.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist had turned her dark eyes to him. They had been fixed +on Anna-Felicitas, and on what she was doing with the dish of +oyster patties in front of her. What she was doing was not what +Mrs. Twist was accustomed to see done at her table. Anna-Felicitas +was behaving badly with the patties, and not even attempting to +conceal, as the decent do, how terribly they interested her.</p> +<p>"You came across them on the boat," repeated Mrs. Twist, her +eyes on her son, moved in spite of her resolution to speech. And he +had told her that very afternoon that he had spoken to nobody +except men. Another lie. Well, let that pass too ...</p> +<p>Mr. Twist sat staring back at her through his big gleaming +spectacles. He well knew the weakness of <a name="Page_183" id= +"Page_183"></a>his position from his mother's point of view; but +why should she have such a point of view, such a niggling, narrow +one, determined to stay angry and offended because he had been +stupid enough to continue, under the influence of her presence, the +old system of not being candid with her, of being slavishly anxious +to avoid offending? Let her try for once to understand and forgive. +Let her for once take the chance offered her of doing a big, kind +thing. But as he stared at her it entered his mind that he couldn't +very well start moving her heart on behalf of the twins in their +presence. He couldn't tell her they were orphans, alone in the +world, helpless, poor, and so unfortunately German, with them +sitting there. If he did, there would be trouble. The twins seemed +absorbed for the moment in getting fed, but he had no doubt their +ears were attentive, and at the first suggestion of sympathy being +invoked for them they would begin to say a few of those things he +was so much afraid his mother mightn't be able to understand. Or, +if she understood, appreciate.</p> +<p>He decided that he would be quiet until Edith came back, and +then ask his mother to go to the drawing-room with him, and while +Edith was looking after the Annas he would, well out of earshot, +explain them to his mother, describe their situation, commend them +to her patience and her love. He sat silent therefore, wishing +extraordinarily hard that Edith would be quick.</p> +<p>But Anna-Felicitas's eyes were upon him now, as well as his +mother's. "Is it possible," she asked with her own peculiar +gentleness, balancing a piece of patty on her fork, "that you +haven't yet mentioned us to your mother?"</p> +<p><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>And Anna-Rose, struck in +her turn at such an omission, paused too with food on the way to +her mouth, and said, "And we such friends?"</p> +<p>"Almost, as it were, still red-not from being with you?" said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Both the twins looked at Mrs. Twist in their surprise.</p> +<p>"I thought the first thing everybody did when they got back to +their mother," said Anna-Rose, addressing her, "was to tell her +everything from the beginning."</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist, after an instant's astonishment at this unexpected +support, bowed her head—it could hardly be called a +nod—in her son's direction. "You see—" the movement +seemed to say, "even these ..."</p> +<p>"And ever since the first day at sea," said Anna-Felicitas, also +addressing Mrs. Twist, "up to as recently as eleven o'clock last +night, he has been what I think can be quite accurately described +as our faithful two-footed companion."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose. "As much as that we've been friends. +Practically inseparable."</p> +<p>"So that it really is <i>very</i> surprising," said +Anna-Felicitas to Mr. Twist, "that you didn't tell your mother +about us."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist got up. He wouldn't wait for Edith. It was unhealthy +in that room.</p> +<p>He took his mother's arm and helped her to get up. "You're very +wise, you two," he flung at the twins in the voice of the goaded, +"but you may take it from me you don't know everything yet. Mother, +come into the drawing-room, and we'll talk. Edith'll see to these +girls. I expect I ought to have talked sooner," he went on, as he +led her to the door, "but confound it all, I've only been home +about a couple of hours."</p> +<p>"Five," said Mrs. Twist.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>Five then. What's five? No +time at all."</p> +<p>"Ample," said Mrs Twist; adding icily, "and did I you say +confound, Edward?"</p> +<p>"Well, damn then," said Edward very loud, in a rush of rank +rebellion.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><a name="Page_186" +id="Page_186"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> +<p>This night was the turning-point in Mr. Twist's life. In it he +broke loose from his mother. He spent a terrible three hours with +her in the drawing-room, and the rest of the night he strode up and +down his bedroom. The autumn morning, creeping round the house in +long white wisps, found him staring out of his window very pale, +his mouth pulled together as tight as it would go.</p> +<p>His mother had failed him. She had not understood. And not only +simply not understood, but she had said things when at last she did +speak, after he had explained and pleaded for at least an hour, of +an incredible bitterness and injustice. She had seemed to hate him. +If she hadn't been his mother Mr. Twist would have been certain she +hated him, but he still believed that mothers couldn't hate their +children. It was stark against nature; and Mr. Twist still believed +in the fundamental rightness of that which is called nature. She +had accused him of gross things—she, his mother, who from her +conversation since he could remember was unaware, he had judged, of +the very existence of such things. Those helpless children ... Mr. +Twist stamped as he strode. Well, he had made her take that back; +and indeed she had afterwards admitted that she said it in her +passion of grief and disappointment, and that it was evident these +girls were not like that.</p> +<p>But before they reached that stage, for the first time <a name= +"Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>in his life he had been saying +straight out what he wanted to say to his mother just as if she had +been an ordinary human being. He told her all he knew of the twins, +asked her to take them in for the present and be good to them, and +explained the awkwardness of their position, apart from its +tragedy, as Germans by birth stranded in New England, where opinion +at that moment was so hostile to Germans. Then, continuing in +candour, he had told his mother that here was her chance of doing a +fine and beautiful thing, and it was at this point that Mrs. Twist +suddenly began, on her side, to talk.</p> +<p>She had listened practically in silence to the rest; had only +started when he explained the girls' nationality; but when he came +to offering her these girls as the great opportunity of her life to +do something really good at last, she, who felt she had been doing +nothing else but noble and beautiful things, and doing them with +the most single-minded devotion to duty and the most consistent +disregard of inclination, could keep silence no longer. Had she not +borne her great loss without a murmur? Had she not devoted all her +years to bringing up her son to be a good man? Had she ever +considered herself? Had she ever flagged in her efforts to set an +example of patience in grief, of dignity in misfortune? She began +to speak. And just as amazed as she had been at the things this +strange, unknown son had been saying to her and at the manner of +their delivery, so was he amazed at the things this strange, +unknown mother was saying to him, and at the manner of their +delivery.</p> +<p>Yet his amazement was not so great after all as hers. Because +for years, away down hidden somewhere inside him, he had doubted +his mother; for years he had, <a name="Page_188" id= +"Page_188"></a>shocked at himself, covered up and trampled on these +unworthy doubts indignantly. He had doubted her unselfishness; he +had doubted her sympathy and kindliness; he had even doubted her +honesty, her ordinary honesty with money and accounts; and lately, +before he went to Europe, he had caught himself thinking she was +cruel. Nevertheless this unexpected naked justification of his +doubts was shattering to him.</p> +<p>But Mrs. Twist had never doubted Edward. She thought she knew +him inside out. She had watched him develop. Watched him during the +long years of his unconsciousness. She had been quite secure; and +rather disposed, also somewhere down inside her, to a contempt for +him, so easy had he been to manage, so ready to do everything she +wished. Now it appeared that she no more knew Edward than if he had +been a stranger in the street.</p> +<p>The bursting of the dykes of convention between them was a +horrible thing to them both. Mr. Twist had none of the cruelty of +the younger generation to support him: he couldn't shrug his +shoulder and take comfort in the thought that this break between +them was entirely his mother's fault, for however much he believed +it to be her fault the belief merely made him wretched; he had none +of the pitiless black pleasure to be got from telling himself it +served her right. So naturally kind was he—weak, soft, +stupid, his mother shook out at him—that through all his own +shame at this naked vision of what had been carefully dressed up +for years in dignified clothes of wisdom and affection, he was +actually glad, when he had time in his room to think it over, glad +she should be so passionately positive that he, and only he, was in +the wrong. It would save her from humiliation; and of the painful +things of late <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>Mr. Twist could +least bear to see a human being humiliated.</p> +<p>That was, however, towards morning. For hours raged, striding +about his room, sorting out the fragments into which his life as a +son had fallen, trying to fit them into some sort of a pattern, to +see clear about the future. Clearer. Not clear. He couldn't hope +for that yet. The future seemed one confused lump. All he could see +really clear of it was that he was going, next day, and taking the +twins. He would take them to the other people they had a letter to, +the people in California, and then turn his face back to Europe, to +the real thing, to the greatness of life where death is. Not an +hour longer than he could help would he or they stay in that house. +He had told his mother he would go away, and she had said, "I hope +never to see you again." Who would have thought she had so much of +passion in her? Who would have thought he had so much of it in +him?</p> +<p>Fury against her injustice shook and shattered Mr. Twist. Not so +could fair and affectionate living together be conducted, on that +basis of suspicion, distrust, jealousy. Through his instinct, +though not through his brain, shot the conviction that his mother +was jealous of the twins,—jealous of the youth of the twins, +and of their prettiness, and goodness, and of the power, unknown to +them, that these things gave them. His brain was impervious to such +a conviction, because it was an innocent brain, and the idea would +never have entered it that a woman of his mother's age, well over +sixty, could be jealous in that way; but his instinct knew it.</p> +<p>The last thing his mother said as he left the drawing-room was, +"You have killed me. You have <a name="Page_190" id= +"Page_190"></a>killed your own mother. And just because of those +girls."</p> +<p>And Mr. Twist, shocked at this parting shot of unfairness, could +find, search as he might, nothing to be said for his mother's point +of view. It simply wasn't true. It simply was delusion.</p> +<p>Nor could she find anything to be said for his, but then she +didn't try to, it was so manifestly unforgivable. All she could do, +faced by this bitter sorrow, was to leave Edward to God. Sternly, +as he flung out of the room at last, unsoftened, untouchable, deaf +to her even when she used the tone he had always obeyed the tone of +authority, she said to herself she must leave her son to God. God +knew. God would judge. And Clark too would know; and Clark too +would judge.</p> +<p>Left alone in the drawing-room on this terrible night of her +second great bereavement, Mrs. Twist was yet able, she was thankful +to feel, to resolve she would try to protect her son as long as she +could from Clark. From God she could not, if she would, protect +him; but she would try to protect him even now, as she had always +protected him, from earthly harm and hurt. Clark would, however, +surely know in time, protect as she might, and judge between her +and Edward. God knew already, and was already judging. God and +Clark.... Poor Edward.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><a name= +"Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> +<p>The twins, who had gone to bed at half-past nine, shepherded by +Edith, in the happy conviction that they had settled down +comfortably for some time, were surprised to find at breakfast that +they hadn't.</p> +<p>They had taken a great fancy to Edith, in spite of a want of +restfulness on her part that struck them while they were finishing +their supper, and to which at last they drew her attention. She was +so kind, and so like Mr. Twist; but though she looked at them with +hospitable eyes and wore an expression of real benevolence, it +didn't escape their notice that she seemed to be listening to +something that wasn't, anyhow, them, and to be expecting something +that didn't, anyhow, happen. She went several times to the door +through which her brother and mother had disappeared, and out into +whatever part of the house lay beyond it, and when she came back +after a minute or two was as wanting in composure as ever.</p> +<p>At last, finding these abrupt and repeated interruptions +hindered any real talk, they pointed out to her that reasoned +conversation was impossible if one of the parties persisted in not +being in the room, and inquired of her whether it were peculiar to +her, or typical of the inhabitants of America, to keep on being +somewhere else. Edith smiled abstractedly at them, said nothing, +and went out again.</p> +<p>She was longer away this time, and the twins having <a name= +"Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>eaten, among other things, a great +many meringues, grew weary of sitting with those they hadn't eaten +lying on the dish in front of them reminding them of those they +had. They wanted, having done with meringues, to get away from them +and forget them. They wanted to go into another room now, where +there weren't any. Anna-Felicitas felt, and told Anna-Rose who was +staring listlessly at the left-over meringues, that it was like +having committed murder, and being obliged to go on looking at the +body long after you were thoroughly tired of it. Anna-Rose agreed, +and said that she wished now she hadn't committed +meringues,—anyhow so many of them.</p> +<p>Then at last Edith came back, and told them she was sure they +were very tired after their long day, and suggested their going +upstairs to their rooms. The rooms were ready, said Edith, the +baggage had come, and she was sure they would like to have nice hot +baths and go to bed.</p> +<p>The twins obeyed her readily, and she checked a desire on their +part to seek out her mother and brother first and bid them +good-night, on the ground that her mother and brother were busy; +and while the twins were expressing polite regret, and requesting +her to convey their regret for them to the proper quarter in a flow +of well-chosen words that astonished Edith, who didn't know how +naturally Junkers make speeches, she hurried them by the +drawing-room door through which, shut though it was, came sounds of +people being, as Anna-Felicitas remarked, very busy indeed; and +Anna-Rose, impressed by the quality and volume of Mr. Twist's voice +as it reached her passing ears, told Edith that intimately as she +knew her brother she had never known him as busy as that +before.</p> +<p><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>Edith said nothing, but +continued quickly up the stairs.</p> +<p>They found they each had a bedroom, with a door between, and +that each bedroom had a bathroom of its own, which filled them with +admiration and pleasure. There had only been one bathroom at Uncle +Arthur's, and at home in Pomerania there hadn't been any at all. +The baths there had been vessels brought into one's bedroom every +night, into which servants next morning poured water out of +buckets, having previously pumped the water into the bucket from +the pump in the backyard. They put Edith in possession of these +facts while she helped them unpack and brushed and plaited their +hair for them, and she was much astonished,—both at the +conditions of discomfort and slavery they revealed as prevalent in +other countries, and at the fact that they, the Twinklers, should +hail from Pomerania.</p> +<p>Pomerania, reflected Edith as she tied up their pigtails with +the ribbons handed to her for that purpose, used to be in Germany +when she went to school, and no doubt still was. She became more +thoughtful than ever, though she still smiled at them, for how +could she help it? Everyone, Edith was certain, must needs smile at +the Twinklers even if they didn't happen to be one's own dear +brother's <i>protegees</i>. And when they came out, very clean and +with scrubbed pink ears, from their bath, she not only smiled at +them as she tucked them up in bed, but she kissed them +good-night.</p> +<p>Edith, like her brother, was born to be a mother,—one of +the satisfactory sort that keeps you warm and doesn't argue with +you. Germans or no Germans the Twinklers were the cutest little +things, thought Edith; and she kissed them, with the same hunger +with which, <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>being now +thirty-eight, she was beginning to kiss puppies.</p> +<p>"You remind me so of Mr. Twist," murmured Anna-Felicitas +sleepily, as Edith tucked her up and kissed her.</p> +<p>"You do all the sorts of things he does," murmured Anna-Rose, +also sleepily, when it was her turn to be tucked up and kissed; and +in spite of a habit now fixed in her of unquestioning acceptance +and uncritical faith. Edith went downstairs to her restless vigil +outside the drawing-room door a little surprised.</p> +<p>At breakfast the twins learnt to their astonishment that, though +appearances all pointed the other way what they were really doing +was not being stationary at all, but merely having a night's +lodging and breakfast between, as it were, two trains.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, who looked pale and said shortly when the twins +remarked solicitously on it that he felt pale, briefly announced +the fact.</p> +<p>"What?" exclaimed Anna-Rose, staring at Mr. Twist and then at +Edith—Mrs. Twist, they were told, was breakfasting in +bed—"Why, we've unpacked."</p> +<p>"You will re-pack," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>They found difficulty in believing their ears.</p> +<p>"But we've settled in," remonstrated Anna-Felicitas, after an +astonished pause.</p> +<p>"You will settle out," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>He frowned. He didn't look at them, he frowned at his own +teapot. He had made up his mind to be very short with the Annas +until they were safely out of the house, and not permit himself to +be entangled by them in controversy. Also, he didn't want to look +at them if he could help it. He was afraid that if he did he might +be unable not to take them both in his arms and beg their pardon +for the whole horridness of the world.</p> +<p><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>But if he didn't look at +them, they looked at him. Four round, blankly surprised eyes were +fixed, he knew, unblinkingly on him.</p> +<p>"We're seeing you in quite a new light," said Anna-Rose at last, +troubled and upset.</p> +<p>"Maybe," said Mr. Twist, frowning at his teapot.</p> +<p>"Perhaps you will be so good," said Anna-Felicitas stiffly, for +at all times she hated being stirred up and uprooted, "as to tell +us where you think we're going to."</p> +<p>"Because," said Anna-Rose, her voice trembling a little, not +only at the thought of fresh responsibilities, but also with a +sense of outraged faith, "our choice of residence, as you may have +observed, is strictly limited."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, who had spent an hour before breakfast with Edith, +whose eyes were red, informed them that they were <i>en route</i> +for California.</p> +<p>"To those other people," said Anna-Rose. "I see."</p> +<p>She held her head up straight.</p> +<p>"Well, I expect they'll be very glad to see us," she said after +a silence; and proceeded, her chin in the air, to look down her +nose, because she didn't want Mr. Twist, or Edith or +Anna-Felicitas, to notice that her eyes had gone and got tears in +them. She angrily wished she hadn't got such damp eyes. They were +no better than swamps, she thought—undrained swamps; and +directly fate's foot came down a little harder than usual, up oozed +the lamentable liquid. Not thus should the leader of an expedition +behave. Not thus, she was sure, did the original Christopher. She +pulled herself together; and after a minute's struggle was able to +leave off looking down her nose.</p> +<p>But meanwhile Anna-Felicitas had informed Mr. Twist with gentle +dignity that he was obviously tired of them.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>Not at all," said Mr. +Twist.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas persisted. "In view of the facts," she said +gently, "I'm afraid your denial carries no weight."</p> +<p>"The facts," said Mr. Twist, taking up his teapot and examining +it with care, "are that I'm coming with you."</p> +<p>"Oh are you," said Anna-Felicitas much more briskly; and it was +here that Anna-Rose's eyes dried up.</p> +<p>"That rather dishes your theory," said Mr. Twist, still turning +his teapot about in his hands. "Or would if it didn't happen that +I—well, I happen to have some business to do in California, +and I may as well do it now as later. Still, I could have gone by a +different route or train, so you see your theory <i>is</i> rather +dished, isn't it?"</p> +<p>"A little," admitted Anna-Felicitas. "Not altogether. Because if +you really like our being here, here we are. So why hurry us off +somewhere else so soon?"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist perceived that he was being led into controversy in +spite of his determination not to be. "You're very wise," he said +shortly, "but you don't know everything. Let us avoid conjecture +and stick to facts. I'm going to take you to California, and hand +you over to your friends. That's all you know, and all you need to +know."</p> +<p>"As Keats very nearly said," said Anna-Rose</p> +<p>"And if our friends have run away?" suggested +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Oh Lord," exclaimed Mr. Twist impatiently, putting the teapot +down with a bang, "do you think we're running away all the time in +America?"</p> +<p>"Well, I think you seem a little restless," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>Thus it was that two hours +later the twins found themselves at the Clark station once more, +once more starting into the unknown, just as if they had never done +it before, and gradually, as they adapted themselves to the sudden +change, such is the india-rubber-like quality of youth, almost with +the same hopefulness. Yet they couldn't but meditate, left alone on +the platform while Mr. Twist checked the baggage, on the mutability +of life. They seemed to live in a kaleidoscope since the war began +what a series of upheavals and readjustments had been theirs! +Silent, and a little apart on the Clark platform, they reflected +retrospectively; and as they counted up their various starts since +the days, only fourteen months ago, when they were still in their +home in Germany, apparently as safely rooted, as unshakably settled +as the pine trees in their own forests, they couldn't but wonder at +the elusiveness of the unknown, how it wouldn't let itself be +caught up with and at the trouble it was giving them.</p> +<p>They had had so many changes in the last year that they did want +now to have time to become familiar with some one place and people. +Already however, being seventeen, they were telling themselves, and +each other that after all, since the Sacks had failed them, +California was their real objective. Not Clark at all. Clark had +never been part of their plans. Uncle Arthur and Aunt Alice didn't +even know it existed. It was a side-show; just a little thing of +their own, an extra excursion slipped in between the Sacks and the +Delloggs. True they had hoped to stay there some time, perhaps even +for months,—anyhow, time to mend their stockings in, which +were giving way at the toes unexpectedly, seeing how new they were; +but ultimately California was the place they had to go to. <a name= +"Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>It was only that it was a little +upsetting to be whisked out of Clark at a moment's notice.</p> +<p>"I expect you'll explain everything to us when we're in the +train and have lots of time," Anna-Rose had said to Mr. Twist as +the car moved away from the house and Edith, red-eyed, waved her +handkerchief from the doorstep.</p> +<p>Mrs. Twist had not come down to say good-bye, and they had sent +her many messages.</p> +<p>"I expect I will," Mr. Twist had answered.</p> +<p>But it was not till they were the other side of Chicago that he +really began to be himself again. Up to then—all that first +day, and the next morning in New York where he took them to the +bank their £200 was in and saw that they got a cheque-book, +and all the day after that waiting in the Chicago hotel for the +train they were to go on in to California—Mr. Twist was +taciturn.</p> +<p>They left Chicago in the evening; a raw, wintery October evening +with cold rain in the air, and the twins, going early to bed in +their compartment, a place that seemed to them so enchanting that +their spirits couldn't fail to rise, saw no more of him till +breakfast next morning. They then noticed that the cloud had lifted +a little; and as the day went on it lifted still more. They were +going to be three days together in that train, and it would be +impossible for Mr. Twist, they were sure, to go on being taciturn +as long as that. It wasn't his nature. His nature was +conversational. And besides, shut up like that in a train, the +sheer getting tired of reading all day would make him want to +talk.</p> +<p>So after lunch, when they were all three on the platform of the +observation car, though there was nothing to observe except +limitless flat stretches of bleak and empty country, the twins +suggested that he should <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>now +begin to talk again. They pointed out that his body was bound to +get stiff on that long journey from want of exercise, but that his +mind needn't, and he had better stretch it by conversing agreeably +with them as he used to before the day, which seemed so curiously +long ago, when they landed in America.</p> +<p>"It does indeed seem long ago," agreed Mr. Twist, lighting +another cigarette. "I have difficulty in realizing it isn't a week +yet."</p> +<p>And he reflected that the Annas had managed to produce pretty +serious havoc in America considering they had only been in it five +days. He and his mother permanently estranged; Edith left alone at +Clark sitting there in the ruins of her loving preparations for his +return, with nothing at all that he could see to look forward to +and live for except the hourly fulfilment of what she regarded as +duty; every plan upset; the lives, indeed, of his mother and of his +sister and of himself completely altered,—it was a pretty big +bag in the time, he thought, flinging the match back towards +Chicago.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist felt sore. He felt like somebody who had had a bad +tumble, and is sore and a little dizzy; but he recognized that +these great ruptures cannot take place without aches and doubts. He +ached, and he doubted and he also knew through his aches and doubts +that he was free at last from what of late years he had so +grievously writhed under—the shame of pretence. And the +immediate cause of his being set free was, precisely, the +Annas.</p> +<p>It had been a violent, a painful setting free, but it had +happened; and who knew if, without their sudden appearance at Clark +and the immediate effect they produced on his mother, he wouldn't +have lapsed after all, in spite of the feelings and determinations +he had <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>brought back with him +from Europe, into the old ways again under the old influence, and +gone on ignobly pretending to agree, to approve, to enjoy, to love, +when he was never for an instant doing anything of the sort? He +might have trailed on like that for years—Mr. Twist didn't +like the picture of his own weakness, but he was determined to look +at himself as he was—trailed along languidly when he was at +home, living another life when he was away, getting what he +absolutely must have, the irreducible minimum of personal freedom +necessary to sanity, by means of small and shabby deceits. My +goodness, how he hated deceits, how tired he was of the littleness +of them!</p> +<p>He turned his head and looked at the profiles of the Annas +sitting alongside him. His heart suddenly grew warm within him. +They had on the blue caps again which made them look so bald and +cherubic, and their eyes were fixed on the straight narrowing lines +of rails that went back and back to a point in the distance. The +dear little things; the dear, dear little things,—so +straightforward, so blessedly straight and simple, thought Mr. +Twist. Fancy his mother losing a chance like this. Fancy +<i>anybody</i>, thought the affectionate and kind man, missing an +opportunity of helping such unfortunately placed children.</p> +<p>The twins felt he was looking at them, and together they turned +and looked at him. When they saw his expression they knew the cloud +had lifted still more, and their faces broke into broad smiles of +welcome.</p> +<p>"It's pleasant to see you back again," said Anna-Felicitas +heartily, who was next to him.</p> +<p>"We've missed you very much," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"It hasn't been like the same place, the world hasn't," said +Anna-Felicitas, "since you've been away."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>Since you walked out of +the dining-room that night at Clark," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Of course we know you can't always be with us," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Which we deeply regret," interjected Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"But while you are with us," said Anna-Felicitas, "for these +last few days, I would suggest that we should be happy. As happy as +we used to be on the <i>St. Luke</i> when we weren't being +sea-sick." And she thought she might even go so far as to enjoy +hearing the "Ode to Dooty," now.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose, leaning forward. "In three days we shall +have disappeared into the maw of the Delloggs. Do let us be happy +while we can. Who knows what their maw will be like? But whatever +it's like," she added firmly, "we're going to stick in it."</p> +<p>"And perhaps," said Anna-Felicitas, "now that you're a little +restored to your normal condition, you'll tell us what has been the +matter."</p> +<p>"For it's quite clear," said Anna-Rose, "that something +<i>has</i> been the matter."</p> +<p>"We've been talking it over," said Anna-Felicitas, "and putting +two and two together, and perhaps you'll tell us what it was, and +then we shall know if we're right."</p> +<p>"Perhaps I will," said Mr. Twist, cogitating, as he continued +benevolently to gaze at them. "Let's see—" He hesitated, and +pushed his hat off his forehead. "I wonder if you'd +understand—"</p> +<p>"We'll give our minds to it," Anna-Felicitas assured him.</p> +<p>"These caps make us look more stupid than we are," Anna-Rose +assured him, deducing her own appearance from that of +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>Encouraged, but doubtful of +their capabilities of comprehension on this particular point, Mr. +Twist embarked rather gingerly on his explanations. He was going to +be candid from now on for the rest of his days, but the preliminary +plunges were, he found, after all a little difficult. Even with the +pellucidly candid Annas, all ready with ears pricked up attentively +and benevolently and minds impartial, he found it difficult. It was +because, on the subject of mothers, he feared he was up against +their one prejudice. He felt rather than knew that their attitude +on this one point might be uncompromising,—mothers were +mothers, and there was an end of it; that sort of attitude, coupled +with extreme reprobation of himself for supposing anything +else.</p> +<p>He was surprised and relieved to find he was wrong. Directly +they got wind of the line his explanations were taking, which was +very soon for they were giving their minds to it as they promised +and Mr. Twist's hesitations were illuminating, they +interrupted.</p> +<p>"So we were right," they said to each other.</p> +<p>"But you don't know yet what I'm going to say," said Mr. Twist. +"I've only started on the preliminaries."</p> +<p>"Yes we do. You fell out with your mother," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Quarrelled," said Anna-Felicitas, nodding</p> +<p>"We didn't think so at the time," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"We just felt there was an atmosphere of strain about Clark," +said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"But talking it over privately, we concluded that was what had +happened."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was so much surprised that for a moment he could only +say "Oh." Then he said, "And you're terribly shocked, I +suppose."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>Oh no," they said airily +and together.</p> +<p>"No?"</p> +<p>"You see—" began Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"You see—" began Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"You see, as a general principle," said Anna-Felicitas, "it's +reprehensible to quarrel with one's mother."</p> +<p>"But we've not been able to escape observing—" said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"In the course of our brief and inglorious career," put in +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"—that there are mothers and mothers," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Twist; and as they didn't go on he presently +added, "Yes?"</p> +<p>"Oh, that's all," said the twins, once more airily and +together.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><a name="Page_204" +id="Page_204"></a>CHAPTER XIX</p> +<p>After this brief <i>éclaircissement</i> the rest of the +journey was happy. Indeed, it is doubtful if any one can journey to +California and not be happy.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist had never been further west than Chicago and break up +or no break up of his home he couldn't but have a pleasant feeling +of adventure. Every now and then the realization of this feeling +gave his conscience a twinge, and wrung out of it a rebuke. He was +having the best of it in this business; he was the party in the +quarrel who went away, who left the dreariness of the scene of +battle with all its corpses of dead illusions, and got off to fresh +places and people who had never heard of him. Just being in a +train, he found, and rushing on to somewhere else was +extraordinarily nerve-soothing. At Clark there would be gloom and +stagnation, the heavy brooding of a storm that has burst but not +moved on, a continued anger on his mother's side, naturally +increasing with her inactivity, with her impotence. He was gone, +and she could say and do nothing more to him. In a quarrel, thought +Mr. Twist, the morning he pushed up his blinds and saw the desert +at sunrise, an exquisite soft thing just being touched into faint +colours,—in a quarrel the one who goes has quite unfairly the +best of it. Beautiful new places come and laugh at him, people who +don't know him and haven't yet judged and condemned him are ready +to be friendly. He must, of course, go far <a name="Page_205" id= +"Page_205"></a>enough; not stay near at hand in some familiar place +and be so lonely that he ends by being remorseful. Well, he was +going far enough. Thanks to the Annas he was going about as far as +he could go. Certainly he was having the best of it in being the +one in the quarrel who went; and he was shocked to find himself +cynically thinking, on top of that, that one should always, then, +take care to be the one who did go.</p> +<p>But the desert has a peculiarly exhilarating air. It came in +everywhere, and seemed to tickle him out of the uneasy mood proper +to one who has been cutting himself off for good and all from his +early home. For the life of him he couldn't help feeling +extraordinarily light and free. Edith—yes, there was Edith, +but some day he would make up to Edith for everything. There was no +helping her now: she was fast bound in misery and iron, and didn't +even seem to know it. So would he have been, he supposed, if he had +never left home at all. As it was, it was bound to come, this +upheaval. Just the mere fact of inevitable growth would have burst +the bands sooner or later. There oughtn't, of course, to have been +any bands; or, there being bands, he ought long ago to have burst +them.</p> +<p>He pulled his kind slack mouth firmly together and looked +determined. Long ago, repeated Mr. Twist, shaking his head at his +own weak past. Well, it was done at last, and never +again—never, never again, he said to himself, sniffing in +through his open window the cold air of the desert at sunrise.</p> +<p>By that route, the Santa Fé, it is not till two or three +hours before you get to the end of the journey that summer meets +you. It is waiting for you at a place called San Bernardino. There +is no trace of it before. Up to then you are still in October; and +then you get to <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>the top of the +pass, and with a burst it is June,—brilliant, windless, +orange-scented.</p> +<p>The twins and Mr. Twist were in the restaurant-car lunching when +the miracle happened. Suddenly the door opened and in came summer, +with a great warm breath of roses. In a moment the car was invaded +by the scent of flowers and fruit and of something else strange and +new and very aromatic. The electric fans were set twirling, the +black waiters began to perspire, the passengers called for cold +things to eat, and the twins pulled off their knitted caps and +jerseys.</p> +<p>From that point on to the end of the line in Los Angeles the +twins could only conclude they were in heaven. It was the light +that did it, the extraordinary glow of radiance. Of course there +were orchards after orchards of orange trees covered with fruit, +white houses smothered in flowers, gardens overrun with roses, tall +groups of eucalyptus trees giving an impression of elegant +nakedness, long lines of pepper trees with frail fern-like +branches, and these things continued for the rest of the way; but +they would have been as nothing without that beautiful, great bland +light. The twins had had their hot summers in Pomerania, and their +July days in England, but had not yet seen anything like this. Here +was summer without sultriness, without gnats, mosquitoes, +threatening thunderstorms, or anything to spoil it; it was summer +as it might be in the Elysian fields, perfectly clear, and calm, +and radiant. When the train stopped they could see how not a breath +of wind stirred the dust on the quiet white roads, and the leaves +of the magnolia trees glistened motionless in the sun. The train +went slowly and stopped often, for there seemed to be one long +succession of gardens and villages. After the empty, wind-driven +<a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>plains they had come through, +those vast cold expanses without a house or living creature in +sight, what a laughing plenty, what a gracious fruitfulness, was +here. And when they went back to their compartment it too was full +of summer smells,—the smell of fruit, and roses, and +honey.</p> +<p>For the first time since the war began and with it their +wanderings, the twins felt completely happy. It was as though the +loveliness wrapped them round and they stretched themselves in it +and forgot. No fear of the future, no doubt of it at all, they +thought, gazing out of the window, the soft air patting their +faces, could possibly bother them here. They never, for instance, +could be cold here, or go hungry. A great confidence in life +invaded them. The Delloggs, sun-soaked and orange-fed for years in +this place, couldn't but be gentle too, and kind and calm. +Impossible not to get a sort of refulgence oneself, they thought, +living here, and absorb it and give it out again. They pictured the +Delloggs as bland pillars of light coming forward effulgently to +greet them, and bathing them in the beams of their hospitality. And +the feeling of responsibility and anxiety that had never left +Anna-Rose since she last saw Aunt Alice dropped off her in this +place, and she felt that sun and oranges, backed by £200 in +the bank, would be difficult things for misfortune to get at.</p> +<p>As for Mr. Twist, he was even more entranced than the twins as +he gazed out of the window, for being older he had had time to see +more ugly things, had got more used to them and to taking them as +principally making up life. He stared at what he saw, and thought +with wonder of his mother's drawing-room at Clark, of its gloomy, +velvet-upholstered discomforts, of the cold <a name="Page_208" id= +"Page_208"></a>mist creeping round the house, and of that last +scene in it, with her black figure in the middle of it, tall and +thin and shaking with bitterness. He had certainly been in that +drawing-room and heard her so terribly denouncing him, but it was +very difficult to believe; it seemed so exactly like a nightmare, +and this the happy normal waking up in the morning.</p> +<p>They all three were in the highest spirits when they got out at +Los Angeles and drove across to the Southern Pacific +station—the name alone made their hearts leap—to catch +the afternoon train on to where the Delloggs lived, and their +spirits were the kind one can imagine in released souls on their +first arriving in paradise,—high, yet subdued; happy, but +reverential; a sort of rollicking awe. They were subdued, in fact, +by beauty. And the journey along the edge of the Pacific to +Acapulco, where the Delloggs lived, encouraged and developed this +kind of spirits, for the sun began to set, and, as the train ran +for miles close to the water with nothing but a strip of sand +between it and the surf, they saw their first Pacific sunset. It +happened to be even in that land of wonderful sunsets an unusually +wonderful one, and none of the three had ever seen anything in the +least like it. They could but sit silent and stare. The great sea, +that little line of lovely islands flung down on it like a chain of +amethysts, that vast flame of sky, that heaving water passionately +reflecting it, and on the other side, through the other windows, a +sharp wall of black mountains,—it was fantastically +beautiful, like something in a poem or a dream.</p> +<p>By the time they got to Acapulco it was dark. Night followed +upon the sunset with a suddenness that astonished the twins, used +to the leisurely methods <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>of +twilight on the Baltic; and the only light in the country outside +the town as they got near it was the light from myriads of great +stars.</p> +<p>No Delloggs were at the station, but the twins were used now to +not being met and had not particularly expected them; besides, Mr. +Twist was with them this time, and he would see that if the +Delloggs didn't come to them they would get safely to the +Delloggs.</p> +<p>The usual telegram had been sent announcing their arrival, and +the taxi-driver, who seemed to know the Dellogg house well when Mr. +Twist told him where they wanted to go, apparently also thought it +natural they should want to go exactly there. In him, indeed, there +did seem to be a trace of expecting them,—almost as if he had +been told to look out for them; for hardly had Mr. Twist begun to +give him the address than glancing at the twins he said, "I guess +you're wanting Mrs. Dellogg"; and got down and actually opened the +door for them, an attention so unusual in the taxi-drivers the +twins had up to then met in America that they were more than ever +convinced that nothing in the way of unfriendliness or unkindness +could stand up against sun and oranges.</p> +<p>"Relations?" he asked them through the window as he shut the +door gently and carefully, while Mr. Twist went with a porter to +see about the luggage.</p> +<p>"I beg your pardon?" said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Relations of Delloggses?"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose. "Friends."</p> +<p>"At least," amended Anna-Felicitas, "practically."</p> +<p>"Ah," said the driver, leaning with both his arms on the +window-sill in the friendliest possible manner, and chewing gum and +eyeing them with thoughtful interest.</p> +<p><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>Then he said, after a pause +during which his jaw rolled regularly from side to side and the +twins watched the rolling with an interest equal to his interest in +them, "From Los Angeles?"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Rose. "From New York."</p> +<p>"At least," amended Anna-Felicitas, "practically."</p> +<p>"Well I call that a real compliment," said the driver slowly and +deliberately because of his jaw going on rolling. "To come all that +way, and without being relations—I call that a real +compliment, and a friendship that's worth something. Anybody can +come along from Los Angeles, but it takes a real friend to come +from New York," and he eyed them now with admiration.</p> +<p>The twins for their part eyed him. Not only did his rolling jaws +fascinate them, but the things he was saying seemed to them +quaint.</p> +<p>"But we wanted to come," said Anna-Rose, after a pause.</p> +<p>"Of course. Does you credit," said the driver.</p> +<p>The twins thought this over.</p> +<p>The bright station lights shone on their faces, which stood out +very white in the black setting of their best mourning. Before +getting to Los Angeles they had dressed themselves carefully in +what Anna-Felicitas called their favourable-impression-on-arrival +garments,—those garments Aunt Alice had bought for them on +their mother's death, expressing the wave of sympathy in which she +found herself momentarily engulfed by going to a very good and +expensive dressmaker; and in the black perfection of these clothes +the twins looked like two well-got-up and very attractive young +crows. These were the clothes they had put on on leaving the ship, +and had been so obviously admired in, <a name="Page_211" id= +"Page_211"></a>to the uneasiness of Mr. Twist, by the public; it +was in these clothes that they had arrived within range of Mr. +Sack's distracted but still appreciative vision, and in them that +they later roused the suspicions and dislike of Mrs. Twist. It was +in these clothes that they were now about to start what they hoped +would be a lasting friendship with the Delloggs, and remembering +they had them on they decided that perhaps it wasn't only sun and +oranges making the taxi-driver so attentive, but also the effect on +him of their grown-up and awe-inspiring hats.</p> +<p>This was confirmed by what he said next. "I guess you're old +friends, then," he remarked, after a period of reflective +jaw-rolling. "Must be, to come all that way."</p> +<p>"Well—not exactly," said Anna-Rose, divided between her +respect for truth and her gratification at being thought old enough +to be somebody's old friend.</p> +<p>"You see," explained Anna-Felicitas, who was never divided in +her respect for truth, "we're not particularly old anything."</p> +<p>The driver in his turn thought this over, and finding he had no +observations he wished to make on it he let it pass, and said, +"You'll miss Mr. Dellogg."</p> +<p>"Oh?" said Anna-Rose, pricking up her ears, "Shall we?"</p> +<p>"We don't mind missing Mr. Dellogg," said Anna-Felicitas. "It's +Mrs. Dellogg we wouldn't like to miss."</p> +<p>The driver looked puzzled.</p> +<p>"Yes—that would be too awful," said Anna-Rose, who didn't +want a repetition of the Sack dilemma. "You did say," she asked +anxiously, "didn't you, that we were going to miss Mr. +Dellogg?"</p> +<p><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>The driver, looking first +at one of them and then at the other, said, "Well, and who +wouldn't?"</p> +<p>And this answer seemed so odd to the twins that they could only +as they stared at him suppose it was some recondite form of +American slang, provided with its own particular repartee which, +being unacquainted with the language, they were not in a position +to supply. Perhaps, they thought, it was of the same order of +mysterious idioms as in England such sentences as I don't think, +and Not half,—forms of speech whose exact meaning and proper +use had never been mastered by them.</p> +<p>"There won't be another like Mr. Dellogg in these parts for many +a year," said the driver, shaking his head. "Ah no. And that's +so."</p> +<p>"Isn't he coming back?" asked Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>The driver's jaws ceased for a moment to roll. He stared at +Anna-Rose with unblinking eyes. Then he turned his head away and +spat along the station, and then, again fixing his eyes on +Anna-Rose, he said, "Young gurl, you may be a spiritualist, and a +table-turner, and a psychic-rummager, and a ghost-fancier, and +anything else you please, and get what comfort you can out of your +coming backs and the rest of the blessed truck, but I know better. +And what I know, being a Christian, is that once a man's dead he's +either in heaven or he's in hell, and whichever it is he's in, in +it he stops."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas was the first to speak. "Are we to understand," +she inquired, "that Mr. Dellogg—" She broke off.</p> +<p>"That Mr. Dellogg is—" Anna-Rose continued for her, but +broke off too.</p> +<p>"That Mr. Dellogg isn't—" resumed Anna-Felicitas with +determination, "well, that he isn't alive?"</p> +<p>"Alive?" repeated the driver. He let his hand <a name="Page_213" +id="Page_213"></a>drop heavily on the window-sill. "If that don't +beat all," he said, staring at her. "What do you come his funeral +for, then?"</p> +<p>"His funeral?"</p> +<p>"Yes, if you don't know that he ain't?"</p> +<p>"Ain't—isn't what?"</p> +<p>"Alive, of course. No, I mean dead. You're getting me all +tangled up."</p> +<p>"But we haven't."</p> +<p>"But we didn't."</p> +<p>"We had a letter from him only last month."</p> +<p>"At least, an uncle we've got had."</p> +<p>"And he didn't say a word in it about being dead—I mean, +there was no sign of his being going to be—I mean, he wasn't +a bit ill or anything in his letter—"</p> +<p>"Now see here," interrupted the driver, sarcasm in his voice, +"it ain't exactly usual is it—I put it to you squarely, and +say it ain't <i>exactly</i> usual (there may be exceptions, but it +ain't exactly <i>usual</i>) to come to a gentleman's funeral, and +especially not all the way from New York, without some sort of an +idea that he's dead. Some sort of a <i>general</i> idea, anyhow," +he added still more sarcastically; for his admiration for the twins +had given way to doubt and discomfort, and a suspicion was growing +on him that with incredible and horrible levity, seeing what the +moment was and what the occasion, they were filling up the time +waiting for their baggage, among which were no doubt funeral +wreaths, by making game of him.</p> +<p>"Gurls like you shouldn't behave that way," he went on, his +voice aggrieved as he remembered how sympathetically he had got +down from his seat when he saw their mourning clothes and tired +white faces and helped them into his taxi,—only for genuine +mourners, <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>real sorry ones, +going to pay their last respects to a gentleman like Mr. Dellogg, +would he, a free American have done that. "Nicely dressed gurls, +well-cared for gurls. Daughters of decent people. Here you come all +this way, I guess sent by your parents to represent them properly, +and properly fitted out in nice black clothes and all, and you +start making fun. Pretending. Playing kind of hide-and-seek with me +about the funeral. Messing me up in a lot of words. I don't like +it. I'm a father myself, and I don't like it. I don't like to see +daughters going on like this when their father ain't looking. It +don't seem decent to me. But I suppose you Easterners—"</p> +<p>The twins, however, were not listening. They were looking at +each other in dismay. How extraordinary, how terrible, the way +Uncle Arthur's friends gave out. They seemed to melt away at one's +mere approach. People who had been living with their husbands all +their lives ran away just as the twins came on the scene; people +who had been alive all their lives went and died, also at that very +moment. It almost seemed as if directly anybody knew that they, the +Twinklers, were coming to stay with them they became bent on +escape. They could only look at each other in stricken astonishment +at this latest blow of Fate. They heard no more of what the driver +said. They could only sit and look at each other.</p> +<p>And then Mr. Twist came hurrying across from the baggage office, +wiping his forehead, for the night was hot. Behind him came the +porter, ruefully balancing the piled-up grips on his truck.</p> +<p>"I'm sorry to have been so—" began Mr. Twist, smiling +cheerfully: but he stopped short in his sentence and left off +smiling when he saw the expression in the <a name="Page_215" id= +"Page_215"></a>four eyes fixed on him. "What has happened?" he +asked quickly.</p> +<p>"Only what we might have expected," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Mr. Dellogg's dead," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"You don't say," said Mr. Twist; and after a pause he said +again, "You don't say."</p> +<p>Then he recovered himself. "I'm very sorry to hear it, of +course," he said briskly, picking himself up, as it were, from this +sudden and unexpected tumble, "but I don't see that it matters to +you so long as Mrs. Dellogg isn't dead too."</p> +<p>"Yes, but—" began Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Mr. Dellogg isn't <i>very</i> dead, you see," said +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked from them to the driver, but finding no +elucidation there and only disapproval, looked back again.</p> +<p>"He isn't dead and settled <i>down</i>," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Not <i>that</i> sort of being dead," said Anna-Felicitas. "He's +<i>just</i> dead."</p> +<p>"Just got to the stage when he has a funeral," said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"His funeral, it seems, is imminent," said Anna-Felicitas. "Did +you not give us to understand," she asked, turning to the driver, +"that it was imminent?"</p> +<p>"I don't know about imminent," said the driver, who wasn't going +to waste valuable time with words like that, "but it's +to-morrow."</p> +<p>"And you see what that means for us," said Anna-Felicitas, +turning to Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist did.</p> +<p>He again wiped his forehead, but not this time because the night +was hot.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><a name="Page_216" id= +"Page_216"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> +<p>Manifestly it is impossible to thrust oneself into a house where +there is going to be a funeral next day, even if one has come all +the way from New York and has nowhere else to go. Equally +manifestly it is impossible to thrust oneself into it after the +funeral till a decent interval has elapsed. But what the devil, Mr. +Twist asked himself in language become regrettably natural to him +since his sojourn at the front, is a decent interval?</p> +<p>This Mr. Twist asked himself late that night, pacing up and down +the sea-shore in the warm and tranquil darkness in front of the +Cosmopolitan Hotel, while the twins, utterly tired out by their +journey and the emotions at the end of it, crept silently into +bed.</p> +<p>How long does it take a widow to recover her composure? Recover, +that is, the first beginnings of it? At what stage in her mourning +is it legitimate to intrude on her with reminders of obligations +incurred before she was a widow,—with, in fact, the +Twinklers? Delicacy itself would shrink from doing it under a week +thought Mr. Twist, or even under a fortnight, or even if you came +to that, under a month; and meanwhile what was he to do with the +Twinklers?</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, being of the artistic temperament for otherwise he +wouldn't have been so sympathetic nor would he have minded, as he +so passionately did mind, his Uncle Charles's teapot dribbling on +to the tablecloth—was sometimes swept by brief but +tempestuous <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>revulsions of +feeling, and though he loved the Twinklers he did at this moment +describe them mentally and without knowing it in the very words of +Uncle Arthur, as those accursed twins. It was quite unjust, he +knew. They couldn't help the death of the man Dellogg. They were +the victims, from first to last, of a cruel and pursuing fate; but +it is natural to turn on victims, and Mr. Twist was for an instant, +out of the very depth of his helpless sympathy, impatient with the +Twinklers.</p> +<p>He walked up and down the sands frowning and pulling his mouth +together, while the Pacific sighed sympathetically at his feet. +Across the road the huge hotel standing in its gardens was pierced +by a thousand lights. Very few people were about and no one at all +was on the sands. There was an immense noise of what sounded like +grasshoppers or crickets, and also at intervals distant choruses of +frogs, but these sounds seemed altogether beneficent,—so +warm, and southern, and far away from less happy places where in +October cold winds perpetually torment the world. Even in the dark +Mr. Twist knew he had got to somewhere that was beautiful. He could +imagine nothing more agreeable than, having handed over the twins +safely to the Delloggs, staying on a week or two in this place and +seeing them every day,—perhaps even, as he had pictured to +himself on the journey, being invited to stay with the Delloggs. +Now all that was knocked on the head. He supposed the man Dellogg +couldn't help being dead but he, Mr. Twist, equally couldn't help +resenting it. It was so awkward; so exceedingly awkward. And it was +so like what one of that creature Uncle Arthur's friends would +do.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, it will be seen, was frankly unreasonable, <a name= +"Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>but then he was very much taken aback +and annoyed. What was he to do with the Annas? He was obviously not +a relation of theirs—and indeed no profiles could have been +less alike—and he didn't suppose Acapulco was behind other +parts of America in curiosity and gossip. If he stayed on at the +Cosmopolitan with the twins till Mrs. Dellogg was approachable +again, whenever that might be, every sort of question would be +being asked in whispers about who they were and what was their +relationship, and presently whenever they sat down anywhere the +chairs all round them would empty. Mr. Twist had seen the kind of +thing happening in hotels before to other people,—never to +himself; never had he been in any situation till now that was not +luminously regular. And quite soon after this with the chairs had +begun to happen, the people who created these vacancies were told +by the manager—firmly in America, politely in England, and +sympathetically in France—that their rooms had been engaged a +long time ago for the very next day, and no others were +available.</p> +<p>The Cosmopolitan was clearly an hotel frequented by the virtuous +rich. Mr. Twist felt that he and the Annas wouldn't, in their eyes, +come under this heading, not, that is, when the other guests became +aware of the entire absence of any relationship between him and the +twins. Well, for a day or two nothing could happen; for a day or +two, before his party had had time to sink into the hotel +consciousness and the manager appeared to tell him the rooms were +engaged, he could think things out and talk them over with his +companions. Perhaps he might even see Mrs. Dellogg. The funeral, he +had heard on inquiring of the hall porter was next day. It was to +be a brilliant affair, said the porter. Mr. Dellogg had been a +prominent inhabitant, <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>free +with his money, a supporter of anything there was to support. The +porter talked of him as the taxi-driver had done, regretfully and +respectfully; and Mr. Twist went to bed angrier than ever with a +man who, being so valuable and so necessary, should have neglected +at such a moment to go on living.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist didn't sleep very well that night. He lay in his rosy +room, under a pink silk quilt, and most of the time stared out +through the open French windows with their pink brocade curtains at +the great starry night, thinking.</p> +<p>In that soft bed, so rosy and so silken as to have been worthy +of the relaxations of, at least, a prima donna, he looked like some +lean and alien bird nesting temporarily where he had no business +to. He hadn't thought of buying silk pyjamas when the success of +his teapot put him in the right position for doing so, because his +soul was too simple for him to desire or think of anything less +candid to wear in bed than flannel, and he still wore the blue +flannel pyjamas of a careful bringing up. In that beautiful bed his +pyjamas didn't seem appropriate. Also his head, so frugal of hair, +didn't do justice to the lace and linen of a pillow prepared for +the hairier head of, again at least, a prima donna. And finding he +couldn't sleep, and wishing to see the stars he put on his +spectacles, and then looked more out of place than ever. But as +nobody was there to see him,—which, Mr. Twist sometimes +thought when he caught sight of himself in his pyjamas at bed-time, +is one of the comforts of being virtuously unmarried,—nobody +minded.</p> +<p>His reflections were many and various, and they conflicted with +and contradicted each other as the reflections of persons in a +difficult position who have Mr. <a name="Page_220" id= +"Page_220"></a>Twist's sort of temperament often do. Faced by a +dribbling teapot, an object which touched none of the softer +emotions, Mr. Twist soared undisturbed in the calm heights of a +detached and concentrated intelligence, and quickly knew what to do +with it; faced by the derelict Annas his heart and his tenderness +got in the ways of any clear vision.</p> +<p>About three o'clock in the morning, when his mind was choked and +strewn with much pulled-about and finally discarded plans, he +suddenly had an idea. A real one. As far as he could see, a real +good one. He would place the Annas in a school.</p> +<p>Why shouldn't they go to school? he asked himself, starting off +answering any possible objections. A year at a first-rate school +would give them and everybody else time to consider. They ought +never to have left school. It was the very place for luxuriant and +overflowing natures like theirs. No doubt Acapulco had such a thing +as a finishing school for young ladies in it, and into it the Annas +should go, and once in it there they should stay put, thought Mr. +Twist in vigorous American, gathering up his mouth defiantly.</p> +<p>Down these lines of thought his relieved mind cantered easily. +He would seek out a lawyer the next morning, regularize his +position to the twins by turning himself into their guardian, and +then get them at once into the best school there was. As their +guardian he could then pay all their expenses, and faced by this +legal fact they would, he hoped, be soon persuaded of the propriety +of his paying whatever there was to pay.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was so much pleased by his idea that he was able to go +to sleep after that. Even three months' school—the period he +gave Mrs. Dellogg for her acutest <a name="Page_221" id= +"Page_221"></a>grief—would do. Tide them over. Give them room +to turn round in. It was a great solution. He took off his +spectacles, snuggled down into his rosy nest, and fell asleep with +the instantaneousness of one whose mind is suddenly relieved.</p> +<p>But when he went down to breakfast he didn't feel quite so sure. +The twins didn't look, somehow, as though they would want to go to +school. They had been busy with their luggage, and had unpacked one +of the trunks for the first time since leaving Aunt Alice, and in +honour of the heat and sunshine and the heavenly smell of +heliotrope that was in the warm air, had put on white summer +frocks.</p> +<p>Impossible to imagine anything cooler, sweeter, prettier and +more angelically good than those two Annas looked as they came out +on to the great verandah of the hotel to join Mr. Twist at +breakfast. They instantly sank into the hotel consciousness. Mr. +Twist had thought this wouldn't happen for a day or two, but he now +perceived his mistake. Not a head that wasn't turned to look at +them, not a newspaper that wasn't lowered. They were immediate +objects of interest and curiosity, entirely benevolent interest and +curiosity because nobody yet knew anything about them, and the +wives of the rich husbands—those halves of the virtuous-rich +unions which provided the virtuousness—smiled as they passed, +and murmured nice words to each other like cute and cunning.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, being a good American, stood up and held the twins' +chairs for them when they appeared. They loved this; it seemed so +respectful, and made them feel so old and looked-up to. He had done +it that night in New York at supper, and at all the <a name= +"Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>meals in the train in spite of the +train being so wobbly and each time they had loved it. "It makes +one have such self-respect," they agreed, commenting on this +agreeable practice in private.</p> +<p>They sat down in the chairs with the gracious face of the +properly treated, and inquired, with an amiability and a solicitous +politeness on a par with their treatment how Mr. Twist had slept. +They themselves had obviously slept well, for their faces were +cherubic in their bland placidity, and already after one night wore +what Mr. Twist later came to recognize as the Californian look, a +look of complete unworriedness.</p> +<p>Yet they ought to have been worried. Mr. Twist had been terribly +worried up to the moment in the night when he got his great idea, +and he was worried again, now that he saw the twins, by doubts. +They didn't look as though they would easily be put to school. His +idea still seemed to him magnificent, a great solution, but would +the Annas be able to see it? They might turn out impervious to it; +not rejecting it, but simply non-absorbent. As they slowly and +contentedly ate their grape-fruit, gazing out between the spoonfuls +at the sea shining across the road through palm trees, and looking +unruffled itself, he felt it was going to be rather like suggesting +to two cherubs to leave their serene occupation of adoring eternal +beauty and learn lessons instead. Still, it was the one way out, as +far as Mr. Twist could see, of the situation produced by the death +of the man Dellogg. "When you've done breakfast," he said, pulling +himself together on their reaching the waffle stage, "we must have +a talk."</p> +<p>"When we've done breakfast," said Anna-Rose, "we must have a +walk."</p> +<p>"Down there," said Anna-Felicitas, pointing with <a name= +"Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>her spoon. "On the sands. Round the +curve to where the pink hills begin."</p> +<p>"Mr. Dellogg's death," said Mr. Twist, deciding it was necessary +at once to wake them up out of the kind of happy somnolescence they +seemed to be falling into, "has of course completely +changed—"</p> +<p>"How unfortunate," interrupted Anna-Rose, her eyes on the palms +and the sea and the exquisite distant mountains along the back of +the bay, "to have to be dead on a day like this."</p> +<p>"It's not only his missing the fine weather that makes it +unfortunate," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"You mean," said Anna-Rose, "it's our missing him."</p> +<p>"Precisely," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Well, we know that," said Anna-Felicitas placidly.</p> +<p>"We knew it last night, and it worried us," said Anna-Rose. +"Then we went to sleep and it didn't worry us. And this morning it +still doesn't."</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist dryly. "You don't look particularly +worried, I must say."</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas, "we're not. People who find they've +got to heaven aren't usually worried, are they."</p> +<p>"And having got to heaven," said Anna-Rose, "we've thought of a +plan to enable us to stay in it."</p> +<p>"Oh have you," said Mr. Twist, pricking up his ears.</p> +<p>"The plan seemed to think of us rather than we of it," explained +Anna-Felicitas. "It came and inserted itself, as it were, into our +minds while we were dressing."</p> +<p>"Well, I've thought of a plan too," said Mr. Twist firmly, +feeling sure that the twins' plan would be the sort that ought to +be instantly nipped in the bud.</p> +<p>He was therefore greatly astonished when Anna-Rose said, "Have +you? Is it about schools?"</p> +<p><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>He stared at her in +silence. "Yes," he then said slowly, for he was very much +surprised. "It is."</p> +<p>"So is ours," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas. "We don't think much of it, but it +will tide us over."</p> +<p>"Exactly," said Mr. Twist, still more astonished at this perfect +harmony of ideas.</p> +<p>"Tide us over till Mrs. Dellogg is—-" began Anna-Rose in +her clear little voice that carried like a flute to all the tables +round them.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist got up quickly. "If you've finished let us go out of +doors," he said; for he perceived that silence had fallen on the +other tables, and attentiveness to what Anna-Rose was going to say +next.</p> +<p>"Yes. On the sands," said the twins, getting up too.</p> +<p>On the sands, however, Mr. Twist soon discovered that the +harmony of ideas was not as complete as he had supposed; indeed, +something very like heated argument began almost as soon as they +were seated on some rocks round the corner of the shore to the west +of the hotel and they became aware, through conversation, of the +vital difference in the two plans.</p> +<p>The Twinkler plan, which they expounded at much length and with +a profusion of optimistic detail, was to search for and find a +school in the neighbourhood for the daughters of gentlemen, and go +to it for three months, or six months, or whatever time Mrs. +Dellogg wanted to recover in.</p> +<p>Up to this point the harmony was complete, and Mr. Twist could +only nod approval. Beyond it all was confusion, for it appeared +that the twins didn't dream of entering a school in any capacity +except as teachers. Professors, they said; professors of languages +and literatures. <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>They could +speak German, as they pointed out, very much better than most +people, and had, as Mr. Twist had sometimes himself remarked, an +extensive vocabulary in English. They would give lessons in English +and German literature. They would be able to teach quite a lot +about Heine, for instance, the whole of whose poetry they knew by +heart and whose sad life in Paris—</p> +<p>"It's no good running on like that," interrupted Mr. Twist. +"You're not old enough."</p> +<p>Not old enough? The Twinklers, from their separate rocks, looked +at each other in surprised indignation.</p> +<p>"Not old enough?" repeated Anna-Rose. "We're grown up. And I +don't see how one can be more than grown up. One either is or isn't +grown up. And there can be no doubt as to which we are."</p> +<p>And this the very man who so respectfully had been holding their +chairs for them only a few minutes before! As if people did things +like that for children.</p> +<p>"You're not old enough I say," said Mr. Twist again, bringing +his hand down with a slap on the rock to emphasize his words. +"Nobody would take you. Why, you've got perambulator faces, the +pair of you—"</p> +<p>"Perambulator—?"</p> +<p>"And what school is going to want two teachers both teaching the +same thing, anyway?"</p> +<p>And he then quickly got out his plan, and the conversation +became so heated that for a time it was molten.</p> +<p>The Twinklers were shocked by his plan. More; they were +outraged. Go to school? To a place they had never been to even in +their suitable years? They, two independent grown-ups with +£200 in the bank and <a name="Page_226" id= +"Page_226"></a>nobody with any right to stop their doing anything +they wanted to? Go to school now, like a couple of little +suck-a-thumbs?</p> +<p>It was Anna-Rose, very flushed and bright of eye, who flung this +expression at Mr. Twist from her rock. He might think they had +perambulator faces if he liked—they didn't care, but they did +desire him to bear in mind that if it hadn't been for the war they +would be now taking their proper place in society, that they had +already done a course of nursing in a hospital, an activity not +open to any but adults, and that Uncle Arthur had certainly not +given them all that money to fritter away on paying for belated +schooling.</p> +<p>"We would be anachronisms," said Anna-Felicitas, winding up the +discussion with a firmness so unusual in her that it showed how +completely she had been stirred.</p> +<p>"Are you aware that we are marriageable?" inquired Anna-Rose +icily.</p> +<p>"And don't you think it's bad enough for us to be aliens and +undesirables," asked Anna-Felicitas, "without getting +chronologically confused as well?"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was quiet for a bit. He couldn't compete with the +Twinklers when it came to sheer language. He sat hunched on his +rock, his face supported by his two fists, staring out to sea while +the twins watched him indignantly. School indeed! Then presently he +pushed his hat back and began slowly to rub his ear.</p> +<p>"Well, I'm blest if I know what to do with you, then," he said, +continuing to rub his ear and stare out to sea.</p> +<p>The twins opened their mouths simultaneously at this to protest +against any necessity for such knowledge <a name="Page_227" id= +"Page_227"></a>on his part, but he interrupted them. "If you don't +mind," he said, "I'd like to resume this discussion when you're +both a little more composed."</p> +<p>"We're perfectly composed," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Less ruffled, then."</p> +<p>"We're quite unruffled," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Well, you don't look it, and you don't sound like it. But as +this is important I'd be glad to resume the discussion, say, +to-morrow. I suggest we spend to-day exploring the neighbourhood +and steadying our minds—"</p> +<p>"Our minds are perfectly steady, thank you."</p> +<p>"—and to-morrow we'll have another go at this question. I +haven't told you all my plan yet"—Mr. Twist hadn't had time +to inform them of his wish to become their guardian, owing to the +swiftness with which he had been engulfed in their +indignation,—"but whether you approve of it or not, what is +quite certain is that we can't stay on at the hotel much +longer."</p> +<p>"Because it's so dear?"</p> +<p>"Oh, it isn't so much <i>that</i>,—the proprietor is a +friend of mine, or anyhow he very well might be—"</p> +<p>"It looks very dear," said Anna-Rose, visions of their splendid +bedroom and bathroom rising before her. They too had slept in +silken beds, and the taps in their bathroom they had judged to be +pure gold.</p> +<p>"And it's because we can't afford to be in a dear place spending +money," said Anna-Felicitas, "that it's so important we should find +a salaried position in a school without loss of time."</p> +<p>"And it's because we can't afford reckless squandering that we +ought to start looking for such a situation at once" said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>Not to-day," said Mr. +Twist firmly, for he wouldn't give up the hope of getting them, +once they were used to it, to come round to his plan. "To-day, this +one day, we'll give ourselves up to enjoyment. It'll do us all +good. Besides, we don't often get to a place like this, do we. And +it has taken some getting to, hasn't it."</p> +<p>He rose from his rock and offered his hand to help them off +theirs.</p> +<p>"To-day enjoyment," he said, "to-morrow business. I'm crazy," he +added artfully, "to see what the country is like away up in those +hills."</p> +<p>And so it was that about five o'clock that afternoon, having +spent the whole day exploring the charming environs of +Acapulco,—having been seen at different periods going over +the Old Mission in tow of a monk who wouldn't look at them but kept +his eyes carefully fixed on the ground, sitting on high stools +eating strange and enchanting ices at the shop in the town that has +the best ices, bathing deliciously in the warm sea at the foot of a +cliff along the top of which a great hedge of rose-coloured +geraniums flared against the sky, lunching under a grove of ilexes +on the contents of a basket produced by Mr. Twist from somewhere in +the car he had hired, wandering afterwards up through eucalyptus +woods across the fields towards the foot of the +mountains,—they came about five o'clock, thirsty and thinking +of tea, to a delightful group of flowery cottages clustering round +a restaurant and forming collectively, as Mr. Twist explained, one +of the many American forms of hotel. "To which," he said, "people +not living in the cottages can come and have meals at the +restaurant, so we'll go right in and have tea."</p> +<p>And it was just because they couldn't get tea—any <a name= +"Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>other meal, the proprietress said, but +no teas were served, owing to the Domestic Help Eight Hours Bill +which obliged her to do without domestics during the afternoon +hours—that Anna-Felicitas came by her great idea.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a><a name="Page_230" +id="Page_230"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> +<p>But she didn't come by it at once.</p> +<p>They got into the car first, which was waiting for them in the +scented road at the bottom of the field they had walked across, and +they got into it in silence and were driven back to their hotel for +tea, and her brain was still unvisited by inspiration.</p> +<p>They were all tired and thirsty, and were disappointed at being +thwarted in their desire to sit at a little green table under +whispering trees and rest, and drink tea, and had no sort of wish +to have it at the Cosmopolitan. But both Mr. Twist, who had been +corrupted by Europe, and the twins, who had the habits of their +mother, couldn't imagine doing without it in the afternoon, and +they would have it in the hotel sooner than not have it at all. It +was brought to them after a long time of waiting. Nobody else was +having any at that hour, and the waiter, when at last one was +found, had difficulty apparently in believing that they were +serious. When at last he did bring it, it was toast and marmalade +and table-napkins, for all the world as though it had been +breakfast.</p> +<p>Then it was that, contemplating this with discomfort and +distaste, as well as the place they were sitting in and its +rocking-chairs and marble and rugs, Anna-Felicitas was suddenly +smitten by her idea.</p> +<p>It fell upon her like a blow. It struck her fairly, as it were, +between the eyes. She wasn't used to ideas, and she stopped dead in +the middle of a piece of toast <a name="Page_231" id= +"Page_231"></a>and looked at the others. They stopped too in their +eating and looked at her.</p> +<p>"What's the matter?" asked Anna-Rose. "Has another button come +off?"</p> +<p>At this Mr. Twist considered it wisest to turn his head away, +for experience had taught him that Anna-Felicitas easily came +undone.</p> +<p>"I've thought of something," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist turned his head back again. "You don't say," he said, +mildly sarcastic.</p> +<p>"<i>Ich gratuliere</i>," said Anna-Rose, also mildly +sarcastic.</p> +<p>"I've got an idea," said Anna-Felicitas. "But it's so luminous," +she said, looking from one to the other in a kind of surprise. "Of +course. That's what we'll do. Ridiculous to waste time bothering +about schools."</p> +<p>There was a new expression on her face that silenced the +comments rising to Anna-Rose's and Mr. Twist's tongues, both of +whom had tired feet and were therefore disposed to sarcasm.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas looked at them, and they looked at her, and her +face continued to become visibly more and more illuminated, just as +if a curtain were being pulled up. Animation and interest shone in +her usually dreamy eyes. Her drooping body sat up quite straight. +She reminded Anna-Rose, who had a biblically well-furnished mind, +of Moses when he came down from receiving the Law on the +mountain.</p> +<p>"Well, tell us," said Anna-Rose. "But not," she added, thinking +of Moses, "if it's only more commandments."</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas dropped the piece of toast she was still holding +in her fingers, and pushed back her cup. "Come out on to the +rocks," she said getting up—"where we sat this morning." And +she marched out, <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>followed by +the other two with the odd submissiveness people show towards any +one who is thoroughly determined.</p> +<p>It was dark and dinner-time before they got back to the hotel. +Throughout the sunset Anna-Felicitas sat on her rock, the same rock +she had sat on so unsatisfactorily eight hours earlier, and +expounded her idea. She couldn't talk fast enough. She, so slow and +listless, for once was shaken into burning activity. She threw off +her hat directly she got on to the sands, climbed up the rock as if +it were a pulpit, and with her hands clasped round her knees poured +out her plan, the long shafts of the setting sun bathing her in +bright flames and making her more like Moses than ever,—if, +that is, one could imagine Moses as beautiful as Anna-F., thought +Anna-Rose, and as felicitously without his nose and beard.</p> +<p>It was wonderful how complete Anna-Felicitas's inspiration was. +It reminded Mr. Twist of his own about the teapot. It was, of +course, a far more complicated matter than that little device of +his, and would have to be thought out very carefully and approached +very judiciously, but the wealth of detail she was already ready +with immensely impressed him. She even had a name for the thing; +and it was when he heard this name, when it flashed into her talk +with the unpremeditatedness of an inspiration, that Mr. Twist +became definitely enthusiastic.</p> +<p>He had an American eye for advertisement. Respect for it was in +his blood. He instantly saw the possibilities contained in the +name. He saw what could be done with it, properly worked. He saw it +on hoarding-on signposts, in a thousand contrivances for catching +the public attention and sticking there.</p> +<p><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>The idea, of course, was +fantastic, unconventional, definitely outside what his mother and +that man Uncle Arthur would consider proper, but it was outside the +standards of such people that life and fruitfulness and interest +and joy began. He had escaped from the death-like grip of his +mother, and Uncle Arthur had himself forcibly expulsed the Annas +from his, and now that they were all so far away, instead of still +timorously trying to go on living up to those distant sterile ideas +why shouldn't they boldly go out into the light and colour that was +waiting everywhere for the free of spirit?</p> +<p>Mr. Twist had often observed how perplexingly much there is to +be said for the opposite sides of a question. He was now, but with +no perplexity, for Anna-Felicitas had roused his enthusiasm, +himself taking the very opposite view as to the proper thing for +the twins to do from the one he had taken in the night and on the +rocks that morning. School? Nonsense. Absurd to bury these bright +shoots of everlastingness—this is what they looked like to +him, afire with enthusiasm and the setting sun—in such a +place of ink. If the plan, owing to the extreme youth of the Annas, +were unconventional, conventionality could be secured by giving a +big enough salary to a middle-aged lady to come and preside. He +himself would hover beneficently in the background over the +undertaking.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas's idea was to use Uncle Arthur's £200 in +renting one of the little wooden cottages that seemed to be +plentiful, preferably one about five miles out in the country, make +it look inside like an English cottage, all pewter and chintz and +valances, make it look outside like the more innocent type of +German wayside inn, with green tables and spreading trees, get +<a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>a cook who would concentrate +on cakes, real lovely ones, various, poetic, wonderful cakes, and +start an inn for tea alone that should become the fashion. It ought +to be so arranged that it became the fashion. She and Anna-Rose +would do the waiting. The prices would be very high, indeed +exorbitant—this Mr. Twist regarded as another +inspiration,—so that it should be a distinction, give people +a <i>cachet</i>, to have had tea at their cottage; and in a +prominent position in the road in front of it, where every +motor-car would be bound to see it, there would be a real wayside +inn signboard, such as inns in England always have, with its name +on it.</p> +<p>"If people here were really neutral you might have the Imperial +arms of Germany and England emblazoned on it," interrupted Mr. +Twist, "just to show your own extreme and peculiar neutrality."</p> +<p>"We might call it The Christopher and Columbus," interrupted +Anna-Rose, who had been sitting open-mouthed hanging on +Anna-Felicitas's words.</p> +<p>"Or you might call it The Cup and Saucer," said Mr. Twist, "and +have a big cup brimming with tea and cream painted on +it—"</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas. "It is The Open Arms. That is its +name."</p> +<p>And Mr. Twist, inclined to smile and criticise up to this, bowed +his head in instantaneous recognition and acceptance.</p> +<p>He became definitely enthusiastic. Of course he would see to it +that not a shadow of ambiguousness was allowed to rest on such a +name. The whole thing as he saw it, his mind working rapidly while +Anna-Felicitas still talked, would be a happy joke, a joyous, gay +little assault on the purses of millionaires, in whom <a name= +"Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>the district abounded judging from the +beautiful houses and gardens he had passed that day,—but a +joke and a gay assault that would at the same time employ and +support the Annas; solve them, in fact, saw Mr. Twist, who all day +long had been regarding them much as one does a difficult +mathematical problem.</p> +<p>It was Mr. Twist who added the final inspiration to +Anna-Felicitas's many, when at last she paused for want of breath. +The inn, he said, should be run as a war philanthropy. All that was +over after the expenses were paid and a proper percentage reserved +by the Annas as interest on their invested capital—they +listened with eager respect to these business-like +expressions—would be handed over to the American Red Cross. +"That," explained Mr. Twist, "would seal the inn as both +respectable and fashionable, which is exactly what we would want to +make it."</p> +<p>And he then announced, and they accepted without argument or +questioning in the general excitement, that he would have himself +appointed their legal guardian.</p> +<p>They didn't go back to the Cosmopolitan till dinnertime, there +was so much to say, and after dinner, a meal at which Mr. Twist had +to suppress them a good deal because The Open Arms kept on bursting +through into their talk and, as at breakfast, the people at the +tables round them were obviously trying to hear, they went out once +again on to the sea-front and walked up and down till late +continuing the discussion, mostly simultaneously as regards the +twins, while Mr. Twist chimed in with practical suggestions +whenever they stopped to take breath.</p> +<p>He had to drive them indoors to bed at last, for the lights were +going out one by one in the Cosmopolitan <a name="Page_236" id= +"Page_236"></a>bedroom windows, where the virtuous rich, exhausted +by their day of virtue, were subsiding, prostrate with boredom and +respectability, into their various legitimate lairs, and he stayed +alone out by the sea rapidly sketching out his activities for the +next day.</p> +<p>There was the guardianship to be arranged, the cottage to be +found, and the middle-aged lady to be advertised for. She, indeed, +must be secured at once; got to come at once to the Cosmopolitan +and preside over the twins until they all proceeded in due season +to The Open Arms. She must be a motherly middle-aged lady, decided +Mr. Twist, affectionate, skilled in managing a cook, business-like, +intellectual, and obedient. Her feminine tact would enable her to +appear to preside while she was in reality obeying. She must +understand that she was there for the Annas, and that the Annas +were not there for her. She must approach the situation in the +spirit of the enlightened king of a democratic country, who +receives its honours, accepts its respect, but does not lose sight +of the fact that he is merely the Chief Servant of the people. Mr. +Twist didn't want a female Uncle Arthur let loose upon those +blessed little girls; besides, they would have the dangerous weapon +in their hands of being able to give her notice, and it would +considerably dim the reputation of The Open Arms if there were a +too frequent departure from it of middle-aged ladies.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist felt himself very responsible and full of anxieties as +he paced up and down alone, but he was really enjoying himself. +That youthful side of him, so usual in the artistic temperament, +which leaped about at the least pleasant provocation like a happy +lamb when the sunshine tickles it, was feeling that this was great +fun; and the business side of him was feeling <a name="Page_237" +id="Page_237"></a>that it was not only great fun but probably an +extraordinarily productive piece of money-making.</p> +<p>The ignorant Annas—bless their little hearts, he thought, +he who only the night before on that very spot had been calling +them accursed—believed that their £200 was easily going +to do everything. This was lucky, for otherwise there would have +been some thorny paths of argument and convincing to be got through +before they would have allowed him to help finance the undertaking; +probably they never would have, in their scrupulous independence. +Mr. Twist reflected with satisfaction on the usefulness of his +teapot. At last he was going to be able to do something, thanks to +it, that gave him real gladness. His ambulance to France—that +was duty. His lavishness to his mother—that again was duty. +But here was delight, here at last was what his lonely heart had +always longed for,—a chance to help and make happy, and be +with and watch being made happy, dear women-things, dear soft sweet +kind women-things, dear sister-things, dear children-things....</p> +<p>It has been said somewhere before that Mr. Twist was meant by +Nature to be a mother; but Nature, when she was half-way through +him, forgot and turned him into a man.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a><a name="Page_238" +id="Page_238"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> +<p>The very next morning they set out house-hunting, and two days +later they had found what they wanted. Not exactly what they wanted +of course, for the reason, as Anna-Felicitas explained that nothing +ever is <i>exactly</i>, but full of possibilities to the eye of +imagination, and there were six of this sort of eye gazing at the +little house.</p> +<p>It stood at right angles to a road much used by motorists +because of its beauty, and hidden from it by trees on the top of a +slope of green fields scattered over with live oaks that gently +descended down towards the sea. Its back windows, and those parts +of it that a house is ashamed of, were close up to a thick grove of +eucalyptus which continued to the foot of the mountains. It had an +overrun little garden in front, separated from the fields by a +riotous hedge of sweetbriar. It had a few orange, and lemon, and +peach trees on its west side, the survivors of what had once been +intended for an orchard, and a line of pepper trees on the other, +between it and the road. Neglected roses and a huge wistaria +clambered over its dilapidated face. Somebody had once planted +syringas, and snowballs, and lilacs along the inside of the line of +pepper trees, and they had grown extravagantly and were an +impenetrable screen, even without the sweeping pepper trees from +the road.</p> +<p>It hadn't been lived in for years, and it was well on in decay, +being made of wood, but the situation was perfect for The Open +Arms. Every motorist coming <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>up +that road would see the signboard outside the pepper trees, and +would certainly want to stop at the neat little gate, and pass +through the flowery tunnel that would be cut through the syringas, +and see what was inside. Other houses were offered of a far higher +class, for this one had never been lived in by gentry, said the +house-agent endeavouring to put them off a thing so broken down. A +farmer had had it years back, he told them, and instead of +confining himself to drinking the milk from his own cows, which was +the only appropriate drink for a farmer the agent +maintained—he was the president of the local +Anti-Vice-In-All-Its-Forms League—he put his money as he +earned it into gin, and the gin into himself, and so after a bit +was done for.</p> +<p>The other houses the agent pressed on them were superior in +every way except situation; but situation being the first +consideration, Mr. Twist agreed with the twins, who had fallen in +love with the neglected little house whose shabbiness was being so +industriously hidden by roses, that this was the place, and a week +later it and its garden had been bought—Mr. Twist didn't tell +the twins he had bought it, in order to avoid argument, but it was +manifestly the simple thing to do—and over and round and +through it swarmed workmen all day long, like so many diligent and +determined ants. Also, before the week was out, the middle-aged +lady had been found and engaged, and a cook of gifts in the matter +of cakes. This is the way you do things in America. You decide what +it is that you really want, and you start right away and get it. +"And everything so cheap too!" exclaimed the twins gleefully, whose +£200 was behaving, it appeared, very like the widow's +cruse.</p> +<p><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>This belief, however, +received a blow when they went without Mr. Twist, who was too busy +now for any extra expeditions, to choose and buy chintzes, and it +was finally shattered when the various middle-aged ladies who +responded to Mr. Twist's cry for help in the advertising columns of +the Acapulco and Los Angeles press one and all demanded as salary +more than the whole Twinkler capital.</p> +<p>The twins had a bad moment of chill fear and misgiving, and then +once more were saved by an inspiration,—this time +Anna-Rose's.</p> +<p>"I know," she exclaimed, her face clearing. "We'll make it +Co-operative."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, whose brow too had been puckered in the effort to +think out a way of persuading the twins to let him help them openly +with his money, for in spite of his going to be their guardian they +remained difficult on this point, jumped at the idea. He couldn't, +of course, tell what in Anna-Rose's mind the word co-operative +stood for, but felt confident that whatever it stood for he could +manipulate it into covering his difficulties.</p> +<p>"What is co-operative?" asked Anna-Felicitas, with a new respect +for a sister who could suddenly produce a business word like that +and seem to know all about it. She had heard the word herself, but +it sat very loosely in her head, at no point touching anything +else.</p> +<p>"Haven't you heard of Co-operative Stores?" inquired +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Yes but—"</p> +<p>"Well, then."</p> +<p>"Yes, but what would a co-operative inn be?" persisted +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"One run on co-operative lines, of course," said Anna-<a name= +"Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>Rose grandly. "Everybody pays for +everything, so that nobody particular pays for anything."</p> +<p>"Oh," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"I mean," said Anna-Rose, who felt herself that this might be +clearer, "it's when you pay the servants and the rent and the cakes +and things out of what you get."</p> +<p>"Oh," said Anna-Felicitas. "And will they wait quite quietly +till we've got it?"</p> +<p>"Of course, if we're all co-operative."</p> +<p>"I see," said Anna-Felicitas, who saw as little as before, but +knew of old that Anna-Rose grew irascible when pressed.</p> +<p>"See here now," said Mr. Twist weightily, "if that isn't an +idea. Only you've got hold of the wrong word. The word you want is +profit-sharing. And as this undertaking is going to be a big +success there will be big profits, and any amount of cakes and +salaries will be paid for as glibly and easily as you can say your +ABC."</p> +<p>And he explained that till they were fairly started he was going +to stay in California, and that he intended during this time to be +book-keeper, secretary, and treasurer to The Open Arms, besides +Advertiser-in-Chief, which was, he said, the most important post of +all; and if they would be so good as to leave this side of it +unquestioningly to him, who had had a business training, he would +undertake that the Red Cross, American or British, whichever they +decided to support, should profit handsomely.</p> +<p>Thus did Mr. Twist artfully obtain a free hand as financial +backer of The Open Arms. The profit-sharing system seemed to the +twins admirable. It <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>cleared +away every scruple and every difficulty, they now bought chintzes +and pewter pots in the faith of it without a qualm, and even ceased +to blench at the salary of the lady engaged to be their +background,—indeed her very expensiveness pleased them, for +it gave them confidence that she must at such a price be the right +one, because nobody, they agreed, who knew herself not to be the +right one would have the face to demand so much.</p> +<p>This lady, the widow of Bruce D. Bilton of Chicago of whom of +course, she said, the Miss Twinklers had heard—the Miss +Twinklers blushed and felt ashamed of themselves because they +hadn't, and indistinctly murmured something about having heard of +Cornelius K. Vanderbilt, though, and wouldn't he do—had a +great deal of very beautiful snow-white hair, while at the same +time she was only middle-aged. She firmly announced, when she +perceived Mr. Twist's spectacles dwelling on her hair, that she +wasn't yet forty, and her one fear was that she mightn't be +middle-aged enough. The advertisement had particularly mentioned +middle-aged; and though she was aware that her brains and fingers +and feet couldn't possibly be described as coming under that +heading, she said her hair, on the other hand, might well be +regarded as having overshot the mark. But its turning white had +nothing to do with age. It had done that when Mr. Bilton passed +over. No hair could have stood such grief as hers when Mr. Bilton +took that final step. She had been considering the question of age, +she informed Mr. Twist, from every aspect before coming to the +interview, for she didn't want to make a mistake herself nor allow +the Miss Twinklers to make a mistake; and she had arrived at the +conclusion that what with her hair being too old <a name="Page_243" +id="Page_243"></a>and the rest of her being too young, taken +altogether she struck an absolute average and perfectly fulfilled +the condition required; and as she wished to live in the country, +town life disturbing her psychically too much, she was willing to +give up her home and her circle—it was a real +sacrifice—and accept the position offered by the Miss +Twinklers. She was, she said, very quiet, and yet at the same time +she was very active. She liked to fly round among duties, and she +liked to retire into her own mentality and think. She was all for +equilibrium, for the right balancing of body and mind in a proper +alternation of suitable action. Thus she attained poise,—she +was one of the most poised women her friends knew, they told her. +Also she had a warm heart, and liked both philanthropy and orphans. +Especially if they were war ones.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton talked so quickly and so profusely that it took +quite a long time to engage her. There never seemed to be a pause +in which one could do it. It was in Los Angeles, in an hotel to +which Mr. Twist had motored the twins, starting at daybreak that +morning in order to see this lady, that the personal interview took +place, and by lunch-time they had been personally interviewing her +for three hours without stopping. It seemed years. The twins longed +to engage her, if only to keep her quiet; but Mrs. Bilton's +spirited description of life as she saw it and of the way it +affected something she called her psyche, was without punctuation +and without even the tiny gap of a comma in it through which one +might have dexterously slipped a definite offer. She had to be +interrupted at last, in spite of the discomfort this gave to the +Twinkler and Twist politeness, because a cook was coming to be +<a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>interviewed directly after +lunch, and they were dying for some food.</p> +<p>The moment Mr. Twist saw Mrs. Bilton's beautiful white hair he +knew she was the one. That hair was what The Open Arms wanted and +must have; that hair, with a well-made black dress to go with it, +would be a shield through which no breath of misunderstanding as to +the singleness of purpose with which the inn was run would ever +penetrate. He would have settled it with her in five minutes if she +could have been got to listen, but Mrs. Bilton couldn't be got to +listen; and when it became clear that no amount of patient waiting +would bring him any nearer the end of what she had to say Mr. Twist +was forced to take off his coat, as it were, and plunge abruptly +into the very middle of her flow of words and convey to her as +quickly as possible, as one swimming for his life against the +stream, that she was engaged. "Engaged, Mrs. Bilton,"—he +called out, raising his voice above the sound of Mrs. Bilton's +rushing words, "engaged." She would be expected at the +Cosmopolitan, swiftly continued Mr. Twist, who was as particularly +anxious to have her at the Cosmopolitan as the twins were +particularly anxious not to,—for for the life of them they +couldn't see why Mrs. Bilton should be stirred up before they +started inhabiting the cottage,—within three days—</p> +<p>"Mr. Twist, it can't be done," broke in Mrs. Bilton a fresh and +mountainous wave of speech gathering above Mr. Twist's head. "It +absolutely—"</p> +<p>"Within a week, then," he called out quickly, holding up the +breaking of the wave for an instant while he hastened to and opened +the door. "And good<a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>morning +Mrs. Bilton—my apologies, my sincere apologies, but we have +to hurry away—"</p> +<p>The cook was engaged that afternoon. Mr. Twist appeared to have +mixed up the answers to his advertisement, for when, after paying +the luncheon-bill, he went to join the twins in the sitting-room, +he found them waiting for him in the passage outside the door +looking excited.</p> +<p>"The cook's come," whispered Anna-Rose, jerking her head towards +the shut door. "She's a man."</p> +<p>"She's a Chinaman," whispered Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was surprised. He thought he had an appointment with a +woman,—a coloured lady from South Carolina who was a +specialist in pastries and had immaculate references, but the +Chinaman assured him that he hadn't, and that his appointment was +with him alone, with him, Li Koo. In proof of it, he said, +spreading out his hands, here he was. "We make cakies—li'l +cakies—many, lovely li'l cakies," said Li Koo, observing +doubt on the gentleman's face; and from somewhere on his person he +whipped out a paper bag of them as a conjurer whips a rabbit out of +a hat, and offered them to the twins.</p> +<p>They ate. He was engaged. It took five minutes.</p> +<p>After he had gone, and punctually to the minute of her +appointment, an over-flowing Negress appeared and announced that +she was the coloured lady from South Carolina to whom the gentleman +had written.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist uncomfortably felt that Li Koo had somehow been +clever. Impossible, however, to go back on him, having eaten his +cakes. Besides, they were perfect cakes, blown together apparently +out of flowers and honey and cream,—cakes which, combined +with <a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>Mrs. Bilton's hair, would +make the fortune of The Open Arms.</p> +<p>The coloured lady, therefore, was sent away, disappointed in +spite of the <i>douceur</i> and fair words Mr. Twist gave her; and +she was so much disappointed that they could hear her being it out +loud all the way along the passage and down the stairs, and the +nature of her expression of her disappointment was such that Mr. +Twist, as he tried by animated conversation to prevent it reaching +the twins' ears, could only be thankful after all that Li Koo had +been so clever. It did, however, reach the twins' ears, but they +didn't turn a hair because of Uncle Arthur. They merely expressed +surprise at its redness, seeing that it came out of somebody so +black.</p> +<p>Directly after this trip to Los Angeles advertisements began to +creep over the countryside. They crept along the roads where +motorists were frequent and peeped at passing cars round corners +and over hedges. They were taciturn advertisements, and just said +three words in big, straight, plain white letters on a sea-blue +ground:</p> +<h3>THE OPEN ARMS</h3> +<p>People passing in their cars saw them, and vaguely thought it +must be the name of a book. They had better get it. Other people +would have got it. It couldn't be a medicine nor anything to eat, +and was probably a religious novel. Novels about feet or arms were +usually religious. A few considered it sounded a little improper, +and as though the book, far from being religious, would not be +altogether nice; but only very proper people who distrusted +everything, even arms took this view.</p> +<p><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>After a week the same +advertisements appeared with three lines added:</p> +<h3>THE OPEN ARMS<br /> +YES<br /> +BUT<br /> +WHY? WHERE? WHAT?</h3> +<p>and then ten days after that came fresh ones:</p> +<h3>THE OPEN ARMS<br /> +WILL OPEN<br /> +WIDE</h3> +<p>On November 20th at Four P.M.</p> +<h3>N.B. WATCH THE SIGNPOSTS.</h3> +<p>And while the countryside—an idle countryside, engaged +almost wholly in holiday-making and glad of any new +distraction—began to be interested and asked questions, Mr. +Twist was working day and night at getting the thing ready.</p> +<p>All day long he was in Acapulco or out at the cottage, urging, +hurrying, criticizing, encouraging, praising and admonishing. His +heart and soul and brain was in this, his business instincts and +his soft domestic side. His brain, after working at top speed +during the day with the architect, the painter and decorator, the +furnisher, the garden expert, the plumbing expert, the +electric-light expert, the lawyer, the estate agent, and numberless +other persons, during the night meditated and evolved +advertisements. There was to be a continual stream week by week +after the inn was <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>opened of +ingenious advertisements. Altogether Mr. Twist had his hands +full.</p> +<p>The inn was to look artless and simple and small, while actually +being the last word in roomy and sophisticated comfort. It was to +be as like an old English inn to look at as it could possibly be +got to be going on his own and the twins' recollections and the +sensationally coloured Elizabethan pictures in the architect's +portfolio. It didn't disturb Mr. Twist's unprejudiced American mind +that an English inn embowered in heliotrope and arum lilies and +eucalyptus trees would be odd and unnatural, and it wouldn't +disturb anybody else there either. Were not Swiss mountain chalets +to be found in the fertile plains along the Pacific, complete with +fir trees specially imported and uprooted in their maturity and +brought down with tons of their own earth attached to their roots +and replanted among carefully disposed, apparently Swiss rocks, so +that what one day had been a place smiling with orange-groves was +the next a bit of frowning northern landscape? And were there not +Italian villas dotted about also? But these looked happier and more +at home than the chalets. And there were buildings too, like small +Gothic cathedrals, looking as uncomfortable and depressed as a +woman who has come to a party in the wrong clothes. But no matter. +Nobody minded. So that an English inn added to this company, with a +little German beer-garden—only there wasn't to be any +beer—wouldn't cause the least surprise or discomfort to +anybody.</p> +<p>In the end, the sole resemblance the cottage had to an English +inn was the signboard out in the road. With the best will in the +world, and the liveliest financial encouragement from Mr. Twist, +the architect couldn't <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>in +three weeks turn a wooden Californian cottage into an ancient +red-brick Elizabethan pothouse. He got a thatched roof on to it by +a miracle of hustle, but the wooden walls remained; he also found a +real antique heavy oak front door studded with big rusty nailheads +in a San Francisco curiosity shop, that would serve, he said, as a +basis for any wished-for hark-back later on when there was more +time to the old girl's epoch—thus did he refer to Great Eliza +and her spacious days—and meanwhile it gave the building, he +alleged, a considerable air; but as this door in that fine climate +was hooked open all day long it didn't disturb the gay, the almost +jocose appearance of the place when everything was finished.</p> +<p>Houses have their expressions, their distinctive faces, very +much as people have, meditated Mr. Twist the morning of the +opening, as he sat astride a green chair at the bottom of the +little garden, where a hedge of sweetbriar beautifully separated +the Twinkler domain from the rolling fields that lay between it and +the Pacific, and stared at his handiwork; and the conclusion was +forced upon him—reluctantly, for it was the last thing he had +wanted The Open Arms to do—that the thing looked as if it +were winking at him.</p> +<p>Positively, thought Mr. Twist, his hat on the back of his head, +staring, that was what it seemed to be doing. How was that? He +studied it profoundly, his head on one side. Was it that it was so +very gay? He hadn't meant it to be gay like that. He had intended a +restrained and disciplined simplicity, a Puritan unpretentiousness, +with those sweet maidens, the Twinkler twins, flitting like modest +doves in and out among its tea-tables; but one small thing had been +added to another small thing at their suggestion, each small thing +<a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>taken separately apparently +not mattering at all and here it was almost—he hoped it was +only his imagination—winking at him. It looked a familiar +little house; jocular; very open indeed about the arms.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a><a name= +"Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> +<p>Various things had happened, however, before this morning of the +great day was reached, and Mr. Twist had had some harassing +experiences.</p> +<p>One of the first things he had done after the visit to Los +Angeles was to take steps in the matter of the guardianship. He had +written to Mrs. Bilton that he was the Miss Twinklers' guardian, +though it was not at that moment true. It was clear, he thought, +that it should be made true as quickly as possible, and he +therefore sought out a lawyer in Acapulco the morning after the +interview. This was not the same lawyer who did his estate business +for him; Mr. Twist thought it best to have a separate one for more +personal affairs.</p> +<p>On hearing Mr. Twist's name announced, the lawyer greeted him as +an old friend. He knew, of course, all about the teapot, for the +Non-Trickler was as frequent in American families as the Bible and +much more regularly used; but he also knew about the cottage at the +foot of the hills, what it had cost—which was +little—and what it would cost—which was +enormous—before it was fit to live in. The only thing he +didn't know was that it was to be used for anything except an +ordinary <i>pied-à-terre</i>. He had heard, too, of the +presence at the Cosmopolitan of the twins, and on this point, like +the rest of Acapulco, was a little curious.</p> +<p>The social column of the Acapulco daily paper hadn't been able +to give any accurate description of the relationship of the +Twinklers to Mr. Twist. Its <a name="Page_252" id= +"Page_252"></a>paragraph announcing his arrival had been obliged +merely to say, while awaiting more detailed information, that Mr. +Edward A. Twist, the well-known Breakfast Table Benefactor and +gifted inventor of the famous Non-Trickler Teapot, had arrived from +New York and was staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel with +<i>entourage</i>; and the day after this the lawyer, who got about +a bit, as everybody else did in that encouraging climate, happening +to look in at the Cosmopolitan to have a talk with a friend, had +seen the <i>entourage</i>.</p> +<p>It was in the act of passing through the hall on its way +upstairs, followed by a boy carrying a canary in a cage. Even +without the boy and the canary it was a conspicuous object. The +lawyer asked his friend who the cute little girls were, and was +interested to hear he was beholding Mr. Edward A. Twist's +<i>entourage</i>. His friend told him that opinion in the hotel was +divided about the precise nature of this <i>entourage</i> and its +relationship to Mr. Twist, but it finally came to be generally +supposed that the Miss Twinklers had been placed in his charge by +parents living far away in order that he might safely see them put +to one of the young ladies' finishing schools in that agreeable +district. The house Mr. Twist was taking was not connected in the +Cosmopolitan mind with the Twinklers. Houses were always being +taken in that paradise by wealthy persons from unkinder climates. +He would live in it three months in the year, thought the +Cosmopolitan, bring his mother, and keep in this way an occasional +eye on his charges. The hotel guests regarded the Twinklers at this +stage with nothing but benevolence and goodwill, for they had up to +then only been seen and not heard; and as one of their leading +characteristics was a desire to explain, especially if anybody +<a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>looked a little surprised, +which everybody usually did quite early in conversation with them, +this was at that moment, the delicate moment before Mrs. Bilton's +arrival, fortunate.</p> +<p>The lawyer, then, who appreciated the young and pretty as much +as other honest men, began the interview with Mr. Twist by warmly +congratulating him, when he heard what he had come for, on his +taste in wards.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist received this a little coldly, and said it was not a +matter of taste but of necessity. The Miss Twinklers were orphans, +and he had been asked—he cleared his throat—asked by +their relatives, by, in fact, their uncle in England, to take over +their guardianship and see that they came to no harm.</p> +<p>The lawyer nodded intelligently, and said that if a man had +wards at all they might as well be cute wards.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist didn't like this either, and said briefly that he had +had no choice.</p> +<p>The lawyer said, "Quite so. Quite so," and continued to look at +him intelligently.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist then explained that he had come to him rather than, as +might have been more natural, to the solicitor who had arranged the +purchase of the cottage because this was a private and personal +matter—</p> +<p>"Quite so. Quite so," interrupted the lawyer, with really almost +too much intelligence.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist felt the excess of it, and tried to look dignified, +but the lawyer was bent on being friendly and frank. Friendliness +was natural to him when visited for the first time by a new client, +and that there should be frankness between lawyers and clients he +considered essential. If, he held, the client wouldn't <a name= +"Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>be frank, then the lawyer must be; and +he must go on being so till the client came out of his reserve.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, however, was so obstinate in his reserve that the +lawyer cheerfully and unhesitatingly jumped to the conclusion that +the <i>entourage</i> must have some very weak spots about it +somewhere.</p> +<p>"There's another way out of it of course, Mr. Twist," he said, +when he had done rapidly describing the different steps to be +taken. There were not many steps. The process of turning oneself +into a guardian was surprisingly simple and swift.</p> +<p>"Out of it?" said Mr. Twist, his spectacles looking very big and +astonished. "Out of what?"</p> +<p>"Out of your little difficulty. I wonder it hasn't occurred to +you. Upon my word now, I do wonder."</p> +<p>"But I'm not in any little diff—" began Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"The elder of these two girls, now—"</p> +<p>"There isn't an elder," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Come, come," said the lawyer patiently, waiting for him to be +sensible.</p> +<p>"There isn't an elder," repeated Mr. Twist, "They're twins."</p> +<p>"Twins, are they? Well I must say we manage to match up our +twins better than that over here. But come now—hasn't it +occurred to you you might marry one of them, and so become quite +naturally related to them both?"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's spectacles seemed to grow gigantic.</p> +<p>"Marry one of them?" he repeated, his mouth helplessly +opening.</p> +<p>"Yep," said the lawyer, giving him a lead in +free-and-easiness.</p> +<p>"Look here," said Mr. Twist suddenly gathering his <a name= +"Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>mouth together, "cut that line of joke +out. I'm here on serious business. I haven't come to be facetious. +Least of all about those children—"</p> +<p>"Quite so, quite so," interrupted the lawyer pleasantly. +"Children, you call them. How old are they? Seventeen? My wife was +sixteen when we married. Oh quite so, quite so. Certainly. By all +means. Well then, they're to be your wards. And you don't want it +known how recently they've become your wards—"</p> +<p>"I didn't say that," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Quite so, quite so. But it's your wish, isn't it. The +relationship is to look as grass-grown as possible. Well, I shall +be dumb of course, but most things get into the press here. Let me +see—" He pulled a sheet of paper towards him and took up his +fountain pen. "Just oblige me with particulars. Date of birth. +Place of birth. Parentage—"</p> +<p>He looked up ready to write, waiting for the answers.</p> +<p>None came.</p> +<p>"I can't tell you off hand," said Mr. Twist presently, his +forehead puckered.</p> +<p>"Ah," said the lawyer, laying down his pen. "Quite so. Not known +your young friends long enough yet."</p> +<p>"I've known them quite long enough," said Mr. Twist stiffly, +"but we happen to have found more alive topics of conversation than +dates and parents."</p> +<p>"Ah. Parents not alive."</p> +<p>"Unfortunately they are not. If they were, these poor children +wouldn't be knocking about in a strange country."</p> +<p>"Where would they be?" asked the lawyer, balancing his pen +across his forefinger.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked at him very straight. Vividly <a name= +"Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>he remembered his mother's peculiar +horror when he told her the girls he was throwing away his home +life for and breaking her heart over were Germans. It had acted +upon her like the last straw. And since then he had felt +everywhere, with every one he talked to, in every newspaper he +read, the same strong hostility to Germans, so much stronger than +when he left America the year before.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist began to perceive that he had been impetuous in this +matter of the guardianship. He hadn't considered it enough. He +suddenly saw innumerable difficulties for the twins and for The +Open Arms if it was known it was run by Germans. Better abandon the +guardianship idea than that such difficulties should arise. He +hadn't thought; he hadn't had time properly to think; he had been +so hustled and busy the last few days....</p> +<p>"They come from England," he said, looking at the lawyer very +straight.</p> +<p>"Ah," said the lawyer.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist wasn't going to lie about the twins, but merely, by +evading, he hoped to put off the day when their nationality would +be known. Perhaps it never would be known; or if known, known later +on when everybody, as everybody must who knew them, loved them for +themselves and accordingly wouldn't care.</p> +<p>"Quite so," said the lawyer again, nodding. "I asked because I +overheard them talking the other day as they passed through the +hall of your hotel. They were talking about a canary. The r in the +word seemed a little rough. Not quite English, Mr. Twist? Not quite +American?"</p> +<p>"Not quite," agreed Mr. Twist. "They've been a good deal +abroad."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>Quite so. At school, no +doubt."</p> +<p>He was silent a moment, intelligently balancing his pen on his +forefinger.</p> +<p>"Then these particulars," he went on, looking up at Mr. +Twist,—"could you let me have them soon? I tell you what. +You're in a hurry to fix this. I'll call round to-night at the +hotel, and get them direct from your young friends. Save time. And +make me acquainted with a pair of charming girls."</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist. He got on to his feet and held out his +hand. "Not to-night. We're engaged to-night. To-morrow will be soon +enough. I'll send round. I'll let you know. I believe I'm going to +think it over a bit. There isn't any such terrible hurry, +anyhow."</p> +<p>"There isn't? I understood—"</p> +<p>"I mean, a day or two more or less don't figure out at much in +the long run."</p> +<p>"Quite so, quite so," said the lawyer, getting up too. "Well, +I'm always at your service, at any time." And he shook hands +heartily with Mr. Twist and politely opened the door for him.</p> +<p>Then he went back to his writing-table more convinced than ever +that there was something very weak somewhere about the +<i>entourage</i>.</p> +<p>As for Mr. Twist, he perceived he had been a fool. Why had he +gone to the lawyer at all? Why not simply have announced to the +world that he was the Twinkler guardian? The twins themselves would +have believed it if he had come in one day and said it was settled, +and nobody outside would ever have dreamed of questioning it. After +all, you couldn't see if a man was a guardian or not just by +looking at him. Well, he would do no more about it, it was much too +<a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>difficult. Bother it. Let Mrs. +Bilton go on supposing he was the legal guardian of her charges. +Anyway he had all the intentions of a guardian. What a fool he had +been to go to the lawyer. Curse that lawyer. Now he knew, however +distinctly and frequently he, Mr. Twist, might say he was the +Twinkler guardian, that he wasn't.</p> +<p>It harassed Mr. Twist to perceive, as he did perceive with +clearness, that he had been a fool; but the twins, when he told +them that evening that owing to technical difficulties, with the +details of which he wouldn't trouble them, the guardianship was +off, were pleased.</p> +<p>"We want to be bound to you," said Anna-Felicitas her eyes very +soft and her voice very gentle, "only by ties of affection and +gratitude."</p> +<p>And Anna-Rose, turning red, opened her mouth as though she were +going to say something handsome like that too, but seemed unable +after all to get it out, and only said, rather inaudibly, +"Yes."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a><a name="Page_259" +id="Page_259"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> +<p>Yet another harassing experience awaited Mr. Twist before the +end of that week.</p> +<p>It had been from the first his anxious concern that nothing +should occur at the Cosmopolitan to get his party under a cloud; +yet it did get under a cloud, and on the very last afternoon, too, +before Mrs. Bilton's arrival. Only twenty-four hours more and her +snowy-haired respectability would have spread over the twins like a +white whig. They would have been safe. His party would have been +unassailable. But no; those Twinklers, in spite of his exhortation +whenever he had a minute left to exhort in, couldn't, it seemed, +refrain from twinkling,—the word in Mr. Twist's mind covered +the whole of their easy friendliness, their flow of language, their +affable desire to explain.</p> +<p>He had kept them with him as much as he could, and luckily the +excited interest they took in the progress of the inn made them +happy to hang about it most of the time of the delicate and +dangerous week before Mrs. Bilton came; but they too had things to +do,—shopping in Acapulco choosing the sea-blue linen frocks +and muslin caps and aprons in which they were to wait at tea, and +buying the cushions and flower-pots and canary that came under the +general heading, in Anna-Rose's speech, of feminine touches. So +they sometimes left him; and he never saw them go without a +qualm.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>Mind and not say anything +to anybody about this, won't you," he would say hastily, making a +comprehensive gesture towards the cottage as they went.</p> +<p>"Of course we won't."</p> +<p>"I meant, nobody is to know what it's really going to be. +They're to think it's just a <i>pied-à-terre.</i> It would +most ruin my advertisement scheme if they—"</p> +<p>"But of <i>course</i> we won't. Have we ever?" the twins would +answer, looking very smug and sure of themselves.</p> +<p>"No. Not yet. But—"</p> +<p>And the hustled man would plunge again into technicalities with +whichever expert was at that moment with him, leaving the twins, as +he needs must, to God and their own discretion.</p> +<p>Discretion, he already amply knew, was not a Twinkler +characteristic. But the week passed, Mrs. Bilton's arrival grew +near, and nothing had happened. It was plain to the watchful Mr. +Twist, from the pleasant looks of the other guests when the twins +went in and out of the restaurant to meals, that nothing had +happened. His heart grew lighter. On the last afternoon, when Mrs. +Bilton was actually due next day, his heart was quite light, and he +saw them leave him to go back and rest at the hotel, because they +were tired by the accumulated standing about of the week, +altogether unconcernedly.</p> +<p>The attitude of the Cosmopolitan guests towards the twins was, +indeed, one of complete benevolence. They didn't even mind the +canary. Who would not be indulgent towards two such sweet little +girls and their pet bird, even if it did sing all day and most of +the night without stopping? The Twinkler girls were like two little +bits of snapped-off sunlight, or bits of white <a name="Page_261" +id="Page_261"></a>blossom blowing in and out of the hotel in their +shining youth and it was impossible not to regard them indulgently. +But if the guests were indulgent, they were also inquisitive. +Everybody knew who Mr. Twist was; who, however, were the Twinklers? +Were they relations of his? <i>Protégées</i>? +Charges?</p> +<p>The social column of the Acapulco daily paper, from which +information as to new arrivals was usually got, had, as we know, in +its embarrassment at being ignorant to take refuge in French, +because French may so easily be supposed to mean something. The +paper had little knowledge of, but much confidence in, French. +<i>Entourage</i> had seemed to it as good a word as any other, as +indeed did <i>clientèle</i>. It had hesitated between the +two, but finally chose <i>entourage</i> because there happened to +be no accent in its stock of type. The Cosmopolitan guests were +amused at the word, and though inquisitive were altogether amiable; +and, until the last afternoon, only the manager didn't like the +Twinklers. He didn't like them because of the canary. His +sympathies had been alienated from the Miss Twinklers the moment he +heard through the chambermaid that they had tied the heavy canary +cage on to the hanging electric light in their bedroom. He said +nothing, of course. One doesn't say anything if one is an hotel +manager, until the unique and final moment when one says +everything.</p> +<p>On the last afternoon before Mrs. Bilton's advent the twins, +tired of standing about for days at the cottage and in shops, +appeared in the hall of the hotel and sat down to rest. They didn't +go to their room to rest because they didn't feel inclined for the +canary, and they sat down very happily in the comfortable +rocking-chairs with which the big hall abounded, and, propping +<a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>their dusty feet on the lower +bar of a small table, with friendly and interested eyes they +observed the other guests.</p> +<p>The other guests also observed them.</p> +<p>It was the first time the <i>entourage</i> had appeared without +its companion, and the other guests were dying to know details +about it. It hadn't been sitting in the hall five minutes before a +genial old gentleman caught Anna-Felicitas's friendly eye and +instantly drew up his chair.</p> +<p>"Uncle gone off by himself to-day?" he asked; for he was of the +party in the hotel which inclined, in spite of the marked +difference in profiles, to the relationship theory, and he made a +shot at the relationship being that of uncle.</p> +<p>"We haven't got an uncle nearer than England," said +Anna-Felicitas affably.</p> +<p>"And we only got him by accident," said Anna-Rose, equally +affably.</p> +<p>"It was an unfortunate accident," said Anna-Felicitas, +considering her memories.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said the old gentleman. "Indeed. How was that?"</p> +<p>"By the usual method, if an uncle isn't a blood uncle," said +Anna-Rose. "We happened to have a marriageable aunt, and he married +her. So we have to have him."</p> +<p>"It was sheer bad luck," said Anna-Felicitas, again brooding on +that distant image.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose. "Just bad luck. He might so easily have +married some one else's aunt. But no. His roving glance must needs +go and fall on ours."</p> +<p>"Indeed," said the old gentleman. "Indeed." And he ruminated on +this, with an affectionate eye—he was +affectionate—resting in turn on each Anna.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>Then Mr. Twist," he went +on presently—"we all know him of course—a public +benefactor—"</p> +<p>"Yes, <i>isn't</i> he," said Anna-Rose radiantly.</p> +<p>"A boon to the breakfast-table—"</p> +<p>"Yes, <i>isn't</i> he," said Anna-Rose again, all asparkle. "He +<i>is</i> so pleasant at breakfast."</p> +<p>"Then he—Mr. Twist—Teapot Twist we call him where I +live—"</p> +<p>"Teapot Twist?" said Anna-Rose. "I think that's irreverent."</p> +<p>"Not at all. It's a pet name. A sign of our affection and +gratitude. Then he isn't your uncle?"</p> +<p>"We haven't got a real uncle nearer than heaven," said +Anna-Felicitas, her cheek on her hand, dreamily reconstructing the +image of Onkel Col.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said the old gentleman. "Indeed." And he ruminated, on +this too, his thirsty heart—he had a thirsty heart, and found +difficulty in slaking it because of his wife—very indulgent +toward the twins.</p> +<p>Then he said: "That's a long way off."</p> +<p>"What is?" asked Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"The place your uncle's in."</p> +<p>"Not too far really," said Anna-Felicitas softly. "He's safe +there. He was very old, and was difficult to look after. Why, he +got there at last through his own carelessness."</p> +<p>"Indeed," said the old gentleman.</p> +<p>"Sheer carelessness," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said the old gentleman. "How was that?"</p> +<p>"Well, you see where we lived they didn't have electric light," +began Anna-Rose, "and one night—the the night he went to +heaven—he put the petroleum lamp—"</p> +<p><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>And she was about to relate +that dreadful story of Onkle Col's end which has already been +described in these pages as unfit for anywhere but an appendix for +time had blunted her feelings, when Anna-Felicitas put out a +beseeching hand and stopped her. Even after all these years +Anna-Felicitas couldn't bear to remember Onkle Col's end. It had +haunted her childhood. It had licked about her dreams in leaping +tongues of flame. And it wasn't only tongues of flame. There were +circumstances connected with it.... Only quite recently, since the +war had damped down lesser horrors, had she got rid of it. She +could at least now talk of him calmly, and also speculate with +pleasure on the probable aspect of Onkle Col in glory, but she +still couldn't bear to hear the details of his end.</p> +<p>At this point an elderly lady of the spare and active type, very +upright and much wrinkled, that America seems so freely to produce, +came down the stairs; and seeing the twins talking to the old +gentleman, crossed straight over and sat down briskly next to them +smiling benevolently.</p> +<p>"Well, if Mr. Ridding can talk to you I guess so can I," she +said, pulling her knitting out of a brocaded bag and nodding and +smiling at the group.</p> +<p>She was knitting socks for the Allied armies in France the next +winter, but it being warm just then in California they were cotton +socks because wool made her hands too hot.</p> +<p>The twins were all polite, reciprocal smiles.</p> +<p>"I'm just crazy to hear about you," said the brisk lady, +knitting with incredible energy, while her smiles flicked over +everybody. "You're fresh from Europe, aren't you? What say? Quite +fresh? My, aren't you cute little things. Thinking of making a long +stay in the <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>States? What say? +For the rest of your lives? Why now, I call that just splendid. +Parents coming out West soon too? What say? Prevented? Well, I +guess they won't let themselves be prevented long. Mr. Twist +looking after you meanwhile? What say? There isn't any meanwhile? +Well, I don't quite—Mr. Twist your uncle, or cousin? What +say? No relation at all? H'm, h'm. No relation at all, is he. Well, +I guess he's an old friend of your parents, then. What say? They +didn't know him? H'm, h'm. They didn't know him, didn't they. Well, +I don't quite—What say? But you know him? Yes, yes, so I see. +H'm, h'm. I don't quite—" Her needles flew in and out, and +her ball of cotton rolled on to the floor in her surprise.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose got up and fetched it for her before the old +gentleman, who was gazing with thirsty appreciation at +Anna-Felicitas, could struggle out of his chair.</p> +<p>"You see," explained Anna-Felicitas, taking advantage of the +silence that had fallen on the lady, "Mr. Twist, regarded as a man, +is old, but regarded as a friend he is new."</p> +<p>"Brand new," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"H'm, h'm," said the lady, knitting faster than ever, and +looking first at one twin and then at the other. "H'm, h'm, h'm. +Brand new, is he. Well, I don't quite—" Her smiles had now to +struggle with the uncertainty and doubt, and were weakening +visibly.</p> +<p>"Say now, where did you meet Teapot Twist?" asked the old +gentleman, who was surprised too, but remained quite benevolent +owing to his affectionate heart and his not being a lady.</p> +<p>"We met Mr. Twist," said Anna-Rose, who objected to this way of +alluding to him, "on the steamer."</p> +<p>"Not before? You didn't meet Mr. Twist before the <a name= +"Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>steamer?" exclaimed the lady, the last +of her smiles flickering out. "Not before the steamer, didn't you. +Just a steamship acquaintance. Parents never seen him. H'm, h'm, +h'm."</p> +<p>"We would have met him before if we could," said Anna-Felicitas +earnestly.</p> +<p>"I should think so," said Anna-Rose. "It has been the great +retrospective loss of our lives meeting him so late in them."</p> +<p>"Why now," said the old gentleman smiling, "I shouldn't call it +so particularly late in them."</p> +<p>But the knitting lady didn't smile at all, and sat up very +straight and said "H'm, h'm, h'm" to her flashing needles as they +flew in and out; for not only was she in doubt now about the cute +little things, but she also regretted, on behalf of the old +gentleman's wife who was a friend of hers, the alert interest of +his manner. He sat there so very much awake. With his wife he never +seemed awake at all. Up to now she had not seen him except with his +wife.</p> +<p>"You mustn't run away with the idea that we're younger than we +really are," Anna-Rose said to the old gentleman.</p> +<p>"Why no, I won't," he answered with a liveliness that deepened +the knitting lady's regret on behalf of his wife. "When I run away +you bet it won't be with an idea."</p> +<p>And he chuckled. He was quite rosy in the face, and chuckled; he +whom she knew only as a quiet man with no chuckle in him. And +wasn't what he had just said very like what the French call a +<i>double entendre?</i> She hadn't a husband herself, but if she +had she would wish him to be at least as quiet when away from her +as when with her, and at least as free from <i>double +entendres</i>. <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>At least. +Really more. "H'm, h'm, h'm," she said, clicking her needles and +looking first at the twins and then at the old gentleman.</p> +<p>"Do you mean to say you crossed the Atlantic quite alone, you +two?" she asked, in order to prevent his continuing on these +remarkable and unusual lines of <i>badinage</i>.</p> +<p>"Quite," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"That is to say, we had Mr. Twist of course," said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Once we had got him," amended Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Yes, yes," said the knitting lady, "so you say. H'm, h'm, h'm. +Once you had got him. I don't quite—"</p> +<p>"Well, I call you a pair of fine high-spirited girls," said the +old gentleman heartily, interrupting in his turn, "and all I can +say is I wish I had been on that boat."</p> +<p>"Here's Mrs. Ridding," said the knitting lady quickly, relief in +her voice; whereupon he suddenly grew quiet. "My, Mrs. Ridding," +she added when the lady drew within speaking distance, "you do look +as though you needed a rest."</p> +<p>Mrs. Ridding, the wife of the old gentleman, Mr. Ridding, had +been approaching slowly for some time from behind. She had been out +on the verandah since lunch, trying to recover from it. That was +the one drawback to meals, she considered, that they required so +much recovering from; and the nicer they were the longer it took. +The meals at the Cosmopolitan were particularly nice, and really +all one's time was taken up getting over them.</p> +<p>She was a lady whose figure seemed to be all meals. The old +gentleman had married her in her youth, when <a name="Page_268" id= +"Page_268"></a>she hadn't had time to have had so many. He and she +were then the same age, and unfortunately hadn't gone on being the +same age since. It had wrecked his life this inability of his wife +to stay as young and new as himself. He wanted a young wife, and +the older he got in years—his heart very awkwardly retained +its early freshness—the younger he wanted her; and, instead, +the older he got the older his wife got too. Also the less new. The +old gentleman felt the whole thing was a dreadful mistake. Why +should he have to be married to this old lady? Never in his life +had he wanted to marry old ladies; and he thought it very hard that +at an age when he most appreciated bright youth he should be forced +to spend his precious years, his crowning years when his mind had +attained wisdom while his heart retained freshness, stranded with +an old lady of costly habits and inordinate bulk just because years +ago he had fallen in love with a chance pretty girl.</p> +<p>He struggled politely out of his chair on seeing her. The twins, +impressed by such venerable abundance, got up too.</p> +<p>"Albert, if you try to move too quick you'll crick your back +again," said Mrs. Ridding in a monotonous voice, letting herself +down carefully and a little breathlessly on to the edge of a chair +that didn't rock, and fanning herself with a small fan she carried +on the end of a massive gold chain. Her fatigued eyes explored the +twins while she spoke.</p> +<p>"I can't get Mr. Ridding to remember that we're neither of us as +young as we were," she went on, addressing the knitting lady but +with her eyes continuing to explore the twins.</p> +<p>They naturally thought she was speaking to them, and +Anna-Felicitas said politely, "Really?" and Anna-<a name="Page_269" +id="Page_269"></a>Rose, feeling she too ought to make some comment, +said, "Isn't that very unusual?"</p> +<p>Aunt Alice always said, "Isn't that very unusual?" when she +didn't know what else to say, and it worked beautifully, because +then the other person launched into affirmations or denials with +the reasons for them, and was quite happy.</p> +<p>But Mrs. Ridding only stared at the twins heavily and in +silence.</p> +<p>"Because," explained Anna-Rose, who thought the old lady didn't +quite follow, "nobody ever is. So that it must be difficult not to +remember it."</p> +<p>Mr. Ridding too was silent, but that was because of his wife. It +was quite untrue to say that he forgot, seeing that she was +constantly reminding him. "Old stranger," he thought resentfully, +as he carefully arranged a cushion behind her back. He didn't like +her back. Why should he have to pay bills for putting expensive +clothes on it? He didn't want to. It was all a dreadful +mistake.</p> +<p>"You're the Twinkler girls," said the old lady abruptly.</p> +<p>They made polite gestures of agreement.</p> +<p>The knitting lady knitted vigorously, sitting up very straight +and saying nothing, with a look on her face of disclaiming every +responsibility.</p> +<p>"Where does your family come from?" was the next question.</p> +<p>This was unexpected. The twins had no desire to talk of +Pomerania. They hadn't wanted to talk about Pomerania once since +the war began; and they felt very distinctly in their bones that +America, though she was a neutral, didn't like Germany any more +than the belligerents did. It had been their intention to arrange +<a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>together the line they would +take if asked questions of this sort, but life had been so full and +so exciting since their arrival that they had forgotten to.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose found herself unable to say anything at all. +Anna-Felicitas, therefore, observing that Christopher was unnerved, +plunged in.</p> +<p>"Our family," she said gently, "can hardly be said to come so +much as to have been."</p> +<p>The old lady thought this over, her lustreless eyes on +Anna-Felicitas's face.</p> +<p>The knitting lady clicked away very fast, content to leave the +management of the Twinklers in more competent hands.</p> +<p>"How's that?" asked the old lady, finally deciding that she +hadn't understood.</p> +<p>"It's extinct," said Anna-Felicitas. "Except us. That is, in the +direct line."</p> +<p>The old lady was a little impressed by this, direct lines not +being so numerous or so clear in America as in some other +countries.</p> +<p>"You mean you two are the only Twinklers left?" she asked.</p> +<p>"The only ones left that matter," said Anna-Felicitas. "There +are branches of Twinklers still existing, I believe, but they're so +unimportant that we don't know them."</p> +<p>"Mere twigs," said Anna-Rose, recovering her nerves on seeing +Anna-Felicitas handle the situation so skilfully; and her nose +unconsciously gave a slight Junker lift.</p> +<p>"Haven't you got any parents?" asked the old lady.</p> +<p>"We used to have," said Anna-Felicitas flushing, afraid that her +darling mother was going to be asked about.</p> +<p><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>The old gentleman gave a +sudden chuckle. "Why yes," he said, forgetting his wife's presence +for an instant, "I guess you had them once, or I don't see +how—"</p> +<p>"Albert," said his wife.</p> +<p>"We are the sole surviving examples of the direct line of +Twinklers," said Anna-Rose, now quite herself and ready to give +Columbus a hand. "There's just us. And we—" she paused a +moment, and then plunged—"we come from England."</p> +<p>"Do you?" said the old lady. "Now I shouldn't have said that. I +can't say just why, but I shouldn't. Should you, Miss Heap?"</p> +<p>"I shouldn't say a good many things, Mrs. Ridding," said Miss +Heap enigmatically, her needles flying.</p> +<p>"It's because we've been abroad a great deal with our parents, I +expect," said Anna-Rose rather quickly. "I daresay it has left its +mark on us."</p> +<p>"Everything leaves its mark on one," observed Anna-Felicitas +pleasantly.</p> +<p>"Ah," said the old lady. "I know what it is now. It's the +foreign r. You've picked it up. Haven't they, Miss Heap."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't like to say what they haven't picked up, Mrs. +Ridding," said Miss Heap, again enigmatically.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid we have," said Anna-Rose, turning red. "We've been +told that before. It seems to stick, once one has picked it +up."</p> +<p>And the old gentleman muttered that everything stuck once one +had picked it up, and looked resentfully at his wife.</p> +<p>She moved her slow eyes round, and let them rest on him a +moment.</p> +<p>"Albert, if you talk so much you won't be able to <a name= +"Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>sleep to-night," she said. "I can't +get Mr. Ridding to remember we've got to be careful at our age," +she added to the knitting lady.</p> +<p>"You seem to be bothered by your memory," said Anna-Rose +politely, addressing the old gentleman "Have you ever tried making +notes on little bits of paper of the things you have to remember? I +think you would probably be all right then. Uncle Arthur used to do +that. Or rather he made Aunt Alice do it for him, and put them +where he would see them."</p> +<p>"Uncle Arthur," explained Anna-Felicitas to the old lady, "is an +uncle of ours. The one," she said turning to the old gentleman, "we +were just telling you about, who so unfortunately insisted on +marrying our aunt. Uncle, that is, by courtesy," she added, turning +to the old lady, "not by blood."</p> +<p>The old lady's eyes moved from one twin to the other as each one +spoke, but she said nothing.</p> +<p>"But Aunt Alice," said Anna-Rose, "is our genuine aunt. Well, I +was going to tell you," she continued briskly, addressing the old +gentleman. "There used to be things Uncle Arthur had to do every +day and every week, but still he had to be reminded of them each +time, and Aunt Alice had a whole set of the regular ones written +out on bits of cardboard, and brought them out in turn. The Monday +morning one was: Wind the Clock, and the Sunday morning one was: +Take your Hot Bath, and the Saturday evening one was: Remember your +Pill. And there was one brought in regularly every morning with his +shaving water and stuck in his looking-glass: Put on your +Abdominable Belt."</p> +<p>The knitting needles paused an instant.</p> +<p>"Yes," Anna-Felicitas joined in, interested by these +recollections, her long limbs sunk in her chair in a position +<a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>of great ease and comfort, +"and it seemed to us so funny for him to have to be reminded to put +on what was really a part of his clothes every day, that once we +wrote a slip of our own for him and left it on his dressing-table: +Don't forget your Trousers."</p> +<p>The knitting needles paused again.</p> +<p>"But the results of that were dreadful," added Anna-Felicitas, +her face sobering at the thought of them.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose. "You see, he supposed Aunt Alice had done +it, in a fit of high spirits, though she never had high +spirits—"</p> +<p>"And wouldn't have been allowed to if she had," explained +Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"And he thought she was laughing at him," said Anna-Rose, +"though we have never seen her laugh—"</p> +<p>"And I don't believe he has either," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"So there was trouble, because he couldn't bear the idea of her +laughing at him, and we had to confess."</p> +<p>"But that didn't make it any better for Aunt Alice."</p> +<p>"No, because then he said it was her fault anyhow for not +keeping us stricter."</p> +<p>"So," said Anna-Felicitas, "after the house had been steeped in +a sulphurous gloom for over a week, and we all felt as though we +were being slowly and steadily gassed, we tried to make it up by +writing a final one—a nice one—and leaving it on his +plate at breakfast: Kiss your Wife. But instead of kissing her +he—" She broke off, and then finished a little vaguely: "Oh +well, he didn't."</p> +<p>"Still," remarked Anna-Rose, "it must be pleasant not to be +kissed by a husband. Aunt Alice always wanted him to, strange to +say, which is why we reminded him of it. He used to forget that +more regularly <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>than almost +anything. And the people who lived in the house nearest us were +just the opposite—the husband was for ever trying to kiss the +person who was his wife, and she was for ever dodging him."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas. "Like the people on Keats's Grecian +Urn."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Rose. "And that sort of husband, must be even +worse.</p> +<p>"Oh, much worse," agreed Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>She looked round amiably at the three quiet figures in the +chairs. "I shall refrain altogether from husbands," she said +placidly. "I shall take something that doesn't kiss."</p> +<p>And she fell into an abstraction, wondering, with her cheek +resting on her hand, what he, or it, would look like.</p> +<p>There was a pause. Anna-Rose was wondering too what sort of a +creature Columbus had in her mind, and how many, if any, legs it +would have; and the other three were, as before, silent.</p> +<p>Then the old lady said, "Albert," and put out her hand to be +helped on to her feet.</p> +<p>The old gentleman struggled out of his chair, and helped her up. +His face had a congested look, as if he were with difficulty +keeping back things he wanted to say.</p> +<p>Miss Heap got up too, stuffing her knitting as she did so into +her brocaded bag.</p> +<p>"Go on ahead and ring the elevator bell, Albert," said the old +lady. "It's time we went and had our nap."</p> +<p>"I ain't going to," said the old gentleman suddenly.</p> +<p>"What say? What ain't you going to, Albert?" said the old lady, +turning her slow eyes round to him.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>Nap," said the old +gentleman, his face very red.</p> +<p>It was intolerable to have to go and nap. He wished to stay +where he was and talk to the twins. Why should he have to nap +because somebody else wanted to? Why should he have to nap with an +old lady, anyway? Never in his life had he wanted to nap with old +ladies. It was all a dreadful mistake.</p> +<p>"Albert," said his wife looking at him.</p> +<p>He went on ahead and rang the lift-bell.</p> +<p>"You're quite right to see that he rests, Mrs. Ridding," said +Miss Heap, walking away with her and slowing her steps to suit +hers. "I should say it was essential that he should be kept quiet +in the afternoons. You should see that Mr. Ridding rests more than +he does. <i>Much</i> more," she added significantly.</p> +<p>"I can't get Mr. Ridding to remember that we're neither of +us—"</p> +<p>This was the last the twins heard.</p> +<p>They too had politely got out of their chairs when the old lady +began to heave into activity, and they stood watching the three +departing figures. They were a little surprised. Surely they had +all been in the middle of an interesting conversation?</p> +<p>"Perhaps it's American to go away in the middle," remarked +Anna-Rose, following the group with her eyes as it moved toward the +lift.</p> +<p>"Perhaps it is," said Anna-Felicitas, also gazing after it.</p> +<p>The old gentleman, in the brief moment during which the two +ladies had their backs to him while preceding him into the lift, +turned quickly round on his heels and waved his hand before he +himself went in.</p> +<p>The twins laughed, and waved back; and they waved with such +goodwill that the old gentleman couldn't <a name="Page_276" id= +"Page_276"></a>resist giving one more wave. He was seen doing it by +the two ladies as they faced round, and his wife, as she let +herself down on to the edge of the seat, remarked that he mustn't +exert himself like that or he would have to begin taking his drops +again.</p> +<p>That was all she said in the lift; but in their room, when she +had got her breath again, she said, "Albert, there's just one thing +in the world I hate worse than a fool, and that's an old fool."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a><a name="Page_277" +id="Page_277"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> +<p>That evening, while the twins were undressing, a message came up +from the office that the manager would be obliged if the Miss +Twinklers' canary wouldn't sing.</p> +<p>"But it can't help it," said Anna-Felicitas through the crack of +door she held open; she was already in her nightgown. "You wouldn't +either if you were a canary," she added, reasoning with the +messenger.</p> +<p>"It's just got to help it," said he.</p> +<p>"But why shouldn't it sing?"</p> +<p>"Complaints."</p> +<p>"But it always has sung."</p> +<p>"That is so. And it has sung once too often. It's unpopular in +this hotel, that canary of yours. It's just got to rest a while. +Take it easy. Sit quiet on its perch and think."</p> +<p>"But it won't sit quiet and think."</p> +<p>"Well, I've told you," he said, going away.</p> +<p>This was the bird that had been seen arriving at the +Cosmopolitan about a week before by the lawyer, and it had +piercingly sung ever since. It sang, that is, as long as there was +any light, real or artificial, to sing by. The boy who carried it +from the shop for the twins said its cage was to be hung in a +window in the sun, or it couldn't do itself justice. But electric +light also enabled it to do itself justice, the twins discovered, +and if they sat up late the canary sat up late too, singing as +loudly and as mechanically as if it hadn't been a real <a name= +"Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>canary at all, but something clever +and American with a machine inside it.</p> +<p>Secretly the twins didn't like it. Shocked at its loud +behaviour, they had very soon agreed that it was no lady, but +Anna-Rose was determined to have it at The Open Arms because of her +conviction that no house showing the trail of a woman's hand was +without a canary. That, and a workbag. She bought them both the +same day. The workbag didn't matter, because it kept quiet; but the +canary was a very big, very yellow bird, much bigger and yellower +than the frailer canaries of a more exhausted civilization, and +quite incapable, unless it was pitch dark, of keeping quiet for a +minute. Evidently, as Anna-Felicitas said, it had a great many +lungs. Her idea of lungs, in spite of her time among them and +similar objects at a hospital, was what it had always been: that +they were things like pink macaroni strung across a frame of bones +on the principle of a lyre or harp, and producing noises. She +thought the canary had unusual numbers of these pink strings, and +all of them of the biggest and dearest kind of macaroni.</p> +<p>The other guests at the Cosmopolitan had been rather restive +from the first on account of this bird, but felt so indulgent +toward its owners, those cute little relations or charges or +whatever they were of Teapot Twist's, that they bore its singing +without complaint. But on the evening of the day the Annas had the +interesting conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Ridding and Miss Heap, +two definite complaints were lodged in the office, and one was from +Mrs. Ridding and the other was from Miss Heap.</p> +<p>The manager, as has been said, was already sensitive about the +canary. Its cage was straining his electric light cord, and its +food, assiduously administered in <a name="Page_279" id= +"Page_279"></a>quantities exceeding its capacity, littered the +expensive pink pile carpet. He therefore lent a ready ear and sent +up a peremptory message; and while the message was going up, Miss +Heap, who had come herself with her complaint, stayed on discussing +the Twist and Twinkler party.</p> +<p>She said nothing really; she merely asked questions; and not one +of the questions, now they were put to him, did the manager find he +could answer. No doubt everything was all right. Everybody knew +about Mr. Twist, and it wasn't likely he would choose an hotel of +so high a class to stay in if his relations to the Miss Twinklers +were anything but regular. And a lady companion, he understood, was +joining the party shortly; and besides, there was the house being +got ready, a permanent place of residence he gathered, in which the +party would settle down, and experience had taught him that genuine +illicitness was never permanent. Still, the manager himself hadn't +really cared about the Twinklers since the canary came. He could +fill the hotel very easily, and there was no need to accommodate +people who spoilt carpets. Also, the moment the least doubt or +question arose among his guests, all of whom he knew and most of +whom came back regularly every year, as to the social or moral +status of any new arrivals, then those arrivals must go. Miss Heap +evidently had doubts. Her standard, it is true, was the almost +impossibly high one of the unmarried lady of riper years, but Mrs. +Ridding, he understood, had doubts too; and once doubts started in +an hotel he knew from experience that they ran through it like +measles. The time had come for him to act.</p> +<p>Next morning, therefore, he briskly appeared in Mr. Twist's room +as he was pulling on his boots, and cheer<a name="Page_280" id= +"Page_280"></a>fully hoped he was bearing in mind what he had been +told the day he took the rooms, that they were engaged for the date +of the month now arrived at.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist paused with a boot half on. "I'm not bearing it in +mind," he said, "because you didn't tell me."</p> +<p>"Oh yes I did, Mr. Twist," said the manager briskly. "It isn't +likely I'd make a mistake about that. The rooms are taken every +year for this date by the same people. Mrs. Hart of Boston has this +one, and Mr. and Mrs.—"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist heard no more. He finished lacing his boots in +silence. What he had been so much afraid of had happened: he and +the twins had got under a cloud.</p> +<p>The twins had been saying things. Last night they told him they +had made some friends. He had been uneasy at that, and questioned +them. But it appeared they had talked chiefly of their Uncle +Arthur. Well, damnable as Uncle Arthur was as a man he was safe +enough as a topic of conversation. He was English. He was known to +people in America like the Delloggs and the Sacks. But it was now +clear they must have said things besides that. Probably they had +expatiated on Uncle Arthur from some point of view undesirable to +American ears. The American ear was very susceptible. He hadn't +been born in New England without becoming aware of that.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist tied his bootlaces with such annoyance that he got +them into knots. He ought never to have come with the Annas to a +big hotel. Yet lodgings would have been worse. Why hadn't that +white-haired gasbag, Mrs. Bilton—Mr. Twist's thoughts were +sometimes unjust—joined them sooner? Why had that <a name= +"Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>shirker Dellogg died? He got his +bootlaces hopelessly into knots.</p> +<p>"I'd like to start right in getting the rooms fixed up, Mr. +Twist," said the manager pleasantly. "Mrs. Hart of Boston is +very—"</p> +<p>"See here," said Mr. Twist, straightening himself and turning +the full light of his big spectacles on to him, "I don't care a +curse for Mrs. Hart of Boston."</p> +<p>The manager expressed regret that Mr. Twist should connect a +curse with a lady. It wasn't American to do that. Mrs. +Hart—</p> +<p>"Damn Mrs. Hart," said Mr. Twist, who had become full-bodied of +speech while in France, and when he was goaded let it all out.</p> +<p>The manager went away. And so, two hours later, did Mr. Twist +and the twins.</p> +<p>"I don't know what you've been saying," he said in an extremely +exasperated voice, as he sat opposite them in the taxi with their +grips, considerably added to and crowned by the canary who was +singing, piled up round him.</p> +<p>"Saying?" echoed the twins, their eyes very round.</p> +<p>"But whatever it was you'd have done better to say something +else. Confound that bird. Doesn't it ever stop screeching?"</p> +<p>It was the twins, however, who were confounded. So much +confounded by what they considered his unjust severity that they +didn't attempt to defend themselves, but sat looking at him with +proud hurt eyes.</p> +<p>By this time they both had become very fond of Mr. Twist, and +accordingly he was able to hurt them. Anna-Rose, indeed, was so +fond of him that she actually thought him handsome. She had boldly +said so to the <a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>astonished +Anna-Felicitas about a week before; and when Anna-Felicitas was +silent, being unable to agree, Anna-Rose had heatedly explained +that there was handsomeness, and there was the higher handsomeness, +and that that was the one Mr. Twist had. It was infinitely better +than mere handsomeness, said Anna-Rose—curly hair and a +straight nose and the rest of the silly stuff—because it was +real and lasting; and it was real and lasting because it lay in the +play of the features and not in their exact position and shape.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas couldn't see that Mr. Twist's features played. +She looked at him now in the taxi while he angrily stared out of +the window, and even though he was evidently greatly stirred his +features weren't playing. She didn't particularly want them to +play. She was fond of and trusted Mr. Twist, and would never even +have thought whether he had features or not ii Anna-Rose hadn't +taken lately to talking so much about them. And she couldn't help +remembering how this very Christopher, so voluble now on the higher +handsomeness, had said on board the <i>St. Luke</i> when first +commenting on Mr. Twist that God must have got tired of making him +by the time his head was reached. Well, Christopher had always been +an idealist. When she was eleven she had violently loved the +coachman. Anna-Felicitas hadn't ever violently loved anybody yet, +and seeing Anna-Rose like this now about Mr. Twist made her wonder +when she too was going to begin. Surely it was time. She hoped her +inability to begin wasn't perhaps because she had no heart. Still, +she couldn't begin if she didn't see anybody to begin on.</p> +<p>She sat silent in the taxi, with Christopher equally silent +beside her, both of them observing Mr. Twist <a name="Page_283" id= +"Page_283"></a>through lowered eyelashes. Anna-Rose watched him +with hurt and anxious eyes like a devoted dog who has been kicked +without cause. Anna-Felicitas watched him in a more detached +spirit. She had a real affection for him, but it was not, she was +sure and rather regretted, an affection that would ever be likely +to get the better of her reason. It wasn't because he was so old, +of course, she thought, for one could love the oldest people, +beginning with that standard example of age, the <i>liebe Gott</i>; +it was because she liked him so much.</p> +<p>How could one get sentimental over and love somebody one so +thoroughly liked? The two things on reflection didn't seem to +combine well. She was sure, for instance, that Aunt Alice had loved +Uncle Arthur, amazing as it seemed, but she was equally sure she +hadn't liked him. And look at the <i>liebe Gott</i>. One loves the +<i>liebe Gott</i>, but it would be going too far, she thought, to +say that one likes him.</p> +<p>These were the reflections of Anna-Felicitas in the taxi, as she +observed through her eyelashes the object of Anna-Rose's +idealization. She envied Anna-Rose; for here she had been steadily +expanding every day more and more like a flower under the influence +of her own power of idealization. She used to sparkle and grow rosy +like that for the coachman. Perhaps after all it didn't much matter +what you loved, so long as you loved immensely. It was, perhaps, +thought Anna-Felicitas approaching this subject with some caution +and diffidence, the quantity of one's love that mattered rather +than the quality of its object. Not that Mr. Twist wasn't of the +very first quality, except to look at; but what after all were +faces? The coachman had been, as it were, nothing else but face, so +handsome was he and so without any other recommendation. <a name= +"Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>He couldn't even drive; and her father +had very soon kicked him out with the vigour and absence of +hesitation peculiar to Junkers when it comes to kicking and +Anna-Rose had wept all over her bread and butter at tea that day, +and was understood to say that she knew at last what it must be +like to be a widow.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, for all that he was looking out of the taxi window +with an angry and worried face, his attention irritably +concentrated, so it seemed, on the objects passing in the road, +very well knew he was being observed. He wouldn't, however, allow +his eye to be caught. He wasn't going to become entangled at this +juncture in argument with the Annas. He was hastily making up his +mind, and there wasn't much time to do it in. He had had no +explanation with the twins since the manager's visit to his room, +and he didn't want to have any. He had issued brief orders to them, +told them to pack, declined to answer questions, and had got them +safely into the taxi with a minimum waste of time and words. They +were now on their way to the station to meet Mrs. Bilton. Her train +from Los Angeles was not due till that evening at six. Never mind. +The station was a secure place to deposit the twins and the baggage +in till she came. He wished he could deposit the twins in the +parcel-room as easily as he could their grips—neatly +labelled, put away safely on a shelf till called for.</p> +<p>Rapidly, as he stared out of the window, he arrived at +decisions. He would leave the twins in the waiting room at the +station till Mrs. Bilton was due, and meanwhile go out and find +lodgings for them and her. He himself would get a room in another +and less critical hotel, and stay in it till the cottage was +habitable. So <a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>would +unassailable respectability once more descend like a white garment +upon the party and cover it up.</p> +<p>But he was nettled; nettled; nettled by the <i>contretemps</i> +that had occurred on the very last day, when Mrs. Bilton was so +nearly there; nettled and exasperated. So immensely did he want the +twins to be happy, to float serenely in the unclouded sunshine and +sweetness he felt was their due, that he was furious with them for +doing anything to make it difficult. And, jerkily, his angry +thoughts pounced, as they so often did, on Uncle Arthur. Fancy +kicking two little things like that out into the world, two little +breakable things like that, made to be cherished and watched over. +Mr. Twist was pure American in his instinct to regard the female as +an object to be taken care of, to be placed securely in a charming +setting and kept brightly free from dust. If Uncle Arthur had had a +shred of humanity in him, he angrily reflected, the Annas would +have stayed under his roof throughout the war, whatever the feeling +was against aliens. Never would a decent man have chucked them +out.</p> +<p>He turned involuntarily from the window and looked at the twins. +Their eyes were fixed, affectionate and anxious, on his face. With +the quick change of mood of those whose chins are weak and whose +hearts are warm, a flood of love for them gushed up within him and +put out his anger. After all, if Uncle Arthur had been decent he, +Edward A. Twist, never would have met these blessed children. He +would now have been at Clark; leading lightless days; hopelessly +involved with his mother.</p> +<p>His loose, unsteady mouth broke into a big smile. Instantly the +two faces opposite cleared into something shining.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>Oh dear," said +Anna-Felicitas with a sigh of relief, "it <i>is</i> refreshing when +you leave off being cross."</p> +<p>"We're fearfully sorry if we've said anything we oughtn't to +have," said Anna-Rose, "and if you tell us what it is we won't say +it again."</p> +<p>"I can't tell you, because I don't know what it was," said Mr. +Twist, in his usual kind voice. "I only see the results. And the +results are that the Cosmopolitan is tired of us, and we've got to +find lodgings."</p> +<p>"Lodgings?"</p> +<p>"Till we can move into the cottage. I'm going to put you and +Mrs. Bilton in an apartment in Acapulco, and go myself to some +hotel."</p> +<p>The twins stared at him a moment in silence. Then Anna-Rose said +with sudden passion, "You're not."</p> +<p>"How's that?" asked Mr. Twist; but she was prevented answering +by the arrival of the taxi at the station.</p> +<p>There followed ten minutes' tangle and confusion, at the end of +which the twins found themselves free of their grips and being +piloted into the waiting-room by Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"There," he said. "You sit here quiet and good. I'll come back +about one o'clock with sandwiches and candy for your dinner, and +maybe a story-book or two. You mustn't leave this, do you hear? I'm +going to hunt for those lodgings."</p> +<p>And he was in the act of taking off his hat valedictorily when +Anna-Rose again said with the same passion, "You're not."</p> +<p>"Not what?" inquired Mr. Twist, pausing with his hat in +mid-air.</p> +<p>"Going to hunt for lodgings. We won't go to them."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>Of course we won't," said +Anna-Felicitas, with no passion but with an infinitely rock-like +determination.</p> +<p>"And pray—" began Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Go into lodgings alone with Mrs. Bilton?" interrupted Anna-Rose +her face scarlet, her whole small body giving the impression of +indignant feathers standing up on end. "While you're somewhere +else? Away from us? We won't."</p> +<p>"Of course we won't," said Anna-Felicitas again, an almost +placid quality in her determination, it was so final and so +unshakable. "Would you?"</p> +<p>"See here—" began Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"We won't see anywhere," said Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Would you," inquired Anna-Felicitas, again reasoning with him, +"like being alone in lodgings with Mrs. Bilton?"</p> +<p>"This is no time for conversation," said Mr. Twist, making for +the door. "You've got to do what I think best on this occasion. And +that's all about it."</p> +<p>"We won't," repeated Anna-Rose, on the verge of those tears +which always with her so quickly followed any sort of emotion.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist paused on his way to the door. "Well now what the +devil's the matter with lodgings?" he asked angrily.</p> +<p>"It isn't the devil, it's Mrs. Bilton," said Anna-Felicitas. +"Would you yourself like—"</p> +<p>'But you've got to have Mrs. Bilton with you anyhow from to-day +on."</p> +<p>"But not unadulterated Mrs. Bilton. You were to have been with +us too. We can't be drowned all by ourselves in Mrs. Bilton. +<i>You</i> wouldn't like it."</p> +<p>"Of course I wouldn't. But it's only for a few days anyhow," +said Mr. Twist, who had been quite unprepared <a name="Page_288" +id="Page_288"></a>for opposition to his very sensible +arrangement.</p> +<p>"I shouldn't wonder if it's only a few days now before we can +all squeeze into some part of the cottage. If you don't mind dust +and noise and workmen about all day long."</p> +<p>A light pierced the gloom that had gathered round +Anna-Felicitas's soul.</p> +<p>"We'll go into it to-day," she said firmly, "Why not? We can +camp out. We can live in those little rooms at the back over the +kitchen,—the ones you got ready for Li Koo. We'd be on the +spot. We wouldn't mind anything. It would just be a picnic."</p> +<p>"And we—we wouldn't be—sep—separated," said +Anna-Rose, getting it out with a gasp.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist stood looking at them.</p> +<p>"Well, of all the—" he began, pushing his hat back. "Are +you aware," he went on more calmly, "that there are only two rooms +over that kitchen, and that you and Mrs. Bilton will have to be all +together in one of them?"</p> +<p>"We don't mind that as long as you're in the other one," said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Of course," suggested Anna-Felicitas, "if you were to happen to +marry Mrs. Bilton it would make a fairer division."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's spectacles stared enormously at her.</p> +<p>"No, no," said Anna-Rose quickly. "Marriage is a sacred thing, +and you can't just marry so as to be more comfortable."</p> +<p>"I guess if I married Mrs. Bilton I'd be more uncomfortable," +remarked Mr. Twist with considerable dryness.</p> +<p>He seemed however to be quieted by the bare suggestion, for he +fixed his hat properly on his head and <a name="Page_289" id= +"Page_289"></a>said, sobriety in his voice and manner, "Come along, +then. We'll get a taxi and anyway go out and have a look at the +rooms. But I shouldn't be surprised," he added, "if before I've +done with you you'll have driven me sheer out of my wits."</p> +<p>"Oh, <i>don't</i> say that," said the twins together, with all +and more of their usual urbanity.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a><a name="Page_290" +id="Page_290"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> +<p>By superhuman exertions and a lavish expenditure of money, the +rooms Li Koo was later on to inhabit were ready to be slept in by +the time Mrs. Bilton arrived. They were in an outbuilding at the +back of the house, and consisted of a living-room with a +cooking-stove in it, a bedroom behind it, and up a narrow and curly +staircase a larger room running the whole length and width of the +shanty. This sounds spacious, but it wasn't. The amount of length +and width was small, and it was only just possible to get three +camp-beds into it and a washstand. The beds nearly touched each +other. Anna-Felicitas thought she and Anna-Rose were going to be +regrettably close to Mrs. Bilton in them, and again urged on Mr. +Twist's consideration the question of removing Mrs. Bilton from the +room by marriage; but Anna-Rose said it was all perfect, and that +there was lots of room, and she was sure Mrs. Bilton, used to the +camp life so extensively practised in America, would thoroughly +enjoy herself.</p> +<p>They worked without stopping all the rest of the day at making +the little place habitable, nailing up some of the curtains +intended for the other house, unpacking cushions, and fetching in +great bunches of the pale pink and mauve geraniums that scrambled +about everywhere in the garden and hiding the worst places in the +rooms with them. Mr. Twist was in Acapulco most of the time, +getting together the necessary temporary <a name="Page_291" id= +"Page_291"></a>furniture and cooking utensils, but the twins didn't +miss him, for they were helped with zeal by the architect, the +electrical expert, the garden expert and the chief plumber.</p> +<p>These young men—they were all young, and very +go-ahead—abandoned the main building that day to the +undirected labours of the workmen they were supposed to control, +and turned to on the shanty as soon as they realized what it was to +be used for with a joyous energy that delighted the twins. They +swept and they garnished. They cleaned the dust off the windows and +the rust off the stove. They fetched out the parcels with the +curtains and cushions in them from the barn where all parcels and +packages had been put till the house was ready, and extracted +various other comforts from the piled up packing-cases,—a rug +or two, an easy chair for Mrs. Bilton, a looking-glass. They +screwed in hooks behind the doors for clothes to be hung on, and +they tied the canary to a neighbouring eucalyptus tree where it +could be seen and hardly heard. The chief plumber found buckets and +filled them with water, and the electrical expert rigged up a +series of lanterns inside the shanty, even illuminating its +tortuous staircase. There was much <i>badinage</i>, but as it was +all in American, a language of which the twins were not yet able to +apprehend the full flavour, they responded only with pleasant +smiles. But their smiles were so pleasant and the family dimple so +engaging that the hours flew, and the young men were sorry indeed +when Mr. Twist came back.</p> +<p>He came back laden, among other things, with food for the twins, +whom he had left in his hurry high and dry at the cottage with +nothing at all to eat; and he found them looking particularly +comfortable and well-<a name="Page_292" id= +"Page_292"></a>nourished, having eaten, as they explained when they +refused his sandwiches and fruit, the chief plumber's dinner.</p> +<p>They were sitting on the stump of an oak tree when he arrived, +resting from their labours, and the grass at their feet was dotted +with the four experts. It was the twins now who were talking, and +the experts who were smiling. Mr. Twist wondered uneasily what they +were saying. It wouldn't have added to his comfort if he had heard, +for they were giving the experts an account of their attempt to go +and live with the Sacks, and interweaving with it some general +reflections of a philosophical nature suggested by the Sack +<i>ménage</i>. The experts were keenly interested, and +everybody looked very happy, and Mr. Twist was annoyed; for clearly +if the experts were sitting there on the grass they weren't +directing the workmen placed under their orders. Mr. Twist +perceived a drawback to the twins living on the spot while the +place was being finished; another drawback. He had perceived +several already, but not this one. Well, Mrs. Bilton would soon be +there. He now counted the hours to Mrs. Bilton. He positively +longed for her.</p> +<p>When they saw him coming, the experts moved away. "Here's the +boss," they said, nodding and winking at the twins as they got up +quickly and departed. Winking was not within the traditions of the +Twinkler family, but no doubt, they thought, it was the custom of +the country to wink, and they wondered whether they ought to have +winked back. The young men were certainly deserving of every +friendliness in return for all they had done. They decided they +would ask Mrs. Bilton, and then they could wink at them if +necessary the first thing to-morrow morning.</p> +<p><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>Mr. Twist took them with +him when he went down to the station to meet the Los Angeles train. +It was dark at six, and the workmen had gone home by then, but the +experts still seemed to be busy. He had been astonished at the +amount the twins had accomplished in his absence in the town till +they explained to him how very active the experts had been, +whereupon he said, "Now isn't that nice," and briefly informed them +they would go with him to the station.</p> +<p>"That's waste of time," said Anna-Felicitas. "We could be giving +finishing touches if we stayed here."</p> +<p>"You will come with me to the station," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton arrived in a thick cloud of conversation. She +supposed she was going to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, as indeed she +originally was, and all the way back in the taxi Mr. Twist was +trying to tell her she wasn't; but Mrs. Bilton had so much to say +about her journey, and her last days among her friends, and all the +pleasant new acquaintances she had made on the train, and her +speech was so very close-knit, that he felt he was like a rabbit on +the wrong side of a thick-set hedge running desperately up and down +searching for a gap to get through. It was nothing short of amazing +how Mrs. Bilton talked; positively, there wasn't at any moment the +smallest pause in the flow.</p> +<p>"It's a disease," thought Anna-Rose, who had several things she +wanted to say herself, and found herself hopelessly muzzled.</p> +<p>"No wonder Mr. Bilton preferred heaven," thought Anna-Felicitas, +also a little restless at the completeness of her muzzling.</p> +<p>"Anyhow she'll never hear the Annas saying anything," thought +Mr. Twist, consoling himself.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>This hotel we're going to +seems to be located at some distance from the station," said Mrs. +Bilton presently, in the middle of several pages of rapid +unpunctuated monologue. "Isolated, surely—" and off she went +again to other matters, just as Mr. Twist had got his mouth open to +explain at last.</p> +<p>She arrived therefore at the cottage unconscious of the change +in her fate.</p> +<p>Now Mrs. Bilton was as fond of comfort as any other woman who +has been deprived for some years of that substitute for comfort, a +husband. She had looked forward to the enveloping joys of the +Cosmopolitan, its bath, its soft bed and good food, with frank +satisfaction. She thought it admirable that before embarking on +active duties she should for a space rest luxuriously in an +excellent hotel, with no care in regard to expense, and exchange +ideas while she rested with the interesting people she would be +sure to meet in it. Before the interview in Los Angeles, Mr. Twist +had explained to her by letter and under the seal of confidence the +philanthropic nature of the project he and the Miss Twinklers were +engaged upon, and she was prepared, in return for the very +considerable salary she had accepted, to do her duty loyally and +unremittingly; but after the stress and hard work of her last days +in Los Angeles she had certainly looked forward with a particular +pleasure to two or three weeks' delicious wallowing in flesh-pots +for which she had not to pay. She was also, however, a lady of +grit; and she possessed, as she said her friends often told her, a +redoubtable psyche, a genuine American free and fearless psyche; so +that when, talking ceaselessly, her thoughts eagerly jostling each +other as they streamed through her brain to get first to the exit +of her tongue, she caught her foot in some builder's débris +<a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>carelessly left on the path up +to the cottage and received in this way positively her first +intimation that this couldn't be the Cosmopolitan, she did not, as +a more timid female soul well might have, become alarmed and +suppose that Mr. Twist, whom after all she didn't know, had brought +her to this solitary place for purposes of assassination, but +stopped firmly just where she was, and turning her head in the +darkness toward him said, "Now Mr. Twist, I'll stand right here +till you're able to apply some sort of illumination to what's at my +feet. I can't say what it is I've walked against but I'm not going +any further with this promenade till I can say. And when you've +thrown light on the subject perhaps you'll oblige me with +information as to where that hotel is I was told I was coming +to."</p> +<p>"Information?" cried Mr. Twist. "Haven't I been trying to give +it you ever since I met you? Haven't I been trying to stop your +getting out of the taxi till I'd fetched a lantern? Haven't I been +trying to offer you my arm along the path—"</p> +<p>"Then why didn't you say so, Mr. Twist?" asked Mrs. Bilton.</p> +<p>"Say so!" cried Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>At that moment the flash of an electric torch was seen jerking +up and down as the person carrying it ran toward them. It was the +electrical expert who, most fortunately, happened still to be +about.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton welcomed him warmly, and taking his torch from him +first examined what she called the location of her feet, then gave +it back to him and put her hand through his arm. "Now guide me to +whatever it is has been substituted without my knowledge for that +hotel," she said; and while Mr. Twist went back to the taxi to deal +with her grips, she walked carefully toward <a name="Page_296" id= +"Page_296"></a>the shanty on the expert's arm, expressing, in an +immense number of words, the astonishment she felt at Mr. Twist's +not having told her of the disappearance of the Cosmopolitan from +her itinerary.</p> +<p>The electrical expert tried to speak, but was drowned without +further struggle. Anna-Rose, unable to listen any longer without +answering to the insistent inquiries as to why Mr. Twist had kept +her in the dark, raised her voice at last and called out, "But he +wanted to—he wanted to all the time—you wouldn't +listen—you wouldn't stop—"</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton did stop however when she got inside the shanty. Her +tongue and her feet stopped dead together. The electrical expert +had lit all the lanterns, and coming upon it in the darkness its +lighted windows gave it a cheerful, welcoming look. But inside no +amount of light and bunches of pink geraniums could conceal its +discomforts, its dreadful smallness; besides, pink geraniums, which +the twins were accustomed to regard as precious, as things brought +up lovingly in pots, were nothing but weeds to Mrs. Bilton's +experienced Californian eye.</p> +<p>She stared round her in silence. Her sudden quiet fell on the +twins with a great sense of refreshment. Standing in the +doorway—for Mrs. Bilton and the electrical expert between +them filled up most of the kitchen—they heaved a deep sigh. +"And see how beautiful the stars are," whispered Anna-Felicitas in +Anna-Rose's ear; she hadn't been able to see them before somehow, +Mrs. Bilton's voice had so much ruffled the night.</p> +<p>"Do you think she talks in her sleep?" Anna-Rose anxiously +whispered back.</p> +<p>But Mr. Twist, arriving with his hands full, was staggered +<a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>to find Mrs. Bilton not +talking. An icy fear seized his heart. She was going to refuse to +stay with them. And she would be within her rights if she did, for +certainly what she called her itinerary had promised her a +first-rate hotel, in which she was to continue till a finished and +comfortable house was stepped into.</p> +<p>"I wish you'd say something," he said, plumping down the bags he +was carrying on the kitchen floor.</p> +<p>The twins from the doorway looked at him and then at each other +in great surprise. Fancy <i>asking</i> Mrs. Bilton to say +something.</p> +<p>"They would come," said Mr. Twist, resentfully, jerking his head +toward the Annas in the doorway.</p> +<p>"It's worse upstairs," he went on desperately as Mrs. Bilton +still was dumb.</p> +<p>"Worse upstairs?" cried the twins, as one woman.</p> +<p>"It's perfect upstairs," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"It's like camping out without <i>being</i> out," said +Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"The only drawback is that there are rather a lot of beds in our +room," said Anna-Felicitas, "but that of course"—she turned +to Mr. Twist—"might easily be arranged—"</p> +<p>"I wish you'd <i>say</i> something, Mrs. Bilton," he interrupted +quickly and loud.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton drew a deep breath and looked round her. She looked +round the room, and she looked up at the ceiling, which the upright +feather in her hat was tickling, and she looked at the faces of the +twins, lit flickeringly by the uncertain light of the lanterns. +Then, woman of grit, wife who had never failed him of Bruce D. +Bilton, widow who had remained poised and indomitable on a small +income in a circle of well-off friends, she spoke; and she +said:</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>Mr. Twist, I can't say +what this means, and you'll furnish me no doubt with information, +but whatever it is I'm not the woman to put my hand to a plough and +then turn back again. That type of behaviour may have been good +enough for Pharisees and Sadducees, who if I remember rightly had +to be specially warned against the practice, but it isn't good +enough for me. You've conducted me to a shack instead of the hotel +I was promised, and I await your explanation. Meanwhile, is there +any supper?"</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a><a name= +"Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> +<p>It was only a fortnight after this that the inn was ready to be +opened, and it was only during the first days of this fortnight +that the party in the shanty had to endure any serious discomfort. +The twins didn't mind the physical discomfort at all; what they +minded, and began to mind almost immediately, was the spiritual +discomfort of being at such close quarters with Mrs. Bilton. They +hardly noticed the physical side of that close association in such +a lovely climate, where the whole of out-of-doors can be used as +one's living-room; and their morning dressing, a difficult business +in the shanty for anybody less young and more needing to be +careful, was rather like the getting up of a dog after its night's +sleep—they seemed just to shake themselves, and there they +were.</p> +<p>They got up before Mrs. Bilton, who was, however, always awake +and talking to them while they dressed, and they went to bed before +she did, though she came up with them after the first night and +read aloud to them while they undressed; so that as regarded the +mysteries of Mrs. Bilton's toilette they were not, after all, much +in her way. It was like caravaning or camping out: you managed your +movements and moments skilfully, and if you were Mrs. Bilton you +had a curtain slung across your part of the room, in case your +younger charges shouldn't always be asleep when they looked as if +they were.</p> +<p>Gradually one alleviation was added to another, and <a name= +"Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>Mrs. Bilton forgot the rigours of the +beginning. Li Koo arrived, for instance, fetched by a telegram, and +under a tent in the eucalyptus grove at the back of the house set +up an old iron stove and produced, with no apparent exertion, +extraordinarily interesting and amusing food. He went into Acapulco +at daylight every morning and did the marketing. He began almost +immediately to do everything else in the way of housekeeping. He +was exquisitely clean, and saw to it that the shanty matched him in +cleanliness. To the surprise and gratification of the twins, who +had supposed it would be their lot to go on doing the housework of +the shanty, he took it over as a matter of course, dusting, +sweeping, and tidying like a practised and very excellent +housemaid. The only thing he refused to do was to touch the three +beds in the upper chamber. "Me no make lady-beds," he said +briefly.</p> +<p>Li Koo's salary was enormous, but Mr. Twist, with a sound +instinct, cared nothing what he paid so long as he got the right +man. He was, indeed, much satisfied with his two employees, and +congratulated himself on his luck. It is true in regard to Mrs. +Bilton his satisfaction was rather of the sorrowful sort that a +fresh ache in a different part of one's body from the first ache +gives: it relieved him from one by substituting another. Mrs. +Bilton overwhelmed him; but so had the Annas begun to. Her +overwhelming, however, was different, and freed him from that other +worse one. He felt safe now about the Annas, and after all there +were parts of the building in which Mrs. Bilton wasn't. There was +his bedroom, for instance. Thank God for bedrooms, thought Mr. +Twist. He grew to love his. What a haven that poky and silent place +was; what a blessing the conventions were, and the proprieties. +Supposing <a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>civilization were so +far advanced that people could no longer see the harm there is in a +bedroom, what would have become of him? Mr. Twist could perfectly +account for Bruce D. Bilton's death. It wasn't diabetes, as Mrs. +Bilton said; it was just bedroom.</p> +<p>Still, Mrs. Bilton was an undoubted find, and did immediately in +those rushed days take the Annas off his mind. He could leave them +with her in the comfortable certitude that whatever else they did +to Mrs. Bilton they couldn't talk to her. Never would she know the +peculiar ease of the Twinkler attitude toward subjects Americans +approach with care. Never would they be able to tell her things +about Uncle Arthur, the kind of things that had caused the +Cosmopolitan to grow so suddenly cool. There was, most happily for +this particular case, no arguing with Mrs. Bilton. The twins +couldn't draw her out because she was already, as it were, so +completely out. This was a great thing, Mr. Twist felt, and made up +for any personal suffocation he had to bear; and when on the +afternoon of Mrs. Bilton's first day the twins appeared without her +in the main building in search of him, having obviously given her +the slip, and said they were sorry to disturb him but they wanted +his advice, for though they had been trying hard all day, +remembering they were ladies and practically hostesses, they hadn't +yet succeeded in saying anything at all to Mrs. Bilton and doubted +whether they ever would, he merely smiled happily at them and said +to Anna-Rose, "See how good comes out of evil"—a remark that +they didn't like when they had had time to think over it.</p> +<p>But they went on struggling. It seemed so unnatural to be all +alone all day long with someone and only listen. Mrs. Bilton never +left their side, regarding it as <a name="Page_302" id= +"Page_302"></a>proper and merely fulfilling her part of the +bargain, in these first confused days when there was nothing for +ladies to do but look on while perspiring workmen laboured at +apparently producing more and more chaos, to become thoroughly +acquainted with her young charges. This she did by imparting to +them intimate and meticulous information about her own life, with +the whole of the various uplifts, as she put it, her psyche had +during its unfolding experienced. There was so much to tell about +herself that she never got to inquiring about the twins. She knew +they were orphans, and that this was a good work, and for the +moment had no time for more.</p> +<p>The twins were profoundly bored by her psyche, chiefly because +they didn't know what part of her it was, and it was no use asking +for she didn't answer; but they listened with real interest to her +concrete experiences, and especially to the experiences connected +with Mr. Bilton. They particularly wished to ask questions about +Mr. Bilton, and find out what he had thought of things. Mrs. Bilton +was lavish in her details of what she had thought herself, but Mr. +Bilton's thoughts remained impenetrable. It seemed to the twins +that he must have thought a lot, and have come to the conclusion +that there was much to be said for death.</p> +<p>The Biltons, it appeared, had been the opposite of the +Clouston-Sacks, and had never been separated for a single day +during the whole of their married life. This seemed to the twins +very strange, and needing a great deal of explanation. In order to +get light thrown on it the first thing they wanted to find out was +how long the marriage had lasted; but Mrs. Bilton was deaf to their +inquiries, and having described Mr. Bilton's last moments <a name= +"Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>and obsequies—obsequies +scheduled by her, she said, with so tender a regard for his memory +that she insisted on a horse-drawn hearse instead of the more +fashionable automobile conveyance, on the ground that a motor +hearse didn't seem sorry enough even on first speed—she +washed along with an easy flow to descriptions of the dreadfulness +of the early days of widowhood, when one's crepe veil keeps on +catching in everything—chairs, overhanging branches, and +passers-by, including it appeared on one occasion a policeman. She +inquired of the twins whether they had ever seen a new-made widow +in a wind. Chicago, she said, was a windy place, and Mr. Bilton +passed in its windiest month. Her long veil, as she proceeded down +the streets on the daily constitutional she considered it her duty +toward the living to take, for one owes it to one's friends to keep +oneself fit and not give way, was blown hither and thither in the +buffeting cross-currents of that uneasy climate, and her walk in +the busier streets was a series of entanglements. Embarrassing +entanglements, said Mrs. Bilton. Fortunately the persons she got +caught in were delicacy and sympathy itself; often, indeed, seeming +quite overcome by the peculiar poignancy of the situation, covered +with confusion, profuse in apologies. Sometimes the wind would +cause her veil for a few moments to rear straight up above her head +in a monstrous black column of woe. Sometimes, if she stopped a +moment waiting to cross the street, it would whip round the body of +any one who happened to be near, like a cord. It did this once +about the body of the policeman directing the traffic, by whose +side she had paused, and she had to walk round him backwards before +it could be unwound. The Chicago evening papers, prompt on the +track of a sensation, had caused <a name="Page_304" id= +"Page_304"></a>her friends much painful if only short-lived +amazement by coming out with huge equivocal headlines:</p> +<p>WELL-KNOWN SOCIETY WIDOW AND POLICEMAN CAUGHT TOGETHER</p> +<p>and beginning their description of the occurrence by printing +her name in full. So that for the first sentence or two her friends +were a prey to horror and distress, which turned to indignation on +discovering there was nothing in it after all.</p> +<p>The twins, their eyes on Mrs. Bilton's face, their hands clasped +round their knees, their bodies sitting on the grass at her feet, +occasionally felt as they followed her narrative that they were +somehow out of their depth and didn't quite understand. It was +extraordinarily exasperating to them to be so completely muzzled. +They were accustomed to elucidate points they didn't understand by +immediate inquiry; they had a habit of asking for information, and +then delivering comments on it.</p> +<p>This condition of repression made them most uncomfortable. The +ilex tree in the field below the house, to which Mrs. Bilton +shepherded them each morning and afternoon for the first three +days, became to them, in spite of its beauty with the view from +under its dark shade across the sunny fields to the sea and the +delicate distant islands, a painful spot. The beauty all round them +was under these conditions exasperating. Only once did Mrs. Bilton +leave them, and that was the first afternoon, when they instantly +fled to seek out Mr. Twist; and she only left them then—for +it wasn't just her sense of duty that was strong, but also her +dislike of being alone—because something unexpectedly gave +<a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>way in the upper part of her +dress, she being of a tight well-held-in figure, depending much on +its buttons; and she had very hastily to go in search of a +needle.</p> +<p>After that they didn't see Mr. Twist alone for several days. +They hardly indeed saw him at all. The only meal he shared with +them was supper, and on finding the first evening that Mrs. Bilton +read aloud to people after supper, he made the excuse of accounts +to go through and went into his bedroom, repeating this each +night.</p> +<p>The twins watched him go with agonized eyes. They considered +themselves deserted; shamefully abandoned to a miserable fate.</p> +<p>"And it isn't as if he didn't <i>like</i> reading aloud," +whispered Anna-Rose, bewildered and indignant as she remembered the +"Ode to Dooty."</p> +<p>"Perhaps he's one of those people who only like it if they do it +themselves," Anna-Felicitas whispered back, trying to explain his +base behaviour.</p> +<p>And while they whispered, Mrs. Bilton with great enjoyment +declaimed—she had had a course of elocution lessons during +Mr. Bilton's life so as to be able to place the best literature +advantageously before him—the diary of a young girl written +in prison. The young girl had been wrongfully incarcerated, Mrs. +Bilton explained, and her pure soul only found release by the +demise of her body. The twins hated the young girl from the first +paragraph. She wrote her diary every day till her demise stopped +her. As nothing happens in prisons that hasn't happened the day +before, she could only write her reflections; and the twins hated +her reflections, because they were so very like what in their +secret moments of slush they were apt to reflect themselves. Their +mother had had a horror of slush. There had <a name="Page_306" id= +"Page_306"></a>been none anywhere about her; but it is in the air +in Germany, in people's blood, everywhere; and though the twins, +owing to the English part of them, had a horror of it too, there it +was in them, and they knew it,—genuine German slush.</p> +<p>They felt uncomfortably sure that if they were in prison they +would write a diary very much on these lines. For three evenings +they had to listen to it, their eyes on Mr. Twist's door. Why +didn't he come out and save them? What happy, what glorious +evenings they used to have at the Cosmopolitan, spent in +intelligent conversation, in a decent give and take—not this +button-holing business, this being got into a corner and held down; +and alas, how little they had appreciated them! They used to get +sleepy and break them off and go to bed. If only he would come out +now and talk to them they would sit up all night. They wriggled +with impatience in their seats beneath the +<i>épanchements</i> of the young girl, the strangely and +distressingly familiar <i>épanchements</i>. The diary was +published in a magazine, and after the second evening, when Mrs. +Bilton on laying it down announced she would go on with it while +they were dressing next morning, they got up very early before Mrs. +Bilton was awake and crept out and hid it.</p> +<p>But Li Koo found it and restored it.</p> +<p>Li Koo found everything. He found Mrs. Bilton's outdoor shoes +the third morning, although the twins had hidden them most +carefully. Their idea was that while she, rendered immobile, waited +indoors, they would zealously look for them in all the places where +they well knew that they weren't, and perhaps get some conversation +with Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>But Li Koo found everything. He found the twins themselves the +fourth morning, when, unable any <a name="Page_307" id= +"Page_307"></a>longer to bear Mrs. Bilton's voice, they ran into +the woods instead of coming in to breakfast. He seemed to find them +at once, to walk unswervingly to their remote and bramble-filled +ditch.</p> +<p>In order to save their dignity they said as they scrambled out +that they were picking flowers for Mrs. Bilton's breakfast, though +the ditch had nothing in it but stones and thorns. Li Koo made no +comment. He never did make comments; and his silence and his +ubiquitous efficiency made the twins as fidgety with him as they +were with Mrs. Bilton for the opposite reason. They had an +uncomfortable feeling that he was rather like the <i>liebe +Gott</i>,—he saw everything, knew everything, and said +nothing. In vain they tried, on that walk back as at other times, +to pierce his impassivity with genialities. Li Koo—again, +they silently reflected, like the <i>liebe Gott</i>—had a +different sense of geniality from theirs; he couldn't apparently +smile; they doubted if he even ever wanted to. Their genialities +faltered and froze on their lips.</p> +<p>Besides, they were deeply humiliated by having been found +hiding, and were ashamed to find themselves trying anxiously in +this manner to conciliate Li Koo. Their dignity on the walk back to +the shanty seemed painfully shrunk. They ought never to have +condescended to do the childish things they had been doing during +the last three days. If they hadn't been found out it would, of +course, have remained a private matter between them and their +Maker, and then one doesn't mind so much; but they had been found +out, and by Li Koo, their own servant. It was intolerable. All the +blood of all the Twinklers, Junkers from time immemorial and +properly sensitive to humiliation, surged within them. They hadn't +felt so naughty and so young for <a name="Page_308" id= +"Page_308"></a>years. They were sure Li Koo didn't believe them +about the ditch. They had a dreadful sensation of being led back to +Mrs. Bilton by the ear.</p> +<p>If only they could sack Mrs. Bilton!</p> +<p>This thought, immense and startling, came to Anna-Rose, who far +more than Anna-Felicitas resented being cut off from Mr. Twist, +besides being more naturally impetuous; and as they walked in +silence side by side, with Li Koo a little ahead of them, she +turned her head and looked at Anna-Felicitas. "Let's give her +notice," she murmured, under her breath.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas was so much taken aback that she stopped in her +walk and stared at Anna-Rose's flushed face.</p> +<p>She too hardly breathed it. The suggestion seemed fantastic in +its monstrousness. How could they give anybody so old, so sure of +herself, so determined as Mrs. Bilton, notice?</p> +<p>"Give her notice?" she repeated.</p> +<p>A chill ran down Anna-Felicitas's spine. Give Mrs. Bilton +notice! It was a great, a breath-taking idea, magnificent in its +assertion of independence, of rights; but it needed, she felt, to +be approached with caution. They had never given anybody notice in +their lives, and they had always thought it must be a most painful +thing to do—far, far worse than tipping. Uncle Arthur usedn't +to mind it a bit; did it, indeed, with gusto. But Aunt Alice hadn't +liked it at all, and came out in a cold perspiration and bewailed +her lot to them and wished that people would behave and not place +her in such a painful position.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton couldn't be said not to have behaved. Quite the +contrary. She had behaved too persistently; and they had to endure +it the whole twenty-four hours. <a name="Page_309" id= +"Page_309"></a>For Mrs. Bilton had no turn, it appeared, in spite +of what she had said at Los Angeles, for solitary contemplation, +and after the confusion of the first night, when once she had had +time to envisage the situation thoroughly, as she said, she had +found that to sit alone downstairs in the uncertain light of the +lanterns while the twins went to bed and Mr. Twist wouldn't come +out of his room, was not good for her psyche; so she had followed +the twins upstairs, and continued to read the young girl's diary to +them during their undressing and till the noises coming from their +beds convinced her that it was useless to go on any longer. And +that morning, the morning they hid in the ditch, she had even done +this while they were getting up.</p> +<p>"It isn't to be borne," said Anna-Rose under her breath, one eye +on Li Koo's ear which, a little in front of her, seemed slightly +slanted backward and sideways in the direction of her voice. "And +why should it be? We're not in her power."</p> +<p>"No," said Anna-Felicitas, also under her breath and also +watching Li Koo's ear, "but it feels extraordinarily as if we +were."</p> +<p>"Yes. And that's intolerable. And it forces us to do silly baby +things, wholly unsuited either to our age or our position. Who +would have thought we'd ever hide from somebody in a ditch again!" +Anna-Rose's voice was almost a sob at the humiliation.</p> +<p>"It all comes from sleeping in the same room," said +Anna-Felicitas. "Nobody can stand a thing that doesn't end at night +either."</p> +<p>"Of course they can't," said Anna-Rose. "It isn't fair. If you +have to have a person all day you oughtn't to have to have the same +person all night. Some one <a name="Page_310" id= +"Page_310"></a>else should step in and relieve you then. Just as +they do in hospitals."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas. "Mr. Twist ought to. He ought to +remove her forcibly from our room by marriage.</p> +<p>"No he oughtn't," said Anna-Rose hastily, "because we can remove +her ourselves by the simple process of giving her notice."</p> +<p>"I don't believe it's simple," said Anna-Felicia again feeling a +chill trickling down her spine.</p> +<p>"Of course it is. We just go to her very politely and inform her +that the engagement is terminated on a basis of mutual esteem but +inflexible determination."</p> +<p>"And suppose she doesn't stop talking enough to hear?"</p> +<p>"Then we'll hand it to her in writing."</p> +<p>The rest of the way they walked in silence, Anna-Rose with her +chin thrust out in defiance, Anna-Felicitas dragging her feet along +with a certain reluctance and doubt.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton had finished her breakfast when they got back, +having seen no sense in letting good food get cold, and was ready +to sit and chat to them while they had theirs. She was so busy +telling them what she had supposed they were probably doing, that +she was unable to listen to their attempted account of what they +had done. Thus they were saved from telling humiliating and +youthful fibs; but they were also prevented, as by a wall of rock, +from getting the speech through to her ear that Anna-Rose, +trembling in spite of her defiance, had ready to launch at her. It +was impossible to shout at Mrs. Bilton in the way Mr. Twist, when +in extremity of necessity, had done. Ladies didn't shout; +especially not when they were giving other ladies notice. +Anna-<a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>Rose, who was quite cold +and clammy at the prospect of her speech, couldn't help feeling +relieved when breakfast was over and no opportunity for it had been +given.</p> +<p>"We'll write it," she whispered to Anna-Felicitas beneath the +cover of a lively account Mrs. Bilton was giving them, <i>à +propos</i> of their being late for breakfast, of the time it took +her, after Mr. Bilton's passing, to get used to his unpunctuality +at meals.</p> +<p>That Mr. Bilton, who had breakfasted and dined with her steadily +for years, should suddenly leave off being punctual freshly +astonished her every day, she said. The clock struck, yet Mr. +Bilton continued late. It was poignant, said Mrs. Bilton, this way +of being reminded of her loss. Each day she would instinctively +expect; each day would come the stab of recollection. The vacancy +these non-appearances had made in her life was beyond any words of +hers. In fact she didn't possess such words, and doubted if the +completest dictionary did either. Everything went just vacant, she +said. No need any more to hurry down in the morning, so as to be +behind the coffee pot half a minute before the gong went and Mr. +Bilton simultaneously appeared. No need any more to think of him +when ordering meals. No need any more to eat the dish he had been +so fond of and she had found so difficult to digest, Boston baked +beans and bacon; yet she found herself ordering it continually +after his departure, and choking memorially over the +mouthfuls—"And people in Europe," cried Mrs Bilton, herself +struck as she talked by this extreme devotion, "say that American +women are incapable of passion!"</p> +<p>"We'll write it," whispered Anna-Rose to Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Write what?" asked Anna-Felicitas abstractedly, <a name= +"Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>who as usual when Mrs. Bilton narrated +her reminiscences was absorbed in listening to them and trying to +get some clear image of Mr. Bilton.</p> +<p>But she remembered the next moment, and it was like waking up to +the recollection that this is the day you have to have a tooth +pulled out. The idea of not having the tooth any more, of being +free from it charmed and thrilled her, but how painful, how +alarming was the prospect of pulling it out!</p> +<p>There was one good thing to be said for Mrs. Bilton's talk, and +that was that under its voluminous cover they could themselves +whisper occasionally to each other. Anna-Rose decided that if Mrs. +Bilton didn't notice that they whispered neither probably would she +notice if she wrote. She therefore under Mrs. Bilton's very nose +got a pencil and a piece of paper, and with many pauses and an +unsteady hand wrote the following:</p> +<p>DEAR MRS. BILTON—For some time past my sister and I have +felt that we aren't suited to you, and if you don't mind would you +mind regarding the engagement as terminated? We hope you won't +think this abrupt, because it isn't really, for we seem to have +lived ages since you came, and we've been thinking this over ripely +ever since. And we hope you won't take it as anything personal +either, because it isn't really. It's only that we feel we're +unsuitable, and we're sure we'll go on getting more and more +unsuitable. Nobody can help being unsuitable, and we're fearfully +sorry. But on the other hand we're inflexible.—Yours +affectionately,</p> +<p>ANNA-ROSE and ANNA-FELICITAS TWINKLER</p> +<p>With a beating heart she cautiously pushed the letter across the +table under cover of the breakfast <i>débris</i> to +Anna-Felicitas, who read it with a beating heart and cautiously +pushed it back.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas felt sure Christopher was being terribly +impetuous, and she felt sure she ought to stop her. <a name= +"Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>But what a joy to be without Mrs. +Bilton! The thought of going to bed in the placid sluggishness dear +to her heart, without having to listen, to be attentive, to +remember to be tidy because if she weren't there would be no room +for Mrs. Bilton's things, was too much for her. Authority pursuing +her into her bedroom was what she had found most difficult to bear. +There must be respite. There must be intervals in every activity or +endurance. Even the <i>liebe Gott</i>, otherwise so indefatigable, +had felt this and arranged for the relaxation of Sundays.</p> +<p>She pushed the letter back with a beating heart, and told +herself that she couldn't and never had been able to stop +Christopher when she was in this mood of her chin sticking out. +What could she do in face of such a chin? And besides, Mrs. +Bilton's friends must be missing her very much and ought to have +her back. One should always live only with one's own sort of +people. Every other way of living, Anna-Felicitas was sure even at +this early stage of her existence, was bound to come to a bad end. +One could be fond of almost anybody, she held, if they were +somewhere else. Even of Uncle Arthur. Even he somehow seemed +softened by distance. But for living-together purposes there was +only one kind of people possible, and that was one's own kind. +Unexpected and various were the exteriors of one's own kind and the +places one found them in, but one always knew them. One felt +comfortable with them at once; comfortable and placid. Whatever +else Mrs. Bilton might be feeling she wasn't feeling placid. That +was evident; and it was because she too wasn't with her own kind. +With her eyes fixed nervously on Mrs. Bilton who was talking on +happily, Anna-Felicitas reasoned with herself in the above manner +as she pushed <a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a>back the letter, +instead of, as at the back of her mind she felt she ought to have +done, tearing it up.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose folded it and addressed it to Mrs. Bilton. Then she +got up and held it out to her.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas got up too, her inside feeling strangely unsteady +and stirred round and round.</p> +<p>"Would you mind reading this?" said Anna-Rose faintly to Mrs. +Bilton, who took the letter mechanically and held it in her hand +without apparently noticing it, so much engaged was she by what she +was saying.</p> +<p>"We're going out a moment to speak to Mr. Twist," Anna-Rose then +said, making for the door and beckoning to Anna-Felicitas, who +still stood hesitating.</p> +<p>She slipped out; and Anna-Felicitas, suddenly panic-stricken +lest she should be buttonholed all by herself fled after her.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a><a name= +"Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> +<p>Mr. Twist, his mind at ease, was in the charming room that was +to be the tea-room. It was full of scattered fittings and the noise +of hammering, but even so anybody could see what a delightful place +it would presently turn into.</p> +<p>The Open Arms was to make a specialty of wet days. Those were +the days, those consecutive days of downpour that came in the +winter and lasted without interruption for a fortnight at a time, +when visitors in the hotels were bored beyond expression and ready +to welcome anything that could distract them for an hour from the +dripping of the rain on the windows. Bridge was their one solace, +and they played it from after breakfast till bedtime; but on the +fourth or fifth day of doing this, just the mere steady sitting +became grievous to them. They ached with weariness. They wilted +with boredom. All their natural kindness got damped out of them, +and they were cross. Even when they won they were cross, and when +they lost it was really distressing. They wouldn't, of course, have +been in California at all at such a time if it were possible to +know beforehand when the rains would begin, but one never did know, +and often it was glorious weather right up to and beyond Christmas. +And then how glorious! What a golden place of light and warmth to +be in, while in the East one's friends were being battered by +blizzards.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist intended to provide a break in the day each afternoon +for these victims of the rain. He would come <a name="Page_316" id= +"Page_316"></a>to their rescue. He made up his mind, clear and firm +on such matters, that it should become the habit of these unhappy +people during the bad weather to motor out to The Open Arms for +tea; and, full of forethought, he had had a covered way made, by +which one could get out of a car and into the house without being +touched by a drop of rain, and he had had a huge open fireplace +made across the end of the tea-room, which would crackle and blaze +a welcome that would cheer the most dispirited arrival. The cakes, +at all times wonderful were on wet days to be more than wonderful. +Li Koo had a secret receipt, given him, he said, by his mother for +cakes of a quite peculiar and original charm, and these were to be +reserved for the rainy season only, and be made its specialty. They +were to become known and endeared to the public under the brief +designation of Wet Day Cakes. Mr. Twist felt there was something +thoroughly American about this name—plain and business-like, +and attractively in contrast to the subtle, the almost immoral +exquisiteness of the article itself. This cake had been one of +those produced by Li Koo from the folds of his garments the day in +Los Angeles, and Mr. Twist had happened to be the one of his party +who ate it. He therefore knew what he was doing when he decided to +call it and its like simply Wet Day Cakes.</p> +<p>The twins found him experimenting with a fire in the fireplace +so as to be sure it didn't smoke, and the architect and he were in +their shirt sleeves, deftly manipulating wood shavings and logs. +There was such a hammering being made by the workmen fixing in the +latticed windows, and such a crackling being made by the logs Mr. +Twist and the architect kept on throwing on the fire, that only +from the sudden broad smile on the <a name="Page_317" id= +"Page_317"></a>architect's face as he turned to pick up another log +did Mr. Twist realize that something that hadn't to do with work +was happening behind his back.</p> +<p>He looked round and saw the Annas picking their way toward him. +They seemed in a hurry.</p> +<p>"Hello," he called out.</p> +<p>They made no reply to this, but continued hurriedly to pick +their way among the obstacles in their path. They appeared to be +much perturbed. What, he wondered, had they done with Mrs. Bilton? +He soon knew.</p> +<p>"We've given Mrs. Bilton notice," panted Anna-Rose as soon as +she got near enough to his ear for him to hear her in the +prevailing noise.</p> +<p>Her face, as usual when she was moved and excited, was scarlet, +her eyes looking bluer and brighter than ever by contrast.</p> +<p>"We simply can't stand it any longer," she went on as Mr. Twist +only stared at her.</p> +<p>"And you wouldn't either if you were us," she continued, the +more passionately as he still didn't say anything.</p> +<p>"Of course," said Anna-Felicitas, taking a high line, though her +heart was full of doubt, "it's your fault really. We could have +borne it if we hadn't had to have her at night."</p> +<p>"Come outside," said Mr. Twist, walking toward the door that led +on to the verandah.</p> +<p>They followed him, Anna-Rose shaking with excitement, +Anna-Felicitas trying to persuade herself that they had acted in +the only way consistent with real wisdom.</p> +<p>The architect stood with a log in each hand looking after them +and smiling all by himself. There was <a name="Page_318" id= +"Page_318"></a>something about the Twinklers that lightened his +heart whenever he caught sight of them. He and his fellow experts +had deplored the absence of opportunities since Mrs. Bilton came of +developing the friendship begun the first day, and talked of them +on their way home in the afternoons with affectionate and +respectful familiarity as The Cutes.</p> +<p>"Now," said Mr. Twist, having passed through the verandah and +led the twins to the bottom of the garden where he turned and faced +them, "perhaps you'll tell me exactly what you've done."</p> +<p>"You should rather inquire what Mrs. Bilton has done," said +Anna-Felicitas, pulling herself up as straight and tall as she +would go. She couldn't but perceive that the excess of +Christopher's emotion was putting her at a disadvantage in the +matter of dignity.</p> +<p>"I can guess pretty much what she has done," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"You can't—you can't," burst out Anna-Rose. "Nobody +could—nobody ever could—who hadn't been with her day +and night."</p> +<p>"She's just been Mrs. Bilton," said Mr. Twist, lighting a +cigarette to give himself an appearance of calm.</p> +<p>"Exactly," said Anna-Felicitas. "So you won't be surprised at +our having just been Twinklers."</p> +<p>"Oh Lord," groaned Mr. Twist, in spite of his cigarette, "oh, +Lord."</p> +<p>"We've given Mrs. Bilton notice," continued Anna-Felicitas, +making a gesture of great dignity with her hand, "because we find +with regret that she and we are incompatible."</p> +<p>"Was she aware that you were giving it her?" asked Mr. Twist, +endeavouring to keep calm.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>We wrote it."</p> +<p>"Has she read it?"</p> +<p>"We put it into her hand, and then came away so that she should +have an opportunity of quietly considering it."</p> +<p>"You shouldn't have left us alone with her like this," burst out +Anna-Rose again, "you shouldn't really. It was cruel, it was wrong, +leaving us high and dry—never seeing you—leaving us to +be talked to day and night—to be read to—would +<i>you</i> like to be read to while you're undressing by somebody +still in all their clothes? We've never been able to open our +mouths. We've been taken into the field for our airing and brought +in again as if we were newborns, or people in prams, or flocks and +herds, or prisoners suspected of wanting to escape. We haven't had +a minute to ourselves day or night. There hasn't been a single +exchange of ideas, not a shred of recognition that we're grown up. +We've been followed, watched, talked to—oh, oh, how awful it +has been! Oh, oh, how awful! Forced to be dumb for +days—losing our power of speech—"</p> +<p>"Anna-Rose Twinkler," interrupted Mr. Twist sternly, "you +haven't lost it. And you not only haven't, but that power of yours +has increased tenfold during its days of rest."</p> +<p>He spoke with the exasperation in his voice that they had +already heard several times since they landed in America. Each time +it took them aback, for Mr. Twist was firmly fixed in their minds +as the kindest and gentlest of creatures, and these sudden kickings +of his each time astonished them.</p> +<p>On this occasion, however, only Anna-Rose was astonished. +Anna-Felicitas all along had had an uncomfortable conviction in the +depth of her heart that Mr. <a name="Page_320" id= +"Page_320"></a>Twist wouldn't like what they had done. He would be +upset, she felt, as her reluctant feet followed Anna-Rose in search +of him. He would be, she was afraid very much upset. And so he was. +He was appalled by what had happened. Lose Mrs. Bilton? Lose the +very foundation of the party's respectability? And how could he +find somebody else at the eleventh hour and where and how could the +twins and he live, unchaperoned as they would be, till he had? What +a peculiar talent these Annas had for getting themselves and him +into impossible situations! Of course at their age they ought to be +safe under the wing of a wise and unusually determined mother. +Well, poor little wretches, they couldn't help not being under it; +but that aunt of theirs ought to have stuck to them—faced up +to her husband, and stuck to them.</p> +<p>"I suppose," he said angrily, "being you and not being able to +see farther than the ends of your noses, you haven't got any sort +of an idea of what you've done."</p> +<p>"We—"</p> +<p>"She—"</p> +<p>"And I don't suppose it's much use my trying to explain, either. +Hasn't it ever occurred to you, though I'd be real grateful if +you'd give me information on this point—that maybe you don't +know everything?"</p> +<p>"She—"</p> +<p>"We—"</p> +<p>"And that till you do know everything, which I take it won't be +for some time yet, judging from the samples I've had of your +perspicacity, you'd do well not to act without first asking some +one's advice? Mine, for instance?"</p> +<p>"She—" began Anna-Rose again; but her voice <a name= +"Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>was trembling, for she couldn't bear +Mr. Twist's anger. She was too fond of him. When he looked at her +like that her own anger was blown out as if by an icy draught and +she could only look back at him piteously.</p> +<p>But Anna-Felicitas, being free from the weaknesses inherent in +adoration, besides continuing to perceive how Christopher's +feelings put her at a disadvantage, drew Mr. Twist's attention from +her by saying with gentleness, "But why add to the general +discomfort by being bitter?"</p> +<p>"Bitter!" cried Mr. Twist, still glaring at Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Do you dispute that God made us?" inquired Anna-Felicitas, +placing herself as it were like a shield between Mr. Twist's +wrathful concentration on Christopher and that unfortunate young +person's emotion.</p> +<p>"See here," said Mr. Twist turning on her, "I'm not going to +argue with you—not about <i>anything</i>. Least of all about +God."</p> +<p>"I only wanted to point out to you," said Anna-Felicitas mildly, +"that that being so, and we not able to help it, there seems little +use in being bitter with us because we're not different. In regard +to anything fundamental about us that you deplore I'm afraid we +must refer you to Providence."</p> +<p>"Say," said Mr. Twist, not in the least appeased by this +reasoning but, as Anna-Felicitas couldn't but notice, quite the +contrary, "used you to talk like this to that Uncle Arthur of +yours? Because if you did, upon my word I don't wonder—"</p> +<p>But what Mr. Twist didn't wonder was fortunately concealed from +the twins by the appearance at that moment of Mrs. Bilton, who, +emerging from the shades of the verandah and looking about her, +caught sight of them and came rapidly down the garden.</p> +<p><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>There was no escape.</p> +<p>They watched her bearing down on them without a word. It was a +most unpleasant moment. Mr. Twist re-lit his cigarette to give +himself a countenance, but the thought of all that Mrs. Bilton +would probably say was dreadful to him, and his hand couldn't help +shaking a little. Anna-Rose showed a guilty tendency to slink +behind him. Anna-Felicitas stood motionless, awaiting the deluge. +All Mr. Twist's sympathies were with Mrs. Bilton, and he was +ashamed that she should have been treated so. He felt that nothing +she could say would be severe enough, and he was extraordinarily +angry with the Annas. Yet when he saw the injured lady bearing down +on them, if he only could he would have picked up an Anna under +each arm, guilty as they were, and run and run; so much did he +prefer them to Mrs. Bilton and so terribly did he want, at this +moment, to be somewhere where that lady wasn't.</p> +<p>There they stood then, anxiously watching the approaching +figure, and the letter in Mrs. Bilton's hand bobbed up and down as +she walked, white and conspicuous in the sun against her black +dress. What was their amazement to see as she drew nearer that she +was looking just as pleasant as ever. They stared at her with +mouths falling open. Was it possible, thought the twins, that she +was longing to leave but hadn't liked to say so, and the letter had +come as a release? Was it possible, thought Mr. Twist with a leap +of hope in his heart, that she was taking the letter from a +non-serious point of view?</p> +<p>And Mr. Twist, to his infinite relief, was right. For Mrs. +Bilton, woman of grit and tenacity, was not in the habit of +allowing herself to be dislodged or even discouraged. This was the +opening sentence of her re<a name="Page_323" id= +"Page_323"></a>marks when she had arrived, smiling, in their midst. +Had she not explained the first night that she was one who, having +put her hand to the plough, held on to it however lively the +movements of the plough might be? She would not conceal from them, +she said, that even Mr Bilton had not, especially, at first, been +entirely without such movements. He had settled down, however on +finding he could trust her to know better than he did what he +wanted. Don't wise wives always? she inquired. And the result had +been that no man ever had a more devoted wife while he was alive, +or a more devoted widow after he wasn't. She had told him one day, +when he was drawing near the latter condition and she was +conversing with him, as was only right, on the subject of wills, +and he said that his affairs had gone wrong and as far as he could +see she would be left a widow and that was about all she would be +left—she had told him that if it was any comfort to him to +know it, he might rely on it that he would have the most devoted +widow any man had ever had, and he said—Mr. Bilton had odd +fancies, especially toward the end—that a widow was the one +thing a man never could have because he wasn't there by the time he +had got her. Yes, Mr. Bilton had odd fancies. And if she had +managed, as she did manage, to steer successfully among them, he +being a man of ripe parts and character, was it likely that +encountering odd fancies in two very young and unformed +girls—oh, it wasn't their fault that they were unformed, it +was merely because they hadn't had time enough yet—she would +be unable, experienced as she was, to steer among them too? +Besides, she had a heart for orphans; orphans and dumb animals +always had had a special appeal for her. "No, no, Mr. Twist," Mrs. +Bilton wound up, putting a hand affectionately on <a name= +"Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>Anna-Rose's shoulder as a more +convenient one than Anna-Felicitas's, "my young charges aren't +going to be left in the lurch, you may rely on that. I don't +undertake a duty without carrying it out. Why, I feel a lasting +affection for them already. We've made real progress these few days +in intimacy. And I just love to sit and listen to all their fresh +young chatter."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a><a name="Page_325" +id="Page_325"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> +<p>This was the last of Mr. Twist's worries before the opening +day.</p> +<p>Remorseful that he should have shirked helping the Annas to bear +Mrs. Bilton, besides having had a severe fright on perceiving how +near his shirking had brought the party to disaster, he now had his +meals with the others and spent the evenings with them as well. He +was immensely grateful to Mrs. Bilton. Her grit had saved them. He +esteemed and respected her. Indeed, he shook hands with her then +and there at the end of her speech, and told her he did, and the +least he could do after that was to come to dinner. But this very +genuine appreciation didn't prevent his finding her at close +quarters what Anna-Rose, greatly chastened, now only called +temperately "a little much," and the result was a really frantic +hurrying on of the work. He had rather taken, those first four days +of being relieved of responsibility in regard to the twins, to +finnicking with details, to dwelling lovingly on them with a sense +of having a margin to his time, and things accordingly had +considerably slowed down; but after twenty-four hours of Mrs. +Bilton they hurried up again, and after forty-eight of her the +speed was headlong. At the end of forty-eight hours it seemed to +Mr. Twist more urgent than anything he had ever known that he +should get out of the shanty, get into somewhere with space in it, +and sound-proof walls—lots of walls—and long passages +between people's doors; and before the rooms in <a name="Page_326" +id="Page_326"></a>the inn were anything like finished he insisted +on moving in.</p> +<p>"You must turn to on this last lap and help fix them up," he +said to the twins. "It'll be a bit uncomfortable at first, but you +must just take off your coats to it and not mind."</p> +<p>Mind? Turn to? It was what they were languishing for. It was +what, in the arid hours under the ilex tree, collected so +ignominiously round Mrs. Bilton's knee they had been panting for, +like thirsty dogs with their tongues out. And such is the peculiar +blessedness of work that instantly, the moment there was any to be +done, everything that was tangled and irritating fell quite +naturally into its proper place. Magically life straightened itself +out smooth, and left off being difficult. <i>Arbeit und Liebe</i>, +as their mother used to say, dropping into German whenever a +sentence seemed to her to sound better that way—<i>Arbeit und +Liebe</i>: these were the two great things of life; the two great +angels, as she assured them, under whose spread-out wings lay +happiness.</p> +<p>With a hungry zeal, with the violent energy of reaction, the +Annas fell upon work. They started unpacking. All the things they +had bought in Acapulco, the linen, the china, the teaspoons, the +feminine touches that had been piled up waiting in the barn, were +pulled out and undone and carried indoors. They sorted, and they +counted, and they arranged on shelves. Anna-Rose flew in and out +with her arms full. Anna-Felicitas slouched zealously after her, +her arms full too when she started, but not nearly so full when she +got there owing to the way things had of slipping through them and +dropping on to the floor. They were in a blissful, busy confusion. +Their faces shone with heat and happiness. <a name="Page_327" id= +"Page_327"></a>Here was liberty; here was freedom; here was true +dignity—<i>Arbeit und Liebe</i>....</p> +<p>When Mr. Twist, as he did whenever he could, came and looked on +for a moment in his shirt sleeves, with his hat on the back of his +head and his big, benevolent spectacles so kind, Anna-Rose's cup +seemed full. Her dimple never disappeared for a moment. It was +there all day long now; and even when she was asleep it still +lurked in the corner of her mouth. <i>Arbeit und Liebe</i>.</p> +<p>Immense was the reaction of self-respect that took hold of the +twins. They couldn't believe they were the people who had been so +crude and ill-conditioned as to hide Mrs. Bilton's belongings, and +actually finally to hide themselves. How absurd. How like children. +How unpardonably undignified. Anna-Rose held forth volubly to this +effect while she arranged the china, and Anna-Felicitas listened +assentingly, with a kind of grave, ashamed sheepishness.</p> +<p>The result of this reaction was that Mrs. Bilton, whose pressure +on them was relieved by the necessity of her too being in several +places at once, and who was displaying her customary grit, now +became the definite object of their courtesy. They were the +mistresses of a house, they began to realize, and as such owed her +every consideration. This bland attitude was greatly helped by +their not having to sleep with her any more, and they found that +the mere coming fresh to her each morning made them feel polite and +well-disposed. Besides, they were thoroughly and finally grown-up +now, Anna-Rose declared—never, never to lapse again. They had +had their lesson, she said, gone through a crisis, and done that +which Aunt Alice used to say people did after severe trials, aged +considerably.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas wasn't quite so sure. Her own recent <a name= +"Page_328" id="Page_328"></a>behaviour had shaken and shocked her +too much. Who would have thought she would have gone like that? +Gone all to pieces, back to sheer naughtiness, on the first +provocation? It was quite easy, she reflected while she worked, and +cups kept on detaching themselves mysteriously from her fingers, +and tables tumbling over at her approach, to be polite and +considerate to somebody you saw very little of, and even, as she +found herself doing, to get fond of the person; but suppose +circumstances threw one again into the person's continual society, +made one again have to sleep in the same room? Anna-Felicitas +doubted whether it would be possible for her to stand such a test, +in spite of her earnest desire to behave; she doubted, indeed, +whether anybody ever did stand that test successfully. Look at +husbands.</p> +<p>Meanwhile there seemed no likelihood of its being applied again. +Each of them had now a separate bedroom, and Mrs. Bilton had, in +the lavish American fashion, her own bathroom, so that even at that +point there was no collision. The twins' rooms were connected by a +bathroom all to themselves, with no other door into it except the +doors from their bedrooms, and Mr. Twist, who dwelt discreetly at +the other end of the house, also had a bathroom of his own. It +seemed as natural for American architects to drop bathrooms about, +thought Anna-Rose, as for the little clouds in the psalms to drop +fatness. They shed them just as easily, and the results were just +as refreshing. To persons hailing from Pomerania, a place arid of +bathrooms, it was the last word of luxury and comfort to have one's +own. Their pride in theirs amused Mr. Twist, used from childhood to +these civilized arrangements; but then, as they pointed out to him, +he hadn't lived in <a name="Page_329" id="Page_329"></a>Pomerania, +where nothing stood between you and being dirty except the +pump.</p> +<p>But it wasn't only the bathrooms that made the inn as planned by +Mr. Twist and the architect seem to the twins the most perfect, the +most wonderful magic little house in the world: the intelligent +American spirit was in every corner, and it was full of clever, +simple devices for saving labour—so full that it almost +seemed to the Annas as if it would get up quite unaided at six +every morning and do itself; and they were sure that if the +smallest encouragement were given to the kitchen-stove it would +cook and dish up a dinner all alone. Everything in the house was on +these lines. The arrangements for serving innumerable teas with +ease were admirable. They were marvels of economy and clever +thinking-out. The architect was surprised at the attention and +thought Mr. Twist concentrated on this particular part of the +future housekeeping. "You seem sheer crazy on teas," he remarked; +to which Mr. Twist merely replied that he was.</p> +<p>The last few days before the opening were as full of present joy +and promise of yet greater joys to come as the last few days of a +happy betrothal. They reminded Anna-Felicitas of those days in +April, those enchanting days she had always loved the best, when +the bees get busy for the first time, and suddenly there are +wallflowers and a flowering currant bush and the sound of the lawn +being mown and the smell of cut grass. How one's heart leaps up to +greet them, she thought. What a thrill of delight rushes through +one's body, of new hope, of delicious expectation.</p> +<p>Even Li Koo, the wooden-faced, the brief and rare of speech +seemed to feel the prevailing satisfaction and harmony and could be +heard in the evenings singing <a name="Page_330" id= +"Page_330"></a>strange songs among his pots. And what he was +singing, only nobody knew it, were soft Chinese hymns of praise of +the two white-lily girls, whose hair was woven sunlight, and whose +eyes were deep and blue even as the waters that washed about the +shores of his father's dwelling-place. For Li Koo, the impassive +and inarticulate, in secret seethed with passion. Which was why his +cakes were so wonderful. He had to express himself somehow.</p> +<p>But while up on their sun-lit, eucalyptus-crowned slopes Mr. +Twist and his party—he always thought of them as his +party—were innocently and happily busy full of hopefulness +and mutual goodwill, down in the town and in the houses scattered +over the lovely country round the town, people were talking. +Everybody knew about the house Teapot Twist was doing up, for the +daily paper had told them that Mr. Edward A. Twist had bought the +long uninhabited farmhouse in Pepper Lane known as Batt's, and was +converting it into a little <i>ventre-à-terre</i> for his +widowed mother—launching once more into French, as though +there were something about Mr. Twist magnetic to that language. +Everybody knew this, and it was perfectly natural for a well-off +Easterner to have a little place out West, even if the choice of +the little place was whimsical. But what about the Miss Twinklers? +Who and what were they? And also, Why?</p> +<p>There were three weeks between the departure of the Twist party +from the Cosmopolitan and the opening of the inn, and in that time +much had been done in the way of conjecture. The first waves of it +flowed out from the Cosmopolitan, and were met almost at once by +waves flowing in from the town. Good-natured curiosity gave place +to excited curiosity when the rumour <a name="Page_331" id= +"Page_331"></a>got about that the Cosmopolitan had been obliged to +ask Mr. Twist to take his <i>entourage</i> somewhere else. Was it +possible the cute little girls, so well known by sight on Main +Street going from shop to shop, were secretly scandalous? It seemed +almost unbelievable, but luckily nothing was really +unbelievable.</p> +<p>The manager of the hotel, dropped in upon casually by one guest +after the other, and interviewed as well by determined gentlemen +from the local press, was not to be drawn. His reserve was most +interesting. Miss Heap knitted and knitted and was persistently +enigmatic. Her silence was most exciting. On the other hand, Mrs. +Ridding's attitude was merely one of contempt, dismissing the +Twinklers with a heavy gesture. Why think or trouble about a pair +of chits like that? They had gone; Albert was quiet again; and +wasn't that the gong for dinner?</p> +<p>But doubts as to the private morals of the Twist +<i>entourage</i> presently were superseded by much graver and more +perturbing doubts. Nobody knew when exactly this development took +place. Acapulco had been enjoying the first set of doubts. There +was no denying that doubts about somebody else's morals were not +unpleasant. They did give one, if one examined one's sensations +carefully, a distinct agreeable tickle; they did add the kick to +lives which, if they had been virtuous for a very long time like +the lives of the Riddings, or virgin for a very long time like the +life of Miss Heap, were apt to be flat. But from the doubts that +presently appeared and overshadowed the earlier ones, one got +nothing but genuine discomfort and uneasiness. Nobody knew how or +when they started. Quite suddenly they were there.</p> +<p>This was in the November before America's coming <a name= +"Page_332" id="Page_332"></a>into the war. The feeling in Acapulco +was violently anti-German. The great majority of the inhabitants, +permanent and temporary, were deeply concerned at the conduct of +their country in not having, immediately after the torpedoing of +the <i>Lusitania</i>, joined the Allies. They found it difficult to +understand, and were puzzled and suspicious, as well as humiliated +in their national pride. Germans who lived in the neighbourhood, or +who came across from the East for the winter, were politely +tolerated, but the attitude toward them was one of growing +watchfulness and distrust; and week by week the whispered stories +of spies and gun-emplacements and secret stores of arms in these +people's cellars or back gardens, grew more insistent and detailed. +There certainly had been at least one spy, a real authentic one, +afterward shot in England, who had stayed near-by, and the nerves +of the inhabitants had that jumpiness on this subject with which +the inhabitants of other countries have long been familiar. All the +customary inexplicable lights were seen; all the customary +mysterious big motor cars rushed at forbidden and yet unhindered +speeds along unusual roads at unaccountable hours; all the +customary signalling out to sea was observed and passionately sworn +to by otherwise calm people. It was possible, the inhabitants +found, to believe with ease things about Germans—those who +were having difficulty with religion wished it were equally easy to +believe things about God. There was nothing Germans wouldn't think +of in the way of plotting, and nothing they wouldn't, having +thought of it, carry out with deadly thoroughness and patience.</p> +<p>And into this uneasy hotbed of readiness to believe the worst, +arrived the Twinkler twins, rolling their r's about.</p> +<p><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a>It needed but a few +inquiries to discover that none of the young ladies' schools in the +neighbourhood had been approached on their behalf; hardly +inquiries,—mere casual talk was sufficient, ordinary chatting +with the principals of these establishments when one met them at +the lectures and instructive evenings the more serious members of +the community organized and supported. Not many of the winter +visitors went to these meetings, but Miss Heap did. Miss Heap had a +restless soul. It was restless because it was worried by perpetual +thirst,—she couldn't herself tell after what; it wasn't +righteousness, for she knew she was still worldly, so perhaps it +was culture. Anyhow she would give culture a chance, and +accordingly she went to the instructive evenings. Here she met that +other side of Acapulco which doesn't play bridge and is proud to +know nothing of polo, which believes in education, and goes in for +mind training and welfare work; which isn't, that is, well off.</p> +<p>Nobody here had been asked to educate the Twinklers. No classes +had been joined by them.</p> +<p>Miss Heap was so enigmatic, she who was naturally of an unquiet +and exercise-loving tongue, that this graver, more occupied section +of the inhabitants was instantly as much pervaded by suspicions as +the idlest of the visitors in the hotels and country houses. It +waved aside the innocent appearance and obvious extreme youth of +the suspects. Useless to look like cherubs if it were German +cherubs you looked like. Useless being very nearly children if it +were German children you very nearly were. Why, precisely these +qualities would be selected by those terribly clever Germans for +the furtherance of their nefarious schemes. It would be quite in +keeping with the German national character, <a name="Page_334" id= +"Page_334"></a>that character of bottomless artfulness, to pick out +two such young girls with just that type of empty, baby face, and +send them over to help weave the gigantic invisible web with which +America was presently to be choked dead.</p> +<p>The serious section of Acapulco, the section that thought, hit +on this explanation of the Twinklers with no difficulty whatever +once its suspicions were roused because it was used to being able +to explain everything instantly. It was proud of its explanation, +and presented it to the town with much the same air of deprecating +but conscious achievement with which one presents +drinking-fountains.</p> +<p>Then there was the lawyer to whom Mr. Twist had gone about the +guardianship. He said nothing, but he was clear in his mind that +the girls were German and that Mr. Twist wanted to hide it. He had +thought more highly of Mr. Twist's intelligence than this. Why hide +it? America was a neutral country; technically she was neutral, and +Germans could come and go as they pleased. Why unnecessarily set +tongues wagging? He did not, being of a continuous shrewd alertness +himself, a continuous wide-awakeness and minute consideration of +consequences, realize, and if he had he wouldn't have believed, the +affectionate simplicity and unworldliness of Mr. Twist. If it had +been pointed out to him he would have dismissed it as a pose; for a +man who makes money in any quantity worth handling isn't +affectionately simple and unworldly—he is calculating and +steely.</p> +<p>The lawyer was puzzled. How did Mr. Twist manage to have a +forehead and a fortune like that, and yet be a fool? True, he had a +funny sort of face on him once you got down to the nose part and +what came after,—<a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"></a>a +family sort of face, thought the lawyer; a sort of rice pudding, +wet-nurse face. The lawyer listened intently to all the talk and +rumours, while himself saying nothing. In spite of being a married +man, his scruples about honour hadn't been blunted by the urge to +personal freedom and the necessity for daily self-defence that +sometimes afflicts those who have wives. He remained honourably +silent, as he had said he would, but he listened; and he came to +the conclusion that either there was a quite incredible amount of +stupidity about the Twist party, or that there was something +queer.</p> +<p>What he didn't know, and what nobody knew, was that the house +being got ready with such haste was to be an inn. He, like the rest +of the world, took the newspapers <i>ventre-à-terre</i> +theory of the house for granted, and it was only the expectation of +the arrival of that respectable lady, the widowed Mrs. Twist, which +kept the suspicions a little damped down. They smouldered, +hesitating, beneath this expectation; for Teapot Twist's family +life had been voluminously described in the entire American press +when first his invention caught on, and it was known to be pure. +There had been snapshots of the home at Clark where he had been +born, of the home at Clark (west aspect) where he would +die—Mr. Twist read with mild surprise that his liveliest wish +was to die in the old home—of the corner in the Clark +churchyard where he would probably be entombed, with an inset +showing his father's gravestone on which would clearly be read the +announcement that he was the Resurrection and the Life. And there +was an inset of his mother, swathed in the black symbols of +ungluttable grief,—a most creditable mother. And there were +accounts of the activities of another near relative, that <a name= +"Page_336" id="Page_336"></a>Uncle Charles who presided over the +Church of Heavenly Refreshment in New York, and a snapshot of his +macerated and unrefreshed body in a cassock,—a most +creditable uncle.</p> +<p>These articles hadn't appeared so very long ago, and the +impression survived and was general that Mr. Twist's antecedents +were unimpeachable. If it were true that the house was for his +mother and she was shortly arriving, then, although still very odd +and unintelligible, it was probable that his being there now with +the two Germans was after all capable of explanation. Not much of +an explanation, though. Even the moderates who took this view felt +this. One wasn't with Germans these days if one could help it. +There was no getting away from that simple fact. The inevitable +deduction was that Mr. Twist couldn't help it. Why couldn't he help +it? Was he enslaved by a scandalous passion for them, a passion +cold-bloodedly planned for him by the German Government, which was +known to have lists of the notable citizens of the United States +with photographs and details of their probable weaknesses, and was +exactly informed of their movements? He had met the Twinklers, so +it was reported, on a steamer coming over from England. Of course. +All arranged by the German Government. That was the peculiar evil +greatness of this dangerous people, announced the serious section +of Acapulco, again with the drinking-fountain-presentation air, +that nothing was too private or too petty to escape their +attention, to be turned to their own wicked uses. They were as +economical of the smallest scraps of possible usefulness as a +French cook of the smallest scraps and leavings of food. Everything +was turned to account. Nothing was wasted. Even the mosquitoes in +Germany were <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337"></a>not wasted. They +contained juices, Germans had discovered, especially after having +been in contact with human beings, and with these juices the +talented but unscrupulous Germans made explosives. Could one +sufficiently distrust a nation that did things like that? asked the +serious section of Acapulco.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a><a name="Page_338" +id="Page_338"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> +<p>People were so much preoccupied by the Twinkler problem that +they were less interested than they otherwise would have been in +the sea-blue advertisements, and when the one appeared announcing +that The Open Arms would open wide on the 29th of the month and +exhorting the public to watch the signposts, they merely remarked +that it wasn't, then, the title of a book after all. Mr. Twist +would have been surprised and nettled if he had known how little +curiosity his advertisements were exciting; he would have been +horrified if he had known the reason. As it was, he didn't know +anything. He was too busy, too deeply absorbed, to be vulnerable to +rumour; he, and the twins, and Mrs. Bilton were safe from it inside +their magic circle of <i>Arbeit und Liebe</i>.</p> +<p>Sometimes he was seen in Main Street, that street in Acapulco +through which everybody passes at certain hours of the morning, +looking as though he had a great deal to do and very little time to +do it in; and once or twice the Twinklers were seen there, also +apparently very busy, but they didn't now come alone. Mrs. Bilton, +the lady from Los Angeles—Acapulco knew all about her and +admitted she was a lady of strictest integrity and unimpeachable +character, but this only made the Twinkler problem more +obscure—came too, and seemed, judging from the animation of +her talk, to be on the best of terms with her charges.</p> +<p>But once an idea has got into people's heads, re<a name= +"Page_339" id="Page_339"></a>marked the lawyer, who was nudged by +the friend he was walking with as the attractive trio were seen +approaching,—Mrs. Bilton with her black dress and her snowy +hair setting off, as they in their turn set her off, the twins in +their clean white frocks and shining youth,—once an idea has +got into people's heads it sticks. It is slow to get in, and +impossible to get out. Yet on the face of it, was it likely that +Mrs. Bilton—</p> +<p>"Say," interrupted his friend, "since when have you joined up +with the water-blooded believe-nothing-but-good-ites?"</p> +<p>And only his personal affection for the lawyer restrained him +from using the terrible word pro-German; but it had been in his +mind.</p> +<p>The day before the opening, Miss Heap heard from an acquaintance +in the East to whom she had written in her uneasiness, and who was +staying with some people living in Clark. Miss Heap wrote soon +after the departure—she didn't see why she shouldn't call it +by its proper name and say right out expulsion—of the Twist +party from the Cosmopolitan, but letters take a long time to get +East and answers take the same long time to come back in, and +messages are sometimes slow in being delivered if the other person +doesn't realize, as one does oneself, the tremendous interests that +are at stake. What could be a more tremendous interest, and one +more adapted to the American genius, than safe-guarding public +morals? Miss Heap wrote before the sinister rumours of German +machinations had got about; she was still merely at the stage of +uneasiness in regard to the morals of the Twist party; she couldn't +sleep at night for thinking of them. Of course if it were true that +his mother was coming out ... but was she? Miss Heap somehow felt +unable to believe <a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a>it. "Do tell +your friends in Clark," she wrote, "how <i>delighted</i> we all are +to hear that Mrs. Twist is going to be one of us in our sunny +refuge here this winter. A real warm welcome awaits her. Her son is +working day and night getting the house ready for her, helped +indefatigably by the two Miss Twinklers."</p> +<p>She had to wait over a fortnight for the answer, and by the time +she got it those other more terrible doubts had arisen, the doubts +as to the exact position occupied by the Twinklers and Mr. Twist in +the German secret plans for, first, the pervasion, and, second, the +invasion of America; and on reading the opening lines of the letter +Miss Heap found she had to sit down, for her legs gave way beneath +her.</p> +<p>It appeared that Mrs. Twist hadn't known where her son was till +Miss Heap's letter came. He had left Clark in company of the two +girls mentioned, and about whom his mother knew nothing, the very +morning after his arrival home from his long absence in Europe. +That was all his mother knew. She was quite broken. Coming on the +top of all her other sorrow her only son's behaviour had been a +fearful, perhaps a finishing blow, but she was such a good woman +that she still prayed for him. Clark was horrified. His mother had +decided at first she would try to shield him and say nothing, but +when she found that nobody had the least idea of what he had done +she felt she owed it to her friends to be open and have no secrets +from them. Whatever it cost her in suffering and humiliation she +would be frank. Anything was better than keeping up false +appearances to friends who believed in you. She was a brave woman, +a splendid woman. The girls—poor Mrs. Twist—were +Germans.</p> +<p>On reading this Miss Heap was all of a tingle. Her <a name= +"Page_341" id="Page_341"></a>worst suspicions hadn't been half bad +enough. Here was everything just about as black as it could be; and +Mr Twist, a well-known and universally respected American citizen, +had been turned, by means of those girls playing upon weaknesses +she shuddered to think of but that she had reason to believe, from +books she had studied and conversations she had reluctantly taken +part in, were not altogether uncommon, into a cat's-paw of the +German Government.</p> +<p>What should she do? What should she say? To whom should she go? +Which was the proper line of warning for her to take? It seemed to +her that the presence of these people on the Pacific coast was a +real menace to its safety, moral and physical; but how get rid of +them? And if they were got rid of wouldn't it only be exposing some +other part of America, less watchful, less perhaps able to take +care of itself, to the ripening and furtherance of their schemes, +whatever their schemes might be? Even at that moment. Miss Heap +unconsciously felt that to let the Twinklers go would be to lose +thrills. And she was really thrilled. She prickled with excitement +and horror. Her circulation hadn't been so good for years. She +wasn't one to dissect her feelings, so she had no idea of how +thoroughly she was enjoying herself. And it was while she sat alone +in her bedroom, her fingers clasping and unclasping the arms of her +chair, her feet nervously nibbing up and down on the thick soft +carpet, hesitating as to the best course for her to take, holding +her knowledge meanwhile tight, hugging it for a little altogether +to herself, her very own, shared as yet by no one,—it was +while she sat there, that people out of doors in Acapulco itself, +along the main roads, out in the country towards Zamora on the +north and San <a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"></a>Blas on the +south, became suddenly aware of new signposts.</p> +<p>They hadn't been there the day before. They all turned towards +the spot at the foot of the mountains where Pepper Lane was. They +all pointed, with a long white finger, in that direction. And on +them all was written in plain, sea-blue letters, beneath which the +distance in miles or fractions of a mile was clearly marked, <i>To +The Open Arms</i>.</p> +<p>Curiosity was roused at last. People meeting each other in Main +Street stopped to talk about these Arms wondered where and what +they were, and decided to follow the signposts that afternoon in +their cars and track them down. They made up parties to go and +track together. It would be a relief to have something a little +different to do. What on earth could The Open Arms be? Hopes were +expressed that they weren't something religious. Awful to follow +signposts out into the country only to find they landed you in a +meeting-house.</p> +<p>At lunch in the hotels, and everywhere where people were +together, the signposts were discussed. Miss Heap heard them being +discussed from her solitary table, but was so much taken up with +her own exciting thoughts that she hardly noticed. After lunch, +however, as she was passing out of the restaurant, still full of +her unshared news and still uncertain as to whom she should tell it +first, Mr. Ridding called out from his table and said he supposed +she was going too.</p> +<p>They had been a little chilly to each other since the afternoon +of the conversation with the Twinklers, but he would have called +out to any one at that moment He was sitting waiting while Mrs. +Ridding finished her lunch, his own lunch finished long ago, and +was in the <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343"></a>condition of +muffled but extreme exasperation which the unoccupied watching of +Mrs. Ridding at meals produced. Every day three times this +happened, that Mr. Ridding got through his meal first by at least +twenty minutes and then sat trying not to mind Mrs. Ridding. She +wasn't aware of these efforts. They would greatly have shocked her; +for to try not to mind one's wife surely isn't what decent, loving +husbands ever have to do.</p> +<p>"Going where?" asked Miss Heap, stopping by the table; whereupon +Mr. Ridding had the slight relief of getting up.</p> +<p>Mrs. Ridding continued to eat impassively.</p> +<p>"Following these new signposts that are all over the place," +said Mr. Ridding. "Sort of paper-chase business."</p> +<p>"Yes. I'd like to. Were you thinking of going, Mrs. +Ridding?"</p> +<p>"After our nap," said Mrs. Ridding, steadily eating. "I'll take +you. Car at four o'clock, Albert."</p> +<p>She didn't raise her eyes from her plate, and as Miss Heap well +knew that Mrs. Ridding was not open to conversation during meals +and as she had nothing to say to Mr. Ridding, she expressed her +thanks and pleasure, and temporarily left them.</p> +<p>This was a day of shocks and thrills. When the big +limousine—symbol of Mrs. Ridding's power, for Mr. Ridding +couldn't for the life of him see why he should have to provide a +strange old lady with cars, and yet did so on an increasing scale +of splendour—arrived at the turn on the main road to San Blas +which leads into Pepper Lane and was confronted by the final +signpost pointing up it, for the first time The Open Arms and the +Twist and Twinkler party entered Miss Heap's <a name="Page_344" id= +"Page_344"></a>mind in company. So too did they enter Mr. Ridding's +mind; and they only remained outside Mrs. Ridding's because of her +profound uninterest. Her thoughts were merged in aspic. That was +the worst of aspic when it was as good as it was at the +Cosmopolitan; one wasn't able to leave off eating it quite in time, +and then, unfortunately, had to go on thinking of it +afterwards.</p> +<p>The Twist house, remembered her companions simultaneously, was +in Pepper Lane. Odd that this other thing, whatever it was, should +happen to be there too. Miss Heap said nothing, but sat very +straight and alert, her eyes everywhere. Mr. Ridding of course said +nothing either. Not for worlds would he have mentioned the word +Twist, which so instantly and inevitably suggested that other and +highly controversial word Twinkler. But he too sat all eyes; for +anyhow he might in passing get a glimpse of the place containing +those cunning little bits of youngness, the Twinkler sisters, and +even with any luck a glimpse of their very selves.</p> +<p>Up the lane went the limousine, slowly because of the cars in +front of it. It was one of a string of cars, for the day was +lovely, there was no polo, and nobody happened to be giving a +party. All the way out from Acapulco they had only had to follow +other cars. Cars were going, and cars were coming back. The cars +going were full of solemn people, pathetically anxious to be +interested. The cars coming back were full of animated people who +evidently had achieved interest.</p> +<p>Miss Heap became more and more alert as they approached the bend +in the lane round which the Twist house was situated. She had been +there before, making <a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a>a point +of getting a friend to motor her past it in order to see what she +could for herself, but Mr. Ridding, in spite of his desire to go +and have a look too, had always, each time he tried to, found Mrs. +Ridding barring the way. So that he didn't exactly know where it +was; and when on turning the corner the car suddenly stopped, and +putting his head out—he was sitting backwards—- he saw +a great, old-fashioned signboard, such as he was accustomed to in +pictures of ancient English village greens, with</p> +<p><b>The Open Arms</b></p> +<p>in medieval letters painted on it, all he said was, "Guess we've +run it to earth."</p> +<p>Miss Heap sat with her hands in her lap, staring. Mrs. Ridding, +her mind blocked by aspic, wasn't receiving impressions. She gazed +with heavy eyes straight in front of her. There she saw cars. Many +cars. All stopped at this particular spot. With a dull sensation of +fathomless fatigue she dimly wondered at them.</p> +<p>"Looks as though it's a hostelry," said Mr. Ridding, who +remembered his Dickens; and he blinked up, craning his head out, at +the signboard, on which through a gap in the branches of the pepper +trees a shaft of brilliant late afternoon sun was striking. "Don't +see one, though."</p> +<p>He jerked his thumb. "Up back of the trees there, I reckon," he +said.</p> +<p>Then he prepared to open the door and go and have a look.</p> +<p>A hand shot out of Miss Heap's lap at him. "Don't," she said +quickly. "Don't, Mr. Ridding."</p> +<p>There was a little green gate in the thick hedge that <a name= +"Page_346" id="Page_346"></a>grew behind the pepper trees, and some +people he knew, who had been in the car in front, were walking up +to it. Some other people he knew had already got to it, and were +standing talking together with what looked like leaflets in their +hands. These leaflets came out of a green wooden box fastened on to +one of the gate-posts, with the words <i>Won't you take one</i>? +painted on it.</p> +<p>Mr. Ridding naturally wanted to go and take one, and here was +Miss Heap laying hold of him and saying "Don't."</p> +<p>"Don't what?" he asked looking down at her, his hand on the +door.</p> +<p>"Hello Ridding," called out one of the people he knew. "No good +getting out. Show doesn't open till to-morrow at four. Can't get in +to-day. Gate's bolted. Nothing doing."</p> +<p>And then the man detached himself from the group at the gate and +came over to the car with a leaflet in his hand.</p> +<p>"Say—" he said,—"how are you to-day, Miss Heap? Mrs. +Ridding, your humble servant—say, look at this. Teapot Twist +wasn't born yesterday when it comes to keeping things dark. No +mention of his name on this book of words, but it's the house he +was doing up all right, and it is to be used as an inn. +Afternoon-tea inn. Profits to go to the American Red Cross. Price +per head five dollars. Bit stiff, five dollars for tea. Wonder +where those Twinkler girls come in. Here—you have this, +Ridding, and study it. I'll get another." And taking off his hat a +second time to the ladies he went back to his friends.</p> +<p>In great agitation Miss Heap turned to Mrs. Ridding, whose mind, +galvanized by the magic words Twist and Twinkler, was slowly +heaving itself free of <a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"></a>aspic. +"Perhaps we had best go back to the hotel, Mrs Ridding," said Miss +Heap, her voice shaking. "There's something I wish particularly to +tell you. I ought to have done so this morning, directly I knew, +but I had no idea of course that this...." She waved a hand at the +signboard, and collapsed into speechlessness.</p> +<p>"Albert—hotel," directed Mrs. Ridding.</p> +<p>And Mr. Ridding, clutching the leaflet, his face congested with +suppressed emotions, obediently handed on the order through the +speaking-tube to the chauffeur.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a><a name="Page_348" +id="Page_348"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> +<p>"It's <i>perfect</i>," said the twins, looking round the +tea-room.</p> +<p>This was next day, at a quarter to four. They had been looking +round saying it was perfect at intervals since the morning. Each +time they finished getting another of the little tables ready, each +time they brought in and set down another bowl of flowers they +stood back and gazed a moment in silence, and then said with one +voice, "It's <i>perfect</i>."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist, though the house was not, as we have seen, quite as +sober, quite as restrained in its effect as he had intended, was +obliged to admit that it did look very pretty. And so did the +Annas. Especially the Annas. They looked so pretty in the sea-blue +frocks and little Dutch caps and big muslin aprons that he took off +his spectacles and cleaned them carefully so as to have a +thoroughly uninterrupted view; and as they stood at a quarter to +four gazing round the room, he stood gazing at them, and when they +said "It's <i>perfect</i>," he said, indicating them with his +thumb, "Same here," and then they all laughed for they were all +very happy, and Mrs. Bilton, arrayed exactly as Mr. Twist had +pictured her when he engaged her in handsome black, her white hair +beautifully brushed and neat, crossed over to the Annas and gave +each of them a hearty kiss—for luck, she said—which Mr. +Twist watched with an odd feeling of jealousy.</p> +<p>"I'd like to do that," he thought, filled with a sudden <a name= +"Page_349" id="Page_349"></a>desire to hug. Then he said it out +loud. "I'd like to do that," he said boldly. And added, "As it's +the opening day."</p> +<p>"I don't think it would afford you any permanent satisfaction," +said Anna-Felicitas placidly. "There's nothing really to be gained, +we think, by kissing. Of course," she added politely to Mrs. +Bilton, "we like it very much as an expression of esteem."</p> +<p>"Then why not in that spirit—" began Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"We don't hold with kissing," said Anna-Rose quickly, turning +very red. Intolerable to be kissed <i>en famille</i>. If it had to +be done at all, kissing should be done quietly, she thought. But +she and Anna-Felicitas didn't hold with it anyhow. Never. Never. To +her amazement she found tears in her eyes. Well, of all the liquid +idiots.... It must be that she was so happy. She had never been so +happy. Where on earth had her handkerchief got to....</p> +<p>"Hello," said Mr. Twist, staring at her.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas looked at her quickly.</p> +<p>"It's merely bliss," she said, taking the corner of her +beautiful new muslin apron to Christopher's eyes. "Excess of it. We +are, you know," she said, smiling over her shoulder at Mr. Twist, +so that the corner of her apron, being undirected, began dabbing at +Christopher's perfectly tearless ears, "quite extraordinarily +happy, and all through you. Nevertheless Anna-R." she continued, +addressing her with firmness while she finished her eyes and began +her nose, "You may like to be reminded that there's only ten +minutes left now before all those cars that were here yesterday +come again, and you wouldn't wish to embark on your career as a +waitress hampered by an ugly face, would you?"</p> +<p><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350"></a>But half an hour later no +cars had come. Pepper Lane was still empty. The long shadows lay +across it in a beautiful quiet, and the crickets in the grass +chirruped undisturbed. Twice sounds were heard as if something was +coming up it, and everybody flew to their posts—Li Koo to the +boiling water, Mrs. Bilton to her raised desk at the end of the +room, and the twins to the door—but the sounds passed on +along the road and died away round the next corner.</p> +<p>At half-past four the <i>personnel</i> of The Open Arms was +sitting about silently in a state of increasing uneasiness, when +Mr. Ridding walked in.</p> +<p>There had been no noise of a car to announce him; he just walked +in mopping his forehead, for he had come in the jitney omnibus to +the nearest point and had done the last mile on his own +out-of-condition feet. Mrs. Ridding thought he was writing letters +in the smoking-room. She herself was in a big chair on the +verandah, and with Miss Heap and most of the other guests was +discussing The Open Arms in all its probable significance. He +hadn't been able to get away sooner because of the nap. He had gone +through with the nap from start to finish so as not to rouse +suspicion. He arrived very hot, but with a feeling of dare-devil +running of risks that gave him great satisfaction. He knew that he +would cool down again presently and that then the consequences of +his behaviour would be unpleasant to reflect upon, but meanwhile +his blood was up.</p> +<p>He walked in feeling not a day older than thirty,—most +gratifying sensation. The <i>personnel</i>, after a moment's +open-mouthed surprise, rushed to greet him. Never was a man more +welcome. Never had Mr. Ridding been so warmly welcomed anywhere in +his life.</p> +<p>"Now isn't this real homey," he said, beaming at <a name= +"Page_351" id="Page_351"></a>Anna-Rose who took his stick. "Wish +I'd known you were going to do it, for then I'd have had something +to look forward to."</p> +<p>"Will you have tea or coffee?" asked Anna-Felicitas, trying to +look very solemn and like a family butler but her voice quivering +with eagerness. "Or perhaps you would prefer frothed chocolate? +Each of these beverages can be provided either hot or +iced—"</p> +<p>"There's ice-cream as well," said Anna-Rose, tumultuously in +spite of also trying to look like a family butler. "<i>I'd</i> have +ice-cream if I were you. There's more body in it. Cold, delicious +body. And you look so hot. Hot things should always as soon as +possible be united to cold things, so as to restore the proper +balance—"</p> +<p>"And there's some heavenly stuff called +cinnamon-toast—hot, you know, but if you have ice-cream at +the same time it won't matter," said Anna-Felicitas, hanging up his +hat for him. "I don't know whether you've studied the leaflets," +she continued, "but in case you haven't I feel I oughtn't to +conceal from you that the price is five dollars whatever you +have."</p> +<p>"So that," said Anna-Rose, "you needn't bother about trying to +save, for you can't."</p> +<p>"Then I'll have tea to start with and see how I get on," said +Mr. Ridding, sitting down in the chair Anna-Felicitas held for him +and beaming up at her.</p> +<p>She flicked an imaginary grain of dust off the cloth with the +corner of her apron to convey to him that she knew her business, +and hurried away to give the order. Indeed, they both hurried away +to give the order.</p> +<p>"Say—" called out Mr. Ridding, for he thought one Anna +would have been enough for this and he was pining to talk to them; +but the twins weren't to <a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a>be +stopped from both giving the very first order, and they disappeared +together into the pantry.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton sat in the farthest corner at her desk, apparently +absorbed in an enormous ledger. In this ledger she was to keep +accounts and to enter the number of teas, and from this high seat +she was to preside over the activities of the <i>personnel</i>. She +had retired hastily to it on the unexpected entrance of Mr. +Ridding, and pen in hand was endeavouring to look as if she were +totting up figures. As the pages were blank this was a little +difficult. And it was difficult to sit there quiet. She wanted to +get down and go and chat with the guest; she felt she had quite a +good deal she could say to him; she had a great itch to go and +talk, but Mr. Twist had been particular that to begin with, till +the room was fairly full, he and she should leave the guests +entirely to the Annas.</p> +<p>He himself was going to keep much in the background at all +times, but through the half-open door of his office he could see +and hear; and he couldn't help thinking, as he sat there watching +and observed the effulgence of the beams the old gentleman just +arrived turned on the twins, that the first guest appeared to be +extraordinarily and undesirably affectionate. He thought he had +seen him at the Cosmopolitan, but wasn't sure. He didn't know that +the Annas, after their conversation with him there, felt towards +him as old friends, and he considered their manner was a little +unduly familiar. Perhaps, after all, he thought uneasily, Mrs. +Bilton had better do the waiting and the Annas sit with him in the +office. The ledger could be written up at the end of the day. Or he +could hire somebody....</p> +<p>Mr. Twist felt worried, and pulled at his ear. And why was there +only one guest? It was twenty minutes <a name="Page_353" id= +"Page_353"></a>to five; and this time yesterday the road had been +choked with cars. He felt very much worried. With every minute this +absence of guests grew more and more remarkable. Perhaps he had +better, this beings the opening day, go in and welcome the solitary +one there was. Perhaps it would be wise to elaborate the idea of +the inn for his edification, so that he could hand on what he had +heard to those others who so unaccountably hadn't come.</p> +<p>He got up and went into the other room; and just as +Anna-Felicitas was reappearing with the teapot followed by +Anna-Rose with a tray of cakes, Mr. Ridding, who was sitting up +expectantly and giving his tie a little pat of adjustment, +perceived bearing down upon him that fellow Teapot Twist.</p> +<p>This was a blow. He hadn't run risks and walked in the afternoon +heat to sit and talk to Twist. Mr. Ridding was a friendly and +amiable old man, and at any other time would have talked to him +with pleasure; but he had made up his mind for the Twinklers as one +makes up one's mind for a certain dish and is ravaged by strange +fury if it isn't produced. Besides, hang it all, he was going to +pay five dollars for his tea, and for that sum he ought to least to +have it under the conditions he preferred.</p> +<p>"Glad to meet you, Mr. Twist," he nevertheless said as Mr. Twist +introduced himself, his eyes, however, roving over the ministering +Annas,—a roving Mr. Twist noticed with fresh misgivings.</p> +<p>It made him sit down firmly at the table and say, "If you don't +mind, Mr.—"</p> +<p>"Ridding is my name."</p> +<p>"If you don't mind, Mr. Ridding, I'd like to explain our objects +to you."</p> +<p><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354"></a>But he couldn't help +wondering what he would do if there were several tables with +roving-eyed guests at them, it being clear that there wouldn't be +enough of him in such a case to go round.</p> +<p>Mr. Ridding, for his part, couldn't help wondering why the devil +Teapot Twist sat down unasked at his table. Five dollars. Come now. +For that a man had a right to a table to himself.</p> +<p>But anyhow the Annas wouldn't have stayed talking for at that +moment a car stopped in the lane and quite a lot of footsteps were +heard coming up the neatly sanded path. Mr. Ridding pricked up his +ears, for from the things he had heard being said all the evening +before and all that morning in Acapulco, besides most of the night +from the lips of that strange old lady with whom by some dreadful +mistake he was obliged to sleep, he hadn't supposed there would be +exactly a rush.</p> +<p>Four young men came in. Mr. Ridding didn't know them. No class, +he thought, looking them over; and was seized with a feeling of +sulky vexation suitable to twenty when he saw with what enthusiasm +the Twinklers flew to meet them. They behaved, thought Mr. Ridding +crossly, as if they were the oldest and dearest friends.</p> +<p>"Who are they?" he asked curtly of Mr. Twist, cutting into the +long things he was saying.</p> +<p>"Only the different experts who helped me rebuild the place," +said Mr. Twist a little impatiently; he too had pricked up his ears +in expectation at the sound of all those feet, and was +disappointed.</p> +<p>He continued what Mr. Ridding, watching the group of young +people, called sulkily to himself his rigmarole, but continued more +abstractedly. He also was watching the Annas and the experts. The +young men were <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a>evidently in +the highest spirits, and were walking round the Annas admiring +their get-up and expressing their admiration in laughter and +exclamations. One would have thought they had known each other all +their lives. The twins were wreathed in smiles. They looked as +pleased, Mr. Twist thought, as cats that are being stroked. Almost +he could hear them purring. He glanced helplessly across to where +Mrs. Bilton sat, as he had told her, bent pen in hand over the +ledger. She didn't move. It was true he had told her to sit like +that, but hadn't the woman any imagination? What she ought to do +now was to bustle forward and take that laughing group in +charge.</p> +<p>"As I was telling you—" resumed Mr. Twist, returning with +an effort to Mr. Ridding, only to find his eyes fixed on the young +people and catch an unmistakably thwarted look in his face.</p> +<p>In a flash Mr. Twist realized what he had come for,—it was +solely to see and talk to the twins. He must have noticed them at +the Cosmopolitan, and come out just for them. Just for that. +"Unprincipled old scoundrel," said Mr. Twist under his breath, his +ears flaming. Aloud he said, "As I was telling you—" and went +on distractedly with his rigmarole.</p> +<p>Then some more people came in. They had motored, but the noise +the experts were making had drowned the sound of their arrival. Mr. +Ridding and Mr. Twist, both occupied in glowering at the group in +the middle of the room, were made aware of their presence by +Anna-Felicitas suddenly dropping the pencil and tablets she had +been provided with for writing down orders and taking an uncertain +and obviously timid step forward.</p> +<p>They both looked round in the direction of her reluctant +<a name="Page_356" id="Page_356"></a>step, and saw a man and two +women standing on the threshold. Mr. Twist, of course, didn't know +them; he hardly knew anybody, even by sight. But Mr. Ridding did. +That is, he knew them well by sight and had carefully avoided +knowing them any other way, for they were Germans.</p> +<p>Mr. Ridding was one of those who didn't like Germans. He was a +man who liked or disliked what his daily paper told him to, and his +daily paper was anti-German. For reasons natural to one who +disliked Germans and yet at the same time had a thirstily +affectionate disposition, he declined to believe the prevailing +theory about the Twinklers. Besides, he didn't believe it anyhow. +At that age people were truthful, and he had heard them explain +they had come from England and had acquired their rolling r's +during a sojourn abroad. Why should he doubt? But he refrained from +declaring his belief in their innocence of the unpopular +nationality, owing to a desire to avoid trouble in that bedroom he +couldn't call his but was obliged so humiliatingly to speak of as +ours. Except, however, for the Twinklers, for all other persons of +whom it was said that they were Germans, naturalized or not, +immediate or remote, he had, instructed by his newspaper, what his +called a healthy instinctive abhorrence.</p> +<p>"And she's got it too," he thought, much gratified at this bond +between them, as he noted Anna-Felicitas's hesitating and reluctant +advance to meet the new guests. "There's proof that people are +wrong."</p> +<p>But what Anna-Felicitas had got was stage-fright; for here were +the first strangers, the first real, proper visitors such as any +shop or hotel might have. Mr. Ridding was a friend. So were the +experts friends. <a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a>This was +trade coming in,—real business being done. Anna-Felicitas +hadn't supposed she would be shy when the long-expected and +prepared-for moment arrived, but she was. And it was because the +guests seemed so disconcertingly pleased to see her. Even on the +threshold the whole three stood smiling broadly at her. She hadn't +been prepared for that, and it unnerved her.</p> +<p>"Charming, charming," said the newcomers, advancing towards her +and embracing the room and the tables and the Annas in one immense +inclusive smile of appreciation.</p> +<p>"Know those?" asked Mr. Ridding, again cutting into Mr. Twist's +explanations.</p> +<p>"No," said he.</p> +<p>"Wangelbeckers," said Mr. Ridding briefly.</p> +<p>"Indeed," said Mr. Twist, off whose ignorance the name glanced +harmlessly. "Well, as I was telling yous—"</p> +<p>"But this is delicious—this is a conception of genius," +said Mr. Wangelbecker all-embracingly, after he had picked up +Anna-Felicitas's tablets and restored them to her with a low +bow.</p> +<p>"Charming, charming," said Mrs. Wangelbecker, looking round.</p> +<p>"Real cunning," said Miss Wangelbecker, "as they say here." And +she laughed at Anna-Felicitas with an air of mutual +understanding.</p> +<p>"Will you have tea or coffee?" asked Anna-Felicitas nervously. +"Or perhaps you would prefer frothed chocolate. Each of these +beverages can be—"</p> +<p>"Delicious, delicious," said Mrs. Wangelbecker, enveloping +Anna-Felicitas in her smile.</p> +<p>"The frothed chocolate is very delicious," said Anna-Felicitas +with a kind of grave nervousness.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_358" id="Page_358"></a>Ah—charming, +charming," said Mrs. Wangelbecker, obstinately appreciative.</p> +<p>"And there's ice-cream as well," said Anna-Felicitas, her eyes +on her tablets so as to avoid seeing the Wangelbecker smile. +"And—and a great many kinds of cakes—"</p> +<p>"Well, hadn't we better sit down first," said Mr. Wangelbecker +genially, "or are all the tables engaged?"</p> +<p>"Oh I <i>beg</i> your pardon," said Anna-Felicitas, blushing and +moving hastily towards a table laid for three.</p> +<p>"Ah—that's better," said Mr. Wangelbecker, following +closely on her heels. "Now we can go into the serious business of +ordering what we shall eat comfortably. But before I sit down allow +me to present myself. My name is Wangelbecker. An honest German +name. And this is my wife. She too had an honest German name before +she honoured mine by accepting it—she was a Niedermayer. And +this is my daughter, with whom I trust you will soon be +friends."</p> +<p>And they all put out their hands to be shaken, and +Anna-Felicitas shook them.</p> +<p>"Look at that now," said Mr. Ridding watching.</p> +<p>"As I was telling you—" said Mr. Twist irritably, for +really why should Anna II. shake hands right off with strangers? +Her business was to wait, not to get shaking hands. He must point +out to her very plainly.</p> +<p>"Pleased to meet you Miss von Twinkler," said Mrs. Wangelbecker; +and at this Anna-Felicitas was so much startled that she dropped +her tablets a second time.</p> +<p>"As they say here," laughed Miss Wangelbecker, again with that +air of mutual comprehension.</p> +<p>"But they don't," said Anna Felicitas hurriedly, taking her +tablets from the restoring hand of Mr. Wangelbecker and forgetting +to thank him.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a>What?" said Mrs. +Wangelbecker. "When you are both so charming that for once the +phrase must be sincere?"</p> +<p>"Miss von Twinkler means she finds it wiser not to use her +title," said Mr. Wangelbecker. "Well, perhaps—perhaps. Wiser +perhaps from the point of view of convenience. Is that where you +will sit, Güstchen? Still, we Germans when we are together can +allow ourselves the refreshment of being ourselves, and I hope to +be frequently the means of giving you the relief, you and your +charming sister, of hearing yourselves addressed correctly. It is a +great family, the von Twinklers. A great family. In these sad days +we Germans must hang together—"</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas stood, tablets in hand, looking helplessly from +one Wangelbecker to the other. The situation was beyond her.</p> +<p>"But—" she began; then stopped. "Shall I bring you tea or +coffee?" she ended by asking again.</p> +<p>"Well now this is amusing," said Mr. Wangelbecker, sitting down +comfortably and leaning his elbows on the table. "Isn't it, +Güstchen. To see a von Twinkler playing at waiting on us."</p> +<p>"Charming, charming," said his wife.</p> +<p>"It's real sporting," said his daughter, laughing up at +Anna-Felicitas, again with comprehension,—with, almost, a +wink. "You must let me come and help. I'd look nice in that +costume, wouldn't I mother."</p> +<p>"There is also frothed choc—"</p> +<p>"I suppose, now, Mr. Twist—he must be completely +sympathy—" interrupted Mr. Wangelbecker confidentially, +leaning forward and lowering his voice a little.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas gazed at him blankly. Some more <a name= +"Page_360" id="Page_360"></a>people were coming in at the door, and +behind them she could see on the path yet more, and Anna-Rose was +in the pantry fetching the tea for the experts.</p> +<p>"Would you mind telling me what I am to bring you?" she asked. +"Because I'm afraid—"</p> +<p>Mr. Wangelbecker turned his head in the direction she was +looking.</p> +<p>"Ah—" he said getting up, "but this is magnificent +Güstchen, here are Mrs. Kleinbart and her sister—why, +and there come the Diederichs—but splendid, +splendid—"</p> +<p>"Say," said Mr. Ridding, turning to Mr. Twist with a congested +face, "ever been to Berlin?"</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist, annoyed by a question of such wanton +irrelevance flung into the middle of his sentence.</p> +<p>"Well, it's just like this."</p> +<p>"Like this?" repeated Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Those there," said Mr. Ridding, jerking his head. "That lot +there—see 'em any day in Berlin, or Frankfurt, or any other +of their confounded towns."</p> +<p>"I don't follow," said Mr. Twist, very shortly indeed.</p> +<p>"Germans," said Mr. Ridding.</p> +<p>"Germans?"</p> +<p>"All Germans," said Ridding.</p> +<p>"All Germans?"</p> +<p>"Wangelbeckers are Germans," said Mr. Ridding. "Didn't you +know?"</p> +<p>"No," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"So are the ones who've just come in."</p> +<p>"Germans?"</p> +<p>"All Germans. So are those behind, just coming in."</p> +<p>"Germans?"</p> +<p>"All Germans."</p> +<p><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361"></a>There was a pause, during +which Mr. Twist stared round the room. It was presenting quite a +populous appearance. Then he said slowly, "Well I'm damned."</p> +<p>And Mr. Ridding for the first time looked pleased with Mr. +Twist. He considered that at last he was talking sense.</p> +<p>"Mr. Twist," he said heartily, "I'm exceedingly glad you're +damned. It was what I was sure at the bottom of my heart you would +be. Shake hands, sir."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a><a name= +"Page_362" id="Page_362"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> +<p>That evening depression reigned in The Open Arms.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist paced up and down the tea-room deep in thought that +was obviously unpleasant and perplexed; Mrs. Bilton went to bed +abruptly, after a short outpour of words to the effect that she had +never seen so many Germans at once before, that her psyche was +disharmonious to Germans, that they made her go goose-fleshy just +as cats in a room made Mr. Bilton go goose-fleshy in the days when +he had flesh to go it with, that she hadn't been aware the inn was +to be a popular resort and rendezvous for Germans, and that she +wished to speak alone with Mr. Twist in the morning; while the +twins, feeling the ominousness of this last sentence,—as did +Mr. Twist, who started when he heard it,—and overcome by the +lassitude that had succeeded the shocks of the afternoon, a +lassitude much increased by their having tried to finish up the +pailsful of left-over ices and the huge piles of cakes slowly +soddening in their own souring cream, went out together on to the +moonlit verandah and stood looking up in silence at the stars. +There they stood in silence, and thought things about the immense +distance and indifference of those bright, cold specks, and how +infinitely insignificant after all they, the Twinklers were, and +how they would both in any case be dead in a hundred years. And +this last reflection afforded them somehow a kind of bleak and +draughty comfort.</p> +<p><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363"></a>Thus the first evening, +that was to have been so happy, was spent by everybody in silence +and apart. Li Koo felt the atmosphere of oppression even in his +kitchen, and refrained from song. He put away, after dealing with +it cunningly so that it should keep until a more propitious hour, a +wonderful drink he had prepared for supper in celebration of the +opening day—"Me make li'l celebrity," he had said, squeezing +together strange essences and fruits—and he moved softly +about so as not to disturb the meditations of the master. Li Koo +was perfectly aware of what had gone wrong: it was the unexpected +arrival to tea of Germans. Being a member of the least +blood-thirsty of the nations, he viewed Germans with peculiar +disfavour and understood his master's prolonged walking up and +down. Also he had noted through a crack in the door the way these +people of blood and death crowded round the white-lily girls; and +was not that sufficient in itself to cause his master's numerous +and rapid steps?</p> +<p>Numerous indeed that evening were Mr. Twist's steps. He felt he +must think, and he could think better walking up and down. Why had +all those Germans come? Why, except old Ridding and the experts, +had none of the Americans come? It was very strange. And what +Germans! So cordial, so exuberant to the twins, so openly gathering +them to their bosoms, as though they belonged there. And so cordial +too to him, approaching him in spite of his withdrawals, conveying +to him somehow, his disagreeable impression had been, that he and +they perfectly understood each other. Then Mrs. Bilton; was she +going to give trouble? It looked like it. It looked amazingly like +it. Was she after all just another edition of his mother, and +unable to discriminate between Germans and Ger<a name="Page_364" +id="Page_364"></a>mans, between the real thing and mere +technicalities like the Twinklers? It is true he hadn't told her +the twins were German, but then neither had he told her they +weren't. He had been passive. In Mrs. Bilton's presence passivity +came instinctively. Anything else involved such extreme and unusual +exertion. He had never had the least objection to her discovering +their nationality for herself, and indeed had been surprised she +hadn't done so long ago, for he felt sure she would quickly begin +to love the Annas, and once she loved them she wouldn't mind what +their father had happened to be. He had supposed she did love them. +How affectionately she had kissed them that very afternoon and +wished them luck. Was all that nothing? Was lovableness nothing, +and complete innocence, after all in the matter of being born, when +weighed against the one fact of the von? What he would do if Mrs. +Bilton left him he couldn't imagine. What would happen to The Open +Arms and the twins in such a case, his worried brain simply +couldn't conceive.</p> +<p>Out of the corner of his eye every time he passed the open door +on to the verandah he could see the two Annas standing motionless +on its edge, their up-turned faces, as they gazed at the stars, +white in the moonlight and very serious. Pathetic children. +Pathetic, solitary, alien children. What were they thinking of? He +wouldn't mind betting it was their mother.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's heart gave a kind of tug at him. His sentimental, +maternal side heaved to the top. A great impulse to hurry out and +put his arms round them seized him, but he frowned and overcame it. +He didn't want to go soft now. Nor was this the moment, his nicely +brought up soul told him, his soul still echoing with the voice of +Clark, to put his arms round them—<a name="Page_365" id= +"Page_365"></a>this, the very first occasion on which Mrs. Bilton +had left them alone with him. Whether it would become proper on the +very second occasion was one of those questions that would +instantly have suggested itself to the Annas themselves, but didn't +occur to Mr. Twist. He merely went on to think of another reason +against it, which was the chance of Mrs. Bilton's looking out of +her window just as he did it. She might, he felt, easily misjudge +the situation, and the situation, he felt, was difficult enough +already. So he restrained himself; and the Annas continued to +consider infinite space and to perceive, again with that feeling of +dank and unsatisfactory consolation, that nothing really +mattered.</p> +<p>Next day immediately after breakfast Mrs. Bilton followed him +into his office and gave notice. She called it formally tendering +her resignation. She said that all her life she had been an +upholder of straight dealing, as much in herself towards others as +in others towards herself—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—" interrupted Mr. Twist, only it didn't +interrupt.</p> +<p>She had also all her life been intensely patriotic, and Mr. +Twist, she feared, didn't look at patriotism with quite her single +eye—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p>As her eye saw it, patriotism was among other things a +determination to resist the encroachments of foreigners—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p>She had no wish to judge him, but she had still less wish to be +mixed up with foreigners, and foreigners for her at that moment +meant Germans—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366"></a>She regretted, but +psychically she would never be able to flourish in a soil so +largely composed, as the soil of The Open Arms appeared to be, of +that nationality—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p>And though it was none of her business, still she must say it +did seem to her a pity that Mr. Twist with his well-known and +respected American name should be mixed up—</p> +<p>"Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p>And though she had no wish to be inquisitive, still she must say +it did seem to her peculiar that Mr. Twist should be the guardian +of two girls who, it was clear from what she had overheard that +afternoon, were German—</p> +<p>Here Mr. Twist raised his voice and shouted. "Mrs. Bilton," he +shouted, so loud that she couldn't but stop, "if you'll guarantee +to keep quiet for just five minutes—sit down right here at +this table and not say one single thing, not one single thing for +just five minutes," he said, banging the table, "I'll tell you all +about it. Oh yes, I'll accept your resignation at the end of that +time if you're still set on leaving, but just for this once it's me +that's going to do the talking."</p> +<p>And this must be imagined as said so loud that only capital +letters would properly represent the noise Mr. Twist made.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton did sit down, her face flushed by the knowledge of +how good her intentions had been when she took the post, and how +deceitful—she was forced to think it—Mr. Twist's were +when he offered it. She was prepared, however, to give him a +hearing. It was only fair. But Mr. Twist had to burst into capitals +several times before he had done, so difficult was it for <a name= +"Page_367" id="Page_367"></a>Mrs. Bilton, even when she had agreed, +even when she herself wished, not to say anything.</p> +<p>It wasn't five minutes but twenty before Mrs. Bilton came out of +the office again. She went straight into the garden, where the +Annas, aware of the interview going on with Mr. Twist, had been +lingering anxiously, unable at so crucial a moment to settle to +anything, and with solemnity kissed them. Her eyes were very +bright. Her face, ordinarily colourless as parchment, was red. +Positively she kissed them without saying a single word; and they +kissed her back with such enthusiasm, with a relief that made them +hug her so tight and cling to her so close, that the brightness in +her eyes brimmed over and she had to get out her handkerchief and +wipe it away.</p> +<p>"Gurls," said Mrs. Bilton, "I had a shock yesterday, but I'm +through with it. You're motherless. I'm daughterless. We'll +weld."</p> +<p>And with this unusual brevity did Mrs. Bilton sum up the +situation.</p> +<p>She was much moved. Her heart was touched; and once that +happened nothing could exceed her capacity for sticking through +what she called thick and thin to her guns. For years Mr. Bilton +had occupied the position of the guns; now it would be these poor +orphans. No Germans could frighten her away, once she knew their +story; no harsh judgments and misconceptions of her patriotic +friends. Mr. Twist had told her everything, from the beginning on +the <i>St. Luke</i>, harking back to Uncle Arthur and the attitude +of England, describing what he knew of their mother and her death, +not even concealing the part his own mother had played or that he +wasn't their guardian at all. He made the most of Mrs. Bilton's +silence; and as she listened her heart <a name="Page_368" id= +"Page_368"></a>melted within her, and the immense store of grit +which was her peculiar pride came to the top and once and for all +overwhelmed her prejudices. But she couldn't think, and at last she +burst out and told Mr. Twist she couldn't think, why he hadn't +imparted all this to her long ago.</p> +<p>"Ah," murmured Mr. Twist, bowing his head as a reed in the wind +before the outburst of her released volubility.</p> +<p>Hope once more filled The Open Arms, and the Twist party looked +forward to the afternoon with renewed cheerfulness. It had just +happened so the first day, that only Germans came. It was just +accident. Mr. Twist, with the very large part of him that wasn't +his head, found himself feeling like this too and declining to take +any notice of his intelligence, which continued to try to worry +him.</p> +<p>Yet the hope they all felt was not realized, and the second +afternoon was almost exactly like the first. Germans came and +clustered round the Annas, and made friendly though cautious +advances to Mr. Twist. The ones who had been there the first day +came again and brought others with them worse than themselves, and +they seemed more at home than ever, and the air was full of rolling +r's—among them, Mr. Twist was unable to deny, being the r's +of his blessed Annas. But theirs were such little r's, he told +himself. They rolled, it is true, but with how sweet a rolling. +While as for these other people—confound it all, the place +might really have been, from the sounds that were filling it, a +<i>Conditorei</i> Unter den Linden.</p> +<p>All his doubts and anxieties flocked back on him as time passed +and no Americans appeared. Americans. How precious. How clean, and +straight, and admirable. Actually he had sometimes, he remembered, +<a name="Page_369" id="Page_369"></a>thought they weren't. What an +aberration. Actually he had been, he remembered, impatient with +them when first he came back from France. What folly. Americans. +The very word was refreshing, was like clear water on a thirsty +day. One American, even one, coming in that afternoon would have +seemed to Mr. Twist a godsend, a purifier, an emollient—like +some blessed unction dropped from above.</p> +<p>But none appeared; not even Mr. Ridding.</p> +<p>At six o'clock it was quite dark, and obviously too late to go +on hoping. The days in California end abruptly. The sun goes down, +and close on its heels comes night. In the tea-room the charmingly +shaded lights had been turned on some time, and Mr. Twist, watching +from the partly open door of his office, waited impatiently for the +guests to begin to thin out. But they didn't. They took no notice +of the signals of lateness, the lights turned on, the stars outside +growing bright in the surrounding blackness.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist watched angrily. He had been driven into his office by +the disconcerting and incomprehensible overtures of Mr. +Wangelbecker, and had sat there watching in growing exasperation +ever since. When six struck and nobody showed the least sign of +going away he could bear it no longer, and touched the little +muffled electric bell that connected him to Mrs. Bilton in what +Anna-Felicitas called a mystical union—Anna II. was really +excessively tactless; she had said this to Mrs. Bilton in his +presence, and then enlarged on unions, mystical and otherwise, with +an embarrassing abundance of imagery—by buzzing gently +against her knee from the leg of the desk.</p> +<p>She laid down her pen, as though she had just finished adding up +a column, and went to him.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_370" id="Page_370"></a>Now don't talk," said Mr. +Twist, putting up an irritable hand directly she came in.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton looked at him in much surprise. "Talk, Mr. Twist?" +she repeated. "Why now, as though—"</p> +<p>"Don't <i>talk</i> I say, Mrs. Bilton, but listen. Listen now. I +can't stand seeing those children in there. It sheer makes my gorge +rise. I want you to fetch them in here—now don't +talk—you and me'll do the confounded waiting—no, no, +don't talk—they're to stay quiet in here till the last of +those Germans have gone. Just go and fetch them, please Mrs. +Bilton. No, no, we'll talk afterwards. I'll stay here till they +come." And he urged her out into the tea-room again.</p> +<p>The guests had finished their tea long ago, but still sat on, +for they were very comfortable. Obviously they were thoroughly +enjoying themselves, and all were growing, as time passed, more +manifestly at home. They were now having a kind of supper of ices +and fruit-salads. Five dollars, thought the sensible Germans, was +after all a great deal to pay for afternoon tea, however good the +cause might be and however important one's own ulterior motives; +and since one had in any case to pay, one should eat what one +could. So they kept the Annas very busy. There seemed to be no end, +thought the Annas as they ran hither and thither, to what a German +will hold.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton waylaid the heated and harried Anna-Rose as she was +carrying a tray of ices to a party she felt she had been carrying +ices to innumerable times already. The little curls beneath her cap +clung damply to her forehead. Her face was flushed and distressed. +What with having to carry so many trays, and remember so many +orders, and try at the same time to escape from the orderers and +their questions <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371"></a>and +admiration, she was in a condition not very far from tears.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton took the tray out of her hands, and told her Mr. +Twist wanted to speak to her; and Anna-Rose was in such a general +bewilderment that she felt quite scared, and thought he must be +going to scold her. She went towards the office reluctantly. If Mr. +Twist were to be severe, she was sure she wouldn't be able not to +cry. She made her way very slowly to the office, and Mrs. Bilton +looked round the room for the other one. There was no sign of her. +Perhaps, thought Mrs. Bilton, she was fetching something in the +kitchen, and would appear in a minute; and seeing a group over by +the entrance door, for whom the tray she held was evidently +destined, gesticulating to her, she felt she had better keep them +quiet first and then go and look for Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton set her teeth and plunged into her strange new +duties. Never would she have dreamed it possible that she should +have to carry trays to Germans. If Mr. Bilton could see her now he +would certainly turn in his grave. Well, she was a woman of grit, +of adhesiveness to her guns; if Mr. Bilton did see her and did turn +in his grave, let him; he would, she dared say, be more comfortable +on his other side after all these years.</p> +<p>For the next few minutes she hurried hither and thither, and +waited single-handed. She seemed to be swallowed up in activity. No +wonder that child had looked so hot and bewildered. Mr. Twist +didn't come and help, as he had promised, and nowhere was there any +sign of Anna-Felicitas; and the guests not only wanted things to +eat, they wanted to talk,—talk and ask questions. Well, she +would wait on them, but she <a name="Page_372" id= +"Page_372"></a>wouldn't talk. She turned a dry, parchment-like face +to their conversational blandishments, and responded only by adding +up their bills. Wonderful are the workings of patriotism. For the +first time in her life, Mrs. Bilton was grumbled at for not +talking.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a><a name= +"Page_373" id="Page_373"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> +<p>In the office Anna-Rose found Mr. Twist walking up and down.</p> +<p>"See here," he said, turning on her when she came in, "I'm about +tired of looking on at all this twittering round that lot in there. +You're through with that for to-day, and maybe for to-morrow and +the day after as well."</p> +<p>He waved his arm at the deep chair that had been provided for +his business meditations. "You'll sit down in that chair now," he +said severely, "and stay put."</p> +<p>Anna-Rose looked at him with a quivering lip. She went rather +unsteadily to the chair and tumbled into it. "I don't know if +you're angry or being kind," she said tremulously, "but whichever +it is I—I wish you wouldn't. I—I wish you'd manage to +be something that isn't either." And, as she had feared, she began +to cry.</p> +<p>"Anna-Rose," said Mr. Twist, staring down at her in concern +mixed with irritation—out there all those Germans, in here +the weeping child; what a day he was having—"for heaven's +sake don't do that."</p> +<p>"I know," sobbed Anna-Rose. "I don't want to. It's awful being +so natu—natu—naturally liquid."</p> +<p>"But what's the matter?" asked Mr. Twist helplessly.</p> +<p>"Nothing," sobbed Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>He stood over her in silence for a minute, his hands in his +pockets. If he took them out he was afraid he might <a name= +"Page_374" id="Page_374"></a>start stroking her, and she seemed to +him to be exactly between the ages when such a form of comfort +would be legitimate. If she were younger ... but she was a great +girl now; if she were older ... ah, if she were older, Mr. Twist +could imagine....</p> +<p>"You're overtired," he said aloofly. "That's what you are."</p> +<p>"No," sobbed Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"And the Germans have been too much for you."</p> +<p>"They haven't," sobbed Anna-Rose, her pride up at the suggestion +that anybody could ever be that.</p> +<p>"But they're not going to get the chance again," said Mr. Twist, +setting his teeth as much as they would set, which wasn't, owing to +his natural kindliness, anything particular. "Mrs. Bilton and +me—" Then he remembered Anna-Felicitas. "Why doesn't she +come?" he asked.</p> +<p>"Who?" choked Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"The other one. Anna II. Columbus."</p> +<p>"I haven't seen her for ages," sobbed Anna-Rose, who had been +much upset by Anna-Felicitas's prolonged disappearance and had +suspected her, though she couldn't understand it after last night's +finishings up, of secret unworthy conduct in a corner with +ice-cream.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist went to the door quickly and looked through. "I can't +see her either," he said. "Confound them—what have they done +to her? Worn her out too, I daresay. I shouldn't wonder if she'd +crawled off somewhere and were crying too."</p> +<p>"Anna-F.—doesn't crawl," sobbed Anna-Rose, "and +she—doesn't cry but—I wish you'd find—her."</p> +<p>"Well, will you stay where you are while I'm away, then?" he +said, looking at her from the door uncertainly.</p> +<p><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375"></a>And she seemed so extra +small over there in the enormous chair, and somehow so extra +motherless as she obediently gurgled and choked a promise not to +move, that he found himself unable to resist going back to her for +a minute in order to pat her head. "There, there," said Mr. Twist, +very gently patting her head, his heart yearning over her; and it +yearned the more that, the minute he patted, her sobs got worse; +and also the more because of the feel of her dear little head.</p> +<p>"You little bit of blessedness," murmured Mr. Twist before he +knew what he was saying; at which her sobs grew louder than +ever,—grew, indeed, almost into small howls, so long was it +since anybody had said things like that to her. It was her mother +who used to say things like that; things almost exactly like +that.</p> +<p>"Hush," said Mr. Twist in much distress, and with one anxious +eye on the half-open door, for Anna-Rose's sobs were threatening to +outdo the noise of teacups and ice-cream plates, "hush, +hush—here's a clean handkerchief—you just wipe up your +eyes while I fetch Anna II. She'll worry, you know, if she sees you +like this,—hush now, hush—there, there—and I +expect she's being miserable enough already, hiding away in some +corner. You wouldn't like to make her more miserable, would +you—"</p> +<p>And he pressed the handkerchief into Anna-Rose's hands, and +feeling much flurried went away to search for the other one who was +somewhere, he was sure, in a state of equal distress.</p> +<p>He hadn't however to search. He found her immediately. As he +came out of the door of his office into the tea-room he saw her +come into the tea-room from the door of the verandah, and proceed +across it towards the pantry. Why the verandah? wondered Mr. Twist. +<a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a>He hurried to intercept her. +Anyhow she wasn't either about to cry or getting over having done +it. He saw that at once with relief. Nor was she, it would seem, in +any sort of distress. On the contrary, Anna-Felicitas looked +particularly smug. He saw that once too, with surprise,—why +smug? wondered Mr. Twist. She had a pleased look of complete +satisfaction on her face. She was oblivious, he noticed, as she +passed between the tables, of the guests who tried in vain to +attract her attention and detain her with orders. She wasn't at all +hot, as Anna-Rose had been, nor rattled, nor in any way +discomposed; she was just smug. And also she was unusually, +extraordinarily pretty. How dared they all stare up at her like +that as she passed? And try to stop her. And want to talk to her. +And Wangelbecker actually laying his hand—no, his paw; in his +annoyance Mr. Twist wouldn't admit that the object at the end of +Mr. Wangelbecker's arm was anything but a paw—on her wrist to +get her to listen to some confounded order or other. She took no +notice of that either, but walked on towards the pantry. Placidly. +Steadily. Obvious. Smug.</p> +<p>"You're to come into the office," said Mr. Twist when he reached +her.</p> +<p>She turned her head and considered him with abstracted eyes. +Then she appeared to remember him. "Oh, it's you," she said +amiably.</p> +<p>"Yes. It's me all right. And you're to come into the +office."</p> +<p>"I can't. I'm busy."</p> +<p>"Now Anna II.," said Mr. Twist, walking beside her towards the +pantry since she didn't stop but continued steadily on her way, +"that's trifling with the facts. You've been in the garden. I saw +you come in. <a name="Page_377" id="Page_377"></a>Perhaps you'll +tell me the exact line of business you've been engaged in."</p> +<p>"Waiting," said Anna-Felicitas placidly.</p> +<p>"Waiting? In the garden? Where it's pitch dark, and there's +nobody to wait on?"</p> +<p>They had reached the pantry, and Anna-Felicitas gave an order to +Li Koo through the serving window before answering; the order was +tea and hot cinnamon toast for one.</p> +<p>"He's having his tea on the verandah," she said, picking out the +most delicious of the little cakes from the trays standing ready, +and carefully arranging them on a dish. "It isn't pitch dark at all +there. There's floods of light coming through the windows. He won't +come in."</p> +<p>"And why pray won't he come in?" asked Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Because he doesn't like Germans."</p> +<p>"And who pray is he?"</p> +<p>"I don't know."</p> +<p>"Well I do," burst out Mr. Twist. "It's old Ridding, of course. +His name is Ridding. The old man who was here yesterday. Now +listen: I won't have—"</p> +<p>But Anna-Felicitas was laughing, and her eyes had disappeared +into two funny little screwed-up eyelashy slits.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist stopped abruptly and glared at her. These Twinklers. +That one in there shaken with sobs, this one in here shaken with +what she would no doubt call quite the contrary. His conviction +became suddenly final that the office was the place for both the +Annas. He and Mrs. Bilton would do the waiting.</p> +<p>"I'll take this," he said, laying hold of the dish of <a name= +"Page_378" id="Page_378"></a>cakes. "I'll send Mrs. Bilton for the +tea. Go into the office, Anna-Felicitas. Your sister is there and +wants you badly. I don't know," he added, as Li Koo pushed the +tea-tray through the serving window, "how it strikes you about +laughter, but it strikes me as sheer silly to laugh except at +something."</p> +<p>"Well, I was," said Anna-Felicitas, unscrewing her eyes and with +gentle firmness taking the plate of cakes from him and putting it +on the tray. "I was laughing at your swift conviction that the man +out there is Mr. Ridding. I don't know who he is but I know heaps +of people he isn't, and one of the principal ones is Mr. +Ridding."</p> +<p>"I'm going to wait on him," said Mr. Twist, taking the tray.</p> +<p>"It would be most unsuitable," said Anna-Felicitas, taking it +too.</p> +<p>"Let go," said Mr. Twist, pulling.</p> +<p>"Is this to be an unseemly wrangle?" inquired Anna-Felicitas +mildly; and her eyes began to screw up again.</p> +<p>"If you'll oblige me by going into the office," he said, having +got the tray, for Anna-Felicitas was never one to struggle, "Mrs. +Bilton and me will do the rest of the waiting for to-day."</p> +<p>He went out grasping the tray, and made for the verandah. His +appearance in this new rôle was greeted by the Germans with +subdued applause—subdued, because they felt Mr. Twist wasn't +quite as cordial to them as they had supposed he would be, and they +were accordingly being a little more cautious in their methods with +him than they had been at the beginning of the afternoon. He took +no notice of them, except that his ears turned red when he knocked +against a chair and the tray nearly fell out of his hands and they +all cried <a name="Page_379" id="Page_379"></a>out <i>Houp +là</i>. Damn them, thought Mr. Twist. <i>Houp là</i> +indeed.</p> +<p>In the farthest corner of the otherwise empty and very chilly +verandah, sitting alone and staring out at the stars, was a man. He +was a young man. He was also an attractive young man, with a thin +brown face and very bright blue twinkling eyes. The light from the +window behind him shone on him as he turned his head when he heard +the swing doors open, and Mr. Twist saw these things distinctly and +at once. He also saw how the young man's face fell on his, Mr. +Twist's, appearance with the tray, and he also saw with some +surprise how before he had reached him it suddenly cleared again. +And the young man got up too, just as Mr. Twist arrived at the +table—got up with some little difficulty, for he had to lean +hard on a thick stick, but yet obviously with +<i>empressement.</i></p> +<p>"You've forgotten the sugar," said Anna-Felicitas's gentle voice +behind Mr. Twist as he was putting down the tray; and there she +was, sure enough, looking smugger than ever.</p> +<p>"This is Mr. Twist," said Anna-Felicitas with an amiable +gesture. "That I was telling you about," she explained to the young +man.</p> +<p>"When?" asked Mr. Twist, surprised.</p> +<p>"Before," said Anna-Felicitas. "We were talking for some time +before I went in to order the tea, weren't we?" she said to the +young man, angelically smiling at him.</p> +<p>"Rather," he said; and since he didn't on this introduction +remark to Mr. Twist that he was pleased to meet him, it was plain +he couldn't be an American. Therefore he must be English. Unless, +suddenly suspected Mr. Twist who had Germans badly on his nerves +that day and was ready to suspect anything, he was <a name= +"Page_380" id="Page_380"></a>German cleverly got up for evil +purposes to appear English. But the young man dispersed these +suspicions by saying that he was over from England on six months' +leave, and that his name was Elliott.</p> +<p>"Like us," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>The young man looked at her with what would have been a greater +interest than ever if a greater interest had been possible, only it +wasn't.</p> +<p>"What, are you an Elliott too?" he asked eagerly.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas shook her head. "On the contrary," she said, "I'm +a Twinkler. And so is my sister. What I meant was, you're like us +about coming from England. We've done that. Only our leave is for +ever and ever. Or the duration of the war."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist waved her aside. "Anna-Felicitas," he said, "your +sister is waiting for you in the office and wants you badly. I'll +see to Mr. Elliott."</p> +<p>"Why not bring your sister here?" said the young man, who, being +in the navy, was fertile in resourcefulness. And he smiled at +Anna-Felicitas, who smiled back; indeed, they did nothing but smile +at each other.</p> +<p>"I think that's a brilliant idea," she said; and turned to Mr. +Twist. "You go," she said gently, thereby proving herself, the +young man considered, at least his equal in resourcefulness. "It's +much more likely," she continued, as Mr. Twist gazed at her without +moving, "that she'll come for you than for me. My sister," she +explained to the young man, "is older than I am."</p> +<p>"Then certainly I should say Mr. Twist is more +likely—"</p> +<p>"But only about twenty minutes older."</p> +<p>"What? A twin? I say, how extraordinarily jolly. Two of +you?"</p> +<p>"Anna-Felicitas," interrupted Mr. Twist, "you will <a name= +"Page_381" id="Page_381"></a>go to your sister immediately. She +needs you. She's upset. I don't wish to draw Mr. Elliott behind the +scenes of family life, but as nothing seems to get you into the +office you force me to tell you that she is very, much upset +indeed, and is crying."</p> +<p>"Crying?" echoed Anna-Felicitas. "Christopher?" And she turned +and departed in such haste that the young man, who luckily was +alert as well as resourceful, had only just time to lean over and +grab at a chair in her way and pull it aside, and so avert a +deplorable catastrophe.</p> +<p>"I hope it's nothing serious?" he inquired of Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Oh no. Children will cry."</p> +<p>"Children?"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist sat down at the table and lit a cigarette. "Tell me +about England," he said. "You've been wounded, I see."</p> +<p>"Leg," said the young man, still standing leaning on his stick +and looking after Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"But that didn't get you six months' leave."</p> +<p>"Lungs," said the young man, looking down impatiently at Mr. +Twist.</p> +<p>Then the swing doors swung to, and he sat down and poured out +his tea.</p> +<p>He had been in the battle of Jutland, and was rescued after +hours in the water. For months he was struggling to recover, but +finally tuberculosis had developed and he was sent to California, +to his sister who had married an American and lived in the +neighbourhood of Acapulco. This Mr. Twist extracted out of him by +diligent questioning. He had to question very diligently. What the +young man wanted to talk about was Anna-Felicitas; but every time +he tried to, Mr. Twist headed him off.</p> +<p><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382"></a>And she didn't come back. +He waited and waited, and drank and drank. When the teapot was +empty he started on the hot water. Also he ate all the cakes, more +and more deliberately, eking them out at last with slowly smoked +cigarettes. He heard all about France and Mr. Twist's activities +there; he had time to listen to the whole story of the ambulance +from start to finish; and still she didn't come back. In vain he +tried at least to get Mr. Twist off those distant fields, nearer +home—to the point, in fact, where the Twinklers were. Mr. +Twist wouldn't budge. He stuck firmly. And the swing doors remained +shut. And the cakes were all eaten. And there was nothing for it at +last but to go.</p> +<p>So after half-an-hour of solid sitting he began slowly to get +up, still spreading out the moments, with one eye on the swing +doors. It was both late and cold. The Germans had departed, and Li +Koo had lit the usual evening wood fire in the big fireplace. It +blazed most beautifully, and the young man looked at it through the +window and hesitated.</p> +<p>"How jolly," he said.</p> +<p>"Firelight is very pleasant," agreed Mr. Twist, who had got up +too.</p> +<p>"I oughtn't to have stayed so long out here," said the young man +with a little shiver.</p> +<p>"I was thinking it was unwise," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Perhaps I'd better go in and warm myself a bit before +leaving."</p> +<p>"I should say your best plan is to get back quickly to your +sister and have a hot bath before dinner," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Yes. But I think I might just go in there and have a cup of hot +coffee first."</p> +<p>"There is no hot coffee at this hour," said Mr. Twist, <a name= +"Page_383" id="Page_383"></a>looking at his watch. "We close at +half-past six, and it is now ten minutes after."</p> +<p>"Then there seems nothing for it but to pay my bill and go," +said the young man, with an air of cheerful adaptation to what +couldn't be helped. "I'll just nip in there and do that."</p> +<p>"Luckily there's no need for you to nip anywhere," said Mr. +Twist, "for surely that's a type of movement unsuited to your sick +leg. You can pay me right here."</p> +<p>And he took the young man's five dollars, and went with him as +far as the green gate, and would have helped him into the waiting +car, seeing his leg wasn't as other legs and Mr. Twist was, after +all, humane, but the chauffeur was there to do that; so he just +watched from the gate till the car had actually started, and then +went back to the house.</p> +<p>He went back slowly, perturbed and anxious, his eyes on the +ground. This second day had been worse than the first. And besides +the continued and remarkable absence of Americans and the continued +and remarkable presence of Germans, there was a slipperiness +suddenly developed in the Annas. He felt insecure; as though he +didn't understand, and hadn't got hold. They seemed to him very +like eels. And this Elliott—what did he think <i>he</i> was +after, anyway?</p> +<p>For the second time that afternoon Mr. Twist set his teeth. He +defied Elliott. He defied the Germans. He would see this thing +successful, this Open Arms business, or his name wasn't Twist. And +he stuck out his jaw—or would have stuck it out if he hadn't +been prevented by the amiable weakness of that feature. But +spiritually and morally, when he got back into the house he was all +jaw.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a><a name= +"Page_384" id="Page_384"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> +<p>That night he determined he would go into Acapulco next morning +and drop in at his bank and at his lawyer's and other places, and +see if he could pick up anything that would explain why Americans +wouldn't come and have tea at The Open Arms. He even thought he +might look up old Ridding. He didn't sleep. He lay all night +thinking.</p> +<p>The evening had been spent <i>tête-à-tête</i> +with Anna-Felicitas. Anna-Rose was in bed, sleeping off her tears; +Mrs. Bilton had another headache, and disappeared early; so he was +left with Anna-Felicitas, who slouched about abstractedly eating up +the remains of ice-cream. She didn't talk, except once to remark a +little pensively that her inside was dreadfully full of cold stuff, +and that she knew now what it must feel like to be a mausoleum; +but, eyeing her sideways as he sat before the fire, Mr. Twist could +see that she was still smug. He didn't talk either. He felt he had +nothing at present to say to Anna-Felicitas that would serve a +useful purpose, and was, besides, reluctant to hear any +counter-observations she might make. Watchfulness was what was +required. Silent watchfulness. And wariness. And firmness. In fact +all the things that were most foreign to his nature, thought Mr. +Twist, resentful and fatigued.</p> +<p>Next morning he had a cup of coffee in his room, brought by Li +Koo, and then drove himself into Acapulco in his Ford without +seeing the others. It was an<a name="Page_385" id= +"Page_385"></a>other of the perfect days which he was now beginning +to take as a matter of course, so many had there been since his +arrival. People talked of the wet days and of their desolate +abundance once they started, but there had been as yet no sign of +them. The mornings succeeded each other, radiant and calm. November +was merging into December in placid loveliness. "Oh yes," said Mr. +Twist to himself sardonically, as he drove down the sun-flecked +lane in the gracious light, and crickets chirped at him, and warm +scents drifted across his face, and the flowers in the grass, +standing so bright and unruffled that they seemed almost as +profoundly pleased as Anna-Felicitas, nodded at him, and everything +was obviously perfectly contented and happy, "Oh yes—I +daresay." And he repeated this remark several times as he looked +round him,—he couldn't but look, it was all so beautiful. +These things hadn't to deal with Twinklers. No wonder they could be +calm and bright. So could he, if—</p> +<p>He turned a corner in the lane and saw some way down it two +figures, a man and a girl, sitting in the grass by the wayside. +Lovers, of course. "Oh yes—I daresay," said Mr. Twist again, +grimly. They hadn't to deal with Twinklers either. No wonder they +could sit happily in the grass. So could he, if—</p> +<p>At the noise of the approaching car, with the smile of the last +thing they had been saying still on their faces, the two turned +their heads, and it was that man Elliott and Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Hello," called out Mr. Twist, putting on the brakes so hard +that the Ford skidded sideways along the road towards them.</p> +<p>"Hello," said the young man cheerfully, waving his stick.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_386" id="Page_386"></a>Hello," said +Anna-Felicitas mildly, watching his sidelong approach with +complacent interest.</p> +<p>She had no hat on, and had evidently escaped from Mrs. Bilton +just as she was. Escaped, however, was far too violent a word Mr. +Twist felt; sauntered from Mrs. Bilton better described her effect +of natural and comfortable arrival at the place where she was.</p> +<p>"I didn't know you were here," said Mr. Twist addressing her +when the car had stopped. He felt it was a lame remark. He had +torrents of things he wanted to say, and this was all that came +out.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas considered it placidly for a moment, and came to +the conclusion that it wasn't worth answering, so she didn't.</p> +<p>"Going into the town?" inquired Elliott pleasantly.</p> +<p>"Yes. I'll give you a lift."</p> +<p>"No thanks. I've just come from there."</p> +<p>"I see. Then <i>you'd</i> better come with me," said Mr. Twist +to Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I can't. I'm rather busy this morning."</p> +<p>"Really," said Mr. Twist, in a voice of concentrated sarcasm. +But it had no effect on Anna-Felicitas. She continued to +contemplate him with perfect goodwill.</p> +<p>He hesitated a moment. What could he do? Nothing, that he could +see, before the young man; nothing that wouldn't make him +ridiculous. He felt a fool already. He oughtn't to have pulled up. +He ought to have just waved to them and gone on his way, and +afterwards in the seclusion of his office issued very plain +directions to Anna-Felicitas as to her future conduct. Sitting by +the roadside like that! Openly; before everybody; with a young man +she had never seen twenty-four hours ago.</p> +<p>He jammed in the gear and let the clutch out with <a name= +"Page_387" id="Page_387"></a>such a jerk that the car leaped +forward. Elliott waved his stick again. Mr. Twist responded by the +briefest touch of his cap, and whirred down the road out of +sight.</p> +<p>"Does he mind your sitting here?" asked Elliott.</p> +<p>"It would be very unreasonable," said Anna-Felicitas gently. +"One has to sit somewhere."</p> +<p>And he laughed with delight at this answer as he laughed with +delight at everything she said, and he told her for the twentieth +time that she was the most wonderful person he had ever met, and +she settled down to listen again, after the interruption caused by +Mr. Twist, with a ready ear and the utmost complacency to these +agreeable statements, and began to wonder whether perhaps after all +she mightn't at last be about to fall in love.</p> +<p>In the new interest of this possibility she turned her head to +look at him, and he told her tumultuously—for being a +sailor-man he went straight ahead on great waves when it came to +love-making—that her eyes were as if pansies had married +stars.</p> +<p>She turned her head away again at this, for though it sounded +lovely it made her feel a little shy and unprovided with an answer; +and then he said, again tumultuously, that her ear was the most +perfect thing ever stuck on a girl's cheek, and would she mind +turning her face to him so that he might see if she had another +just like it on the other side.</p> +<p>She blushed at this, because she couldn't remember whether she +had washed it lately or not—one so easily forgot one's ears; +there were so many different things to wash—and he told her +that when she blushed it was like the first wild rose of the first +summer morning of the world.</p> +<p><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388"></a>At this Anna-Felicitas was +quite overcome, and subsided into a condition of blissful, +quiescent waiting for whatever might come next. Fancy her face +reminding him of all those nice things. She had seen it every day +for years and years in the looking-glass, and not noticed anything +particular about it. It had seemed to her just a face. Something +you saw out of, and ate with, and had to clean whatever else you +didn't when you were late for breakfast, because there it was and +couldn't be hidden,—an object remote indeed from pansies, and +stars, and beautiful things like that.</p> +<p>She would have liked to explain this to the young man, and point +out that she feared his imagination ran ahead of the facts and that +perhaps when his leg was well again he would see things more as +they were, but to her surprise when she turned to him to tell him +this she found she was obliged to look away at once again. She +couldn't look at him. Fancy that now, thought Anna-Felicitas, +attentively gazing at her toes. And he had such dear eyes; and such +a dear, eager sort of face. All the more, then, she reasoned, +should her own eyes have dwelt with pleasure on him. But they +couldn't. "Dear me," she murmured, watching her toes as carefully +as if they might at any moment go away and leave her there.</p> +<p>"I know," said Elliott. "You think I'm talking fearful flowery +stuff. I'd have said Dear me at myself three years ago if I had +ever caught myself thinking in terms of stars and roses. But it's +all the beastly blood and muck of the war that does it,—sends +one back with a rush to things like that. Makes one shameless. Why, +I'd talk to you about God now without turning a hair. Nothing would +have induced me so much as to mention seriously that I'd even heard +of him three <a name="Page_389" id="Page_389"></a>years ago. Why, I +write poetry now. We all write poetry. And nobody would mind now +being seen saying their prayers. Why, if I were back at school and +my mother came to see me I'd hug her before everybody in the middle +of the street. Do you realize what a tremendous change that means, +you little girl who's never had brothers? You extraordinary +adorable little lovely thing?"</p> +<p>And off he was again.</p> +<p>"When I was small," said Anna-Felicitas after a while, still +watching her feet, "I had a governess who urged me to consider, +before I said anything, whether it were the sort of thing I would +like to say in the hearing of my parents. Would you like to say +what you're saying to me in the hearing of your parents?"</p> +<p>"Hate to," said Elliott promptly.</p> +<p>"Well, then," said Anna-Felicitas, gentle but disappointed. She +rather wished now she hadn't mentioned it.</p> +<p>"I'd take you out of earshot," said Elliott.</p> +<p>She was much relieved. She had done what she felt might perhaps +be regarded by Aunt Alice as her duty as a lady, and could now give +herself up with a calm conscience to hearing whatever else he might +have to say.</p> +<p>And he had an incredible amount to say, and all of it of the +most highly gratifying nature. On the whole, looking at it all +round and taking one thing with another, Anna-Felicitas came to the +conclusion that this was the most agreeable and profitable morning +she had ever spent. She sat there for hours, and they all flew. +People passed in cars and saw her, and it didn't disturb her in the +least. She perfectly remembered she ought to be helping Anna-Rose +pick and arrange the flowers for the tea-tables, and she didn't +mind. She knew <a name="Page_390" id="Page_390"></a>Anna-Rose would +be astonished and angry at her absence, and it left her unmoved. By +midday she was hopelessly compromised in the eyes of Acapulco, for +the people who had motored through the lane told the people who +hadn't what they had seen. Once a great car passed with a small +widow in it, who looked astonished when she saw the pair but had +gone almost before Elliott could call out and wave to her.</p> +<p>"That's my sister," he said. "You and she will love each +other."</p> +<p>"Shall we?" said Anna-Felicitas, much pleased by this suggestion +of continuity in their relations; and remarked that she looked as +if she hadn't got a husband.</p> +<p>"She hasn't. Poor little thing. Rotten luck. Rotten. I hate +people to die now. It seems so infernally unnatural of them, when +they're not in the fighting. He's only been dead a month. And poor +old Dellogg was such a decent chap. She isn't going anywhere yet, +or I'd bring her up to tea this afternoon. But it doesn't matter. +I'll take you to her."</p> +<p>"Shall you?" said Anna-Felicitas, again much pleased. Dellogg. +The name swam through her mind and swam out again. She was too busy +enjoying herself to remark it and its coincidences now.</p> +<p>"Of course. It's the first thing one does."</p> +<p>"What first thing?"</p> +<p>"To take the divine girl to see one's relations. Once one has +found her. Once one has had"—his voice fell to a +whisper—"the God-given luck to find her." And he laid his +hand very gently on hers, which were clasped together in her +lap.</p> +<p>This was a situation to which Anna-Felicitas wasn't accustomed, +and she didn't know what to do with it. She looked down at the hand +lying on hers, and considered <a name="Page_391" id= +"Page_391"></a>it without moving. Elliott was quite silent now, and +she knew he was watching her face. Ought she, perhaps, to be going? +Was this, perhaps, one of the moments in life when the truly +judicious went? But what a pity to go just when everything was so +pleasant. Still, it must be nearly lunch-time. What would Aunt +Alice do in a similar situation? Go home to lunch, she was sure. +Yet what was lunch when one was rapidly arriving, as she was sure +now that she was, at the condition of being in love? She must be, +or she wouldn't like his hand on hers. And she did like it.</p> +<p>She looked down at it, and found that she wanted to stroke it. +But would Aunt Alice stroke it? No; Anna-Felicitas felt fairly +clear about that. Aunt Alice wouldn't stroke it; she would take it +up, and shake it, and say good-bye, and walk off home to lunch like +a lady. Well, perhaps she ought to do that. Christopher would +probably think so too. But what a pity.... Still, behaviour was +behaviour; ladies were ladies.</p> +<p>She drew out her right hand with this polite intention, and +instead—Anna-Felicitas never knew how it happened—she +did nothing of the sort, but quite the contrary: she put it softly +on the top of his.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a><a name="Page_392" +id="Page_392"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> +<p>Meanwhile Mr. Twist had driven on towards Acapulco in a state of +painful indecision. Should he or shouldn't he take a turning he +knew of a couple of miles farther that led up an unused and +practically undrivable track back by the west side to The Open +Arms, and instruct Mrs. Bilton to proceed at once down the lane and +salvage Anna-Felicitas? Should he or shouldn't he? For the first +mile he decided he would; then, as his anger cooled, he began to +think that after all he needn't worry much. The Annas were lucidly +too young for serious philandering, and even if that Elliott didn't +realize this, owing to Anna-Felicitas's great length, he couldn't +do much before he, Mr. Twist, was back again along the lane. In +this he under-estimated the enterprise of the British Navy, but it +served to calm him; so that when he did reach the turning he had +made up his mind to continue on his way to Acapulco.</p> +<p>There he spent some perplexing and harassing hours.</p> +<p>At the bank his reception was distinctly chilly. He wasn't used, +since his teapot had been on the market, to anything but warmth +when he went into a bank. On this occasion even the clerks were +cold; and when after difficulty—actual difficulty—he +succeeded in seeing the manager, he couldn't but perceive his +unusual reserve. He then remembered what he had put down to mere +accident at the time, that as he drove up Main <a name="Page_393" +id="Page_393"></a>Street half an hour before, all the people he +knew had been looking the other way.</p> +<p>From the bank, where he picked up nothing in the way of +explanation of the American avoidance of The Open Arms, the manager +going dumb at its mere mention, he went to the solicitors who had +arranged the sale of the inn, and again in the street people he +knew looked the other way. The solicitor, it appeared, wouldn't be +back till the afternoon, and the clerk, an elderly person hitherto +subservient, was curiously short about it.</p> +<p>By this time Mr. Twist was thoroughly uneasy, and he determined +to ask the first acquaintance he met what the matter was. But he +couldn't find anybody. Every one, his architect, his various +experts—those genial and frolicsome young men—were +either engaged or away on business somewhere else. He set his +teeth, and drove to the Cosmopolitan to seek out old +Ridding—it wasn't a place he drove to willingly after his +recent undignified departure, but he was determined to get to the +bottom of this thing—and walking into the parlour was +instantly aware of a hush falling upon it, a holding of the +breath.</p> +<p>In the distance he saw old Ridding,—distinctly; and +distinctly he saw that old Ridding saw him. He was sitting at the +far end of the great parlour, facing the entrance, by the side of +something vast and black heaped up in the adjacent chair. He had +the look on his pink and naturally pleasant face of one who has +abandoned hope. On seeing Mr. Twist a ray of interest lit him up, +and he half rose. The formless mass in the next chair which Mr. +Twist had taken for inanimate matter, probably cushions and wraps, +and now perceived was one of the higher mammals, put out a hand +<a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a>and said something,—at +least, it opened that part of its face which is called a mouth but +which to Mr. Twist in the heated and abnormal condition of his +brain seemed like the snap-to of some great bag,—and at that +moment a group of people crossed the hall in front of old Ridding, +and when the path was again clear the chair that had contained him +was empty. He had disappeared. Completely. Only the higher mammal +was left, watching Mr. Twist with heavy eyes like two smouldering +coals.</p> +<p>He couldn't face those eyes. He did try to, and hesitated while +he tried, and then he found he couldn't; so he swerved away to the +right, and went out quickly by the side door.</p> +<p>There was now one other person left who would perhaps clear him +up as to the meaning of all this, and he was the lawyer he had gone +to about the guardianship. True he had been angry with him at the +time, but that was chiefly because he had been angry with himself. +At bottom he had carried away an impression of friendliness. To +this man he would now go as a last resource before turning back +home, and once more he raced up Main Street in his Ford, producing +by these repeated appearances an effect of agitation and +restlessness that wasn't lost on the beholders.</p> +<p>The lawyer was in his office, and disengaged. After his +morning's experience Mr. Twist was quite surprised and much +relieved by being admitted at once. He was received neither coldly +nor warmly, but with unmistakable interest.</p> +<p>"I've come to consult you," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>The lawyer nodded. He hadn't supposed he had come not to consult +him, but he was used to patience <a name="Page_395" id= +"Page_395"></a>with clients, and he well knew their preference in +conversation for the self-evident.</p> +<p>"I want a straight answer to a straight question," said Mr. +Twist, his great spectacles glaring anxiously at the lawyer who +again nodded.</p> +<p>"Go on," he said, as Mr. Twist paused.</p> +<p>"What I want to know is," burst out Mr. Twist, "what the +hell—"</p> +<p>The lawyer put up a hand. "One moment, Mr. Twist," he said. +"Sorry to interrupt—"</p> +<p>And he got up quickly, and went to a door in the partition +between his office and his clerks' room.</p> +<p>"You may go out to lunch now," he said, opening it a crack.</p> +<p>He then shut it, and came back to his seat at the table.</p> +<p>"Yes, Mr. Twist?" he said, settling down again. "You were +inquiring what the hell—?"</p> +<p>"Well, I was about to," said Mr. Twist, suddenly soothed, "but +you're so calm—"</p> +<p>"Of course I'm calm. I'm a quietly married man."</p> +<p>"I don't see what that's got to do with it."</p> +<p>"Everything. For some dispositions, everything. Mine is one. +Yours is another."</p> +<p>"Well, I guess I've not come here to talk about marriage. What I +want to know is why—"</p> +<p>"Quite so," said the lawyer, as he stopped. "And I can tell you. +It's because your inn is suspected of being run in the interests of +the German Government."</p> +<p>A deep silence fell upon the room. The lawyer watched Mr. Twist +with a detached and highly intelligent interest. Mr. Twist stared +at the lawyer, his kind, lavish lips fallen apart. Anger had left +him. This blow excluded anger. There was only room in him for blank +astonishment.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_396" id="Page_396"></a>You know about my teapot?" +he said at last.</p> +<p>"Try me again, Mr. Twist."</p> +<p>"It's on every American breakfast table."</p> +<p>"Including my own."</p> +<p>"They wouldn't use it if they thought—"</p> +<p>"My dear sir, they're not going to," said the lawyer. "They're +proposing, among other little plans for conveying the general +sentiment to your notice, to boycott the teapot. It is to be put on +an unofficial black list. It is to be banished from the +hotels."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's stare became frozen. The teapot boycotted? The +teapot his mother and sister depended on and The Open Arms depended +on, and all his happiness, and the twins? He saw the rumour surging +over America in great swift waves, that the proceeds of the Twist +Non-Trickler were used for Germany. He saw—but what didn't he +see in that moment of submerged horror? Then he seemed to come to +the surface again and resume reason with a gasp. "Why?" he +asked.</p> +<p>"Why they're wanting to boycott the teapot?"</p> +<p>"No. Why do they think the inn—"</p> +<p>"The Miss Twinklers are German."</p> +<p>"Half."</p> +<p>"The half that matters—begging my absent wife's pardon. I +know all about that, you see. You started me off thinking them over +by that ward notion of yours. It didn't take me long. It was pretty +transparent. So transparent that my opinion of the intelligence of +my fellow-townsfolk has considerably lowered. But we live in +unbalanced times. I guess it's women at the bottom of this. Women +got on to it first, and the others caught the idea as they'd catch +scarlet fever. It's a kind of scarlet fever, this spy scare that's +about. Mind you, I admit the germs are certainly present among us." +<a name="Page_397" id="Page_397"></a>And the lawyer smiled. He +thought he saw he had made a little joke in that last remark.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was not in the condition to see jokes, and didn't +smile. "Do you mean to say those children—" he began.</p> +<p>"They're not regarded as children by any one except you."</p> +<p>"Well, if they're not," said Mr. Twist, remembering the grass by +the wayside in the lane and what he had so recently met in it, "I +guess I'd best be making tracks. But I know better. And so would +you if you'd seen them on the boat. Why, twelve was putting their +age too high on that boat."</p> +<p>"No doubt. No doubt. Then all I can say is they've matured +pretty considerably since. Now do you really want me to tell you +what is being believed?"</p> +<p>"Of course. It's what I've come for."</p> +<p>"You mayn't find it precisely exhilarating, Mr. Twist."</p> +<p>"Go ahead."</p> +<p>"What Acapulco says—and Los Angeles, I'm told, too, and +probably by this time the whole coast—is that you threw over +your widowed mother, of whom you're the only son, and came off here +with two German girls who got hold of you on the boat—now, +Mr. Twist, don't interrupt—on the boat crossing from England, +that England had turned them out as undesirable aliens—quite +so, Mr. Twist, but let me finish—that they're in the pay of +the German Government—no doubt, no doubt, Mr. Twist—and +that you're their cat's-paw. It is known that the inn each +afternoon has been crowded with Germans, among them Germans already +suspected, I can't say how rightly or how wrongly, of spying, and +that these people are so familiar with <a name="Page_398" id= +"Page_398"></a>the Miss von Twinklers as to warrant the belief in a +complete secret understanding."</p> +<p>For a moment Mr. Twist continued both his silence and his stare. +Then he took off his spectacles and wiped them. His hand shook. The +lawyer was startled. Was there going to be emotion? One never knew +with that sort of lips. "You're not—" he began.</p> +<p>Then he saw that Mr. Twist was trying not to laugh.</p> +<p>"I'm glad you take it that way," he said, relieved but +surprised.</p> +<p>"It's so darned funny," said Mr. Twist, endeavouring to compose +his features. "To anybody who knows those twins it's so darned +funny. Cat's-paw. Yes—rather feel that myself. Cat's-paw. +That does seem a bit of a bull's eye—" And for a second or +two his features flatly refused to compose.</p> +<p>The lawyer watched him. "Yes," he said. "Yes. But the effect of +these beliefs may be awkward."</p> +<p>"Oh, damned," agreed Mr. Twist, going solemn again.</p> +<p>And there came over him in a flood the clear perception of what +it would mean,—the sheer disaster of it, the horrible +situation those helpless Annas would be in. What a limitless fool +he must have been in his conduct of the whole thing. His absorption +in the material side of it had done the trick. He hadn't been +clever enough, not imaginative enough, nor, failing that, worldly +enough to work the other side properly. When he found there was no +Dellogg he ought to have insisted on seeing Mrs. Dellogg, intrusion +or no intrusion, and handing over the twins; and then gone away and +left them. A woman was what was wanted. Fool that he was to suppose +that he, a man, an unmarried man, <a name="Page_399" id= +"Page_399"></a>could get them into anything but a scrape. But he +was so fond of them. He just couldn't leave them. And now here they +all were, in this ridiculous and terrible situation.</p> +<p>"There are two things you can do," said the lawyer.</p> +<p>"Two?" said Mr. Twist, looking at him with anxious eyes. "For +the life of me I can't see even one. Except running amoke in +slander actions—"</p> +<p>"Tut, tut," said the lawyer, waving that aside. "No. There are +two courses to pursue. And they're not alternative, but +simultaneous. You shut down the inn—at once, +to-morrow—that's Saturday. Close on Saturday, and give notice +you don't re-open—now pray let me finish—close the inn +as an inn, and use it simply as a private residence. Then, as quick +as may be, marry those girls."</p> +<p>"Marry what girls?"</p> +<p>"The Miss von Twinklers."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist stared at him. "Marry them?" he said helplessly. +"Marry them who to?"</p> +<p>"You for one."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist stared at him in silence. Then he said, "You've said +that to me before."</p> +<p>"Yep. And I'll say it again. I'll go on saying it till you've +done it."</p> +<p>"'Well, if that's all you've got to offer as a suggestion for a +way out—"</p> +<p>But Mr. Twist wasn't angry this time; he was too much battered +by events; he hadn't the spirits to be angry.</p> +<p>"You've—got +to—marry—one—of—those—girls," said +the lawyer, at each word smiting the table with his open palm. +"Turn her into an American. Get her out of this being a German +business. And be able at <a name="Page_400" id="Page_400"></a>the +same time to protect the one who'll be your sister in-law. Why, +even if you didn't want to, which is sheer nonsense, for of course +any man would want to—I know what I'm talking about because +I've seen them—it's your plain duty, having got them into +this mess."</p> +<p>"But—marry which?" asked Mr. Twist, with increased +helplessness and yet a manifest profound anxiety for further +advice.</p> +<p>For the first time the lawyer showed impatience "Oh—either +or both," he said. "For God's sake don't be such a—"</p> +<p>He pulled up short.</p> +<p>"I didn't quite mean that," he resumed, again calm. "The end of +that sentence was, as no doubt you guess, fool. I withdraw it, and +will substitute something milder. Have you any objection to +ninny?"</p> +<p>No, Mr. Twist didn't mind ninny, or any other word the lawyer +might choose, he was in such a condition of mental groping about. +He took out his handkerchief and wiped away the beads on his +forehead and round his mouth.</p> +<p>"I'm thirty-five," he said, looking terribly worried.</p> +<p>Propose to an Anna? The lawyer may have seen them, but he hadn't +heard them; and the probable nature of their comments if Mr. Twist +proposed to them—to one, he meant of course, but both would +comment, the one he proposed to and the one he didn't—caused +his imagination to reel. He hadn't much imagination; he knew that +now, after his conduct of this whole affair, but all there was of +it reeled.</p> +<p>"I'm thirty-five," he said helplessly.</p> +<p>"Pooh," said the lawyer, indicating the negligibleness of this +by a movement of his shoulder.</p> +<p>"They're seventeen," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_401" id="Page_401"></a>Pooh," said the lawyer +again, again indicating negligibleness. "My wife was—"</p> +<p>"I know. You told me that last time. Oh, I know all <i>that</i>" +said Mr. Twist with sudden passion. "But these are children. I tell +you they're <i>children</i>—"</p> +<p>"Pooh," said the lawyer a third time, a third time indicating +negligibleness.</p> +<p>Then he got up and held out his hand. "Well, I've told you," he +said. "You wanted to know, and I've told you. And I'll tell you one +thing more, Mr. Twist. Whichever of those girls takes you, you'll +have the sweetest, prettiest wife of any man in the world except +one, and that's the man who has the luck to get the other one. Why, +sweetest and prettiest are poor words. She'll be the most +delectable, the most—"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist rose from his chair in such haste that he pushed the +table crooked. His ears flamed.</p> +<p>"See here," he said very loud. "I won't have you talk familiarly +like that about my wife."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXXVI"></a><a name= +"Page_402" id="Page_402"></a>CHAPTER XXXVI</h2> +<p>Wife. The word had a remarkable effect on him. It churned him +all up. His thoughts were a chaotic jumble, and his driving on the +way home matched them. He had at least three narrow shaves at cross +streets before he got out of the town and for an entire mile +afterwards he was on the wrong side of the road. During this +period, deep as he was in confused thought, he couldn't but vaguely +notice the anger on the faces of the other drivers and the variety +and fury of their gesticulations, and it roused a dim wonder in +him.</p> +<p>Wife. How arid existence had been for him up to then in regard +to the affections, how knobbly the sort of kisses he had received +in Clark. They weren't kisses; they were disapproving pecks. Always +disapproving. Always as if he hadn't done enough, or been enough, +or was suspected of not going to do or be enough.</p> +<p>His wife. Mr. Twist dreadfully longed to kiss +somebody,—somebody kind and soft, who would let herself be +adored. She needn't even love him,—he knew he wasn't the sort +of man to set passion alight; she need only be kind, and a little +fond of him, and let him love her, and be his very own.</p> +<p>His own little wife. How sweet. How almost painfully sweet. Yes. +But the Annas....</p> +<p>When he thought of the Annas, Mr. Twist went damp. He might +propose—indeed, everything pointed <a name="Page_403" id= +"Page_403"></a>to his simply having got to—but wouldn't they +very quickly dispose? And then what? That lawyer seemed to think +all he had to do was to marry them right away; not them, of +course,—one; but they were so very plural in his mind. Funny +man, thought Mr. Twist; funny man,—yet otherwise so +sagacious. It is true he need only propose to one of them, for +which he thanked God, but he could imagine what that one, and what +the other one too, who would be sure to be somewhere quite near +would ... no, he couldn't imagine; he preferred not to imagine.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist's dampness increased, and a passing car got his +mud-guard. It was a big car which crackled with language as it +whizzed on its way, and Mr. Twist, slewed by the impact half across +the road, then perceived on which side he had been driving.</p> +<p>The lane up to the inn was in its middle-day emptiness and +somnolence. Where Anna-Felicitas and Elliott had been sitting cool +and shaded when he passed before, there was only the pressed-down +grass and crushed flowers in a glare of sun. She had gone home long +ago of course. She said she was going to be very busy. Secretly he +wished she hadn't gone home, and that little Christopher too might +for a bit be somewhere else, so that when he arrived he wouldn't +immediately have to face everybody at once. He wanted to think; he +wanted to have time to think; time before four o'clock came, and +with four o'clock, if he hadn't come to any conclusion about +shutting up the inn—and how could he if nobody gave him time +to think?—those accursed, swarming Germans. It was they who +had done all this. Mr. Twist blazed into sudden fury. They and +their blasted war....</p> +<p>At the gate stood Anna-Rose. Her face looked quite <a name= +"Page_404" id="Page_404"></a>pale in the green shade of the +tunnelled-out syringa bushes. She as peering out down the lane +watching him approach. This was awful, thought Mr. Twist. At the +very gate one of them. Confronted at once. No time, not a minute's +time given him to think.</p> +<p>"Oh," cried out Anna-Rose the instant he pulled up, for she had +waved to him to stop when he tried to drive straight on round to +the stable, "she isn't with you?"</p> +<p>"Who isn't?" asked Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose became paler than ever. "She has been kidnapped," she +said.</p> +<p>"How's that?" said Mr. Twist, staring at her from the car.</p> +<p>"Kidnapped," repeated Anna-Rose, with wide-open horror-stricken +eyes; for from her nursery she carried with her at the bottom of +her mind, half-forgotten but ready to fly up to the top at any +moment of panic, an impression that the chief activities and +recreations of all those Americans who weren't really good were +two: they lynched, and they kidnapped. They lynched you if they +didn't like you enough, and if they liked you too much they +kidnapped you. Anna-Felicitas, exquisite and unsuspecting, had been +kidnapped. Some American's concupiscent eye had alighted on her, +observed her beauty, and marked her down. No other explanation was +possible of a whole morning's absence from duties of one so +conscientious and painstaking as Anna-Felicitas. She never shirked; +that is, she never had been base enough to shirk alone. If there +was any shirking to be done they had always done it together. As +the hours passed and she didn't appear, Anna-Rose had tried to +persuade herself that she must have motored into Acapulco with Mr. +<a name="Page_405" id="Page_405"></a>Twist, strange and unnatural +and reprehensible and ignoble as such arch shirking would have +been; and now that the car had come back empty except for Mr. Twist +she was convinced the worst had happened—her beautiful, her +precious Columbus had been kidnapped.</p> +<p>"Kidnapped," she said again, wringing her hands.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist was horror-struck too, for he thought she was +announcing the kidnapping of Mrs. Bilton. Somehow he didn't think +of Anna-Felicitas; he had seen her too recently. But that Mrs. +Bilton should be kidnapped seemed to him to touch the lowest depths +of American criminal enterprise and depravity. At the same time +though he recoiled before this fresh blow a thought did fan through +his mind with a wonderful effect of coolness and +silence,—"Then they'll gag her," he said.</p> +<p>"What?" cried Anna-Rose, as though a whip had lashed her. "Gag +her?" And pulling open the gate and running out to him as one +possessed she cried again, "Gag Columbus?"</p> +<p>"Oh that's it, is it," said Mr. Twist, with relief but also with +disappointment, "Well, if it's that way I can tell you—"</p> +<p>He stopped; there was no need to tell her; for round the bend of +the lane, walking bare-headed in the chequered light and shade as +leisurely as if such things as tours of absence didn't exist, or a +distracted household, or an anguished Christopher, with indeed, a +complete, an extraordinary serenity, advanced Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Always placid, her placidity at this moment had a shining +quality. Still smug, she was now of a glorified smugness. If one +could imagine a lily turned into a god, or a young god turned into +a lily and walking down <a name="Page_406" id="Page_406"></a>the +middle of a sun-flecked Californian lane, it wouldn't be far out, +thought Mr. Twist, as an image of the advancing Twinkler. The god +would be so young that he was still a boy, and he wouldn't be +worrying much about anything in the past or in the future, and he'd +just be coming along like that with the corners of his mouth a +little turned up, and his fair hair a little ruffled, and his +charming young face full of a sober and abstracted radiance.</p> +<p>"Not much kidnapping there, I guess," said Mr. Twist with a jerk +of his thumb. "And you take it from me, Anna I.," he added quickly, +leaning over towards her, determined to get off to the garage +before he found himself faced by both twins together, "that when +next your imagination gets the jumps the best thing you can do is +to hold on to it hard till it settles down again, instead of +wasting your time and ruining your constitution going pale."</p> +<p>And he started the Ford with a bound, and got away round the +corner into the yard.</p> +<p>Here, in the yard, was peace; at least for the moment. The only +living thing in it was a cat the twins had acquired, through the +services of one of the experts, as an indispensable object in a +really homey home. The first thing this cat had done had been to +eat the canary, which gave the twins much unacknowledged relief. It +was, they thought secretly, quite a good plan to have one's pets +inside each other,—it kept them so quiet. She now sat unmoved +in the middle of the yard, carefully cleaning her whiskers while +Mr. Twist did some difficult fancy driving in order to get into the +stable without inconveniencing her.</p> +<p>Admirable picture of peace, thought Mr. Twist with a sigh of +envy.</p> +<p><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a>He might have got out and +picked her up, but he was glad to manoeuvre about, reversing and +making intricate figures in the dust, because it kept him longer +away from the luncheon-table. The cat took no notice of him, but +continued to deal with her whiskers even when his front wheel was +within two inches of her tail, for though she hadn't been long at +The Open Arms she had already sized up Mr. Twist and was aware that +he wouldn't hurt a fly.</p> +<p>Thanks to her he had a lot of trouble getting the Ford into the +stable, all of which he liked because of that luncheon-table; and +having got it in he still lingered fiddling about with it, +examining its engine and wiping its bonnet; and then when he +couldn't do that any longer he went out and lingered in the yard, +looking down at the cat with his hands in his pockets. "I must +think," he kept on saying to himself.</p> +<p>"Lunchee," said Li Koo, putting his head out of the kitchen +window.</p> +<p>"All right," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>He stooped down as though to examine the cat's ear. The cat, who +didn't like her ears touched but was prepared to humour him, got +out of it by lying down on her back and showing him her beautiful +white stomach. She was a black cat, with a particularly beautiful +white stomach, and she had discovered that nobody could see it +without wanting to stroke it. Whenever she found herself in a +situation that threatened to become disagreeable she just lay down +and showed her stomach. Human beings in similar predicaments can +only show their tact.</p> +<p>"Nice pussy—nice, nice pussy," said Mr. Twist aloud, +stroking this irresistible object slowly, and forgetting her ear as +she had intended he should.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_408" id="Page_408"></a>Lunchee get cold," said Li +Koo, again putting his head out of the kitchen window. "Mis' Bilton +say, Come in."</p> +<p>"All right," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>He straightened himself and looked round the yard. A rake that +should have been propped up against the tool-shed with some other +gardening tools had fallen down. He crossed over and picked it up +and stood it up carefully again.</p> +<p>Li Koo watched him impassively from the window.</p> +<p>"Mis' Bilton come out," he said; and there she was in the yard +door.</p> +<p>"Mr. Twist," she called shrilly, "if you don't come in right +away and have your food before it gets all mushed up with cold I +guess you'll be sorry."</p> +<p>"All right—coming," he called back very loud and +cheerfully, striding towards her as one strides who knows there is +nothing for it now but courage. "All right, Mrs. Bilton—sorry +if I've kept you waiting. You shouldn't have bothered about +me—"</p> +<p>And saying things like this in a loud voice, for to hear himself +being loud made him feel more supported, he strode into the house, +through the house, and out on to the verandah.</p> +<p>They always lunched on the verandah. The golden coloured awning +was down, and the place was full of a golden shade. Beyond it +blazed the garden. Beneath it was the flower-adorned table set as +usual ready for four, and he went out to it, strung up to finding +the Annas at the table, Anna-Felicitas in her usual seat with her +back to the garden, her little fair head outlined against the +glowing light as he had seen it every day since they had lived in +the inn, Anna-Rose opposite, probably volubly and passionately +addressing her.</p> +<p><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"></a>And there was no one.</p> +<p>"Why—" he said, stopping short.</p> +<p>"Yes. It's real silly of them not to come and eat before +everything is spoilt," said Mrs. Bilton bustling up, who had stayed +behind to give an order to Li Koo. And she went to the edge of the +verandah and shaded her eyes and called, "Gurls! Gurls! I guess you +can do all that talking better after lunch."</p> +<p>He then saw that down at the bottom of the garden, in the most +private place as regards being overheard, partly concealed by some +arum lilies that grew immensely there like splendid weeds, stood +the twins facing each other.</p> +<p>"Better leave them alone," he said quickly. "They'll come when +they're ready. There's nothing like getting through with one's +talking right away, Mrs. Bilton. Besides," he went on still more +quickly for she plainly didn't agree with him and was preparing to +sally out into the sun and fetch them in, "you and I don't often +get a chance of a quiet chat together—"</p> +<p>And this, combined with the resolute way he was holding her +chair ready for her, brought Mrs. Bilton back under the awning +again.</p> +<p>She was flattered. Mr. Twist had not yet spoken to her in quite +that tone. He had always been the gentleman, but never yet the +eager gentleman. Now he was unmistakably both.</p> +<p>She came back and sat down, and so with a sigh of thankfulness +immediately did he, for here was an unexpected respite,—while +Mrs. Bilton talked he could think. Fortunately she never noticed if +one wasn't listening. For the first time since he had known her he +gave himself up willingly to the great broad stream that at once +started flowing over him, on this occasion <a name="Page_410" id= +"Page_410"></a>with something of the comfort of warm water, and he +was very glad indeed that anyhow that day she wasn't gagged.</p> +<p>While he ate, he kept on furtively looking down the garden at +the two figures facing each other by the arum lilies. Whenever Mrs. +Bilton remembered them and wanted to call them in, as she did at +the different stages, of the meal,—at the salad, at the +pudding—he stopped her. She became more and more pleased by +his evident determination to lunch alone with her, for after all +one remains female to the end, and her conversation took on a +gradual tinge of Mr. Bilton's views about second marriages. They +had been liberal views; for Mr. Bilton, she said, had had no +post-mortem pettiness about him, but they were lost on Mr. Twist, +whose thoughts were so painfully preoccupied by first marriage.</p> +<p>The conclusions he came to during that trying meal while Mrs. +Bilton talked, were that he would propose first to Anna-Rose, she +being the eldest and such a course being accordingly natural, and, +if she refused, proceed at once to propose to Anna-Felicitas. But +before proceeding to Anna-Felicitas, a course he regarded with +peculiar misgiving, he would very earnestly explain to Anna-Rose +the seriousness of the situation and the necessity, the urgency, +the sanity of her marrying him. These proposals would be kept on +the cool level of strict business. Every trace of the affection +with which he was so overflowing would be sternly excluded. For +instance, he wasn't going to let himself remember the feel of +Christopher's little head the afternoon before when he patted it to +comfort her. Such remembrances would be bound to bring a warmth +into his remarks which wouldn't be fair. The situation <a name= +"Page_411" id="Page_411"></a>demanded the most scrupulous fairness +and delicacy in its treatment, the most careful avoidance of taking +any advantage of it. But how difficult, thought Mr. Twist, his hand +shaking as he poured himself out a glass of iced water, how +difficult when he loved the Annas so inconveniently much.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton observed the shaking of his hand, and felt more +female than ever.</p> +<p>Still, there it was, this situation forced upon them all by the +war. Nobody could help it, and it had to be faced with calmness, +steadfastness and tact. Calmness, steadfastness and tact, repeated +Mr. Twist, raising the water to his mouth and spilling some of +it.</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton observed this too, and felt still more female.</p> +<p>Marriage was the quickest, and really the only, way out of it. +He saw that now. The lawyer had been quite right. And marriage, he +would explain to the Annas, would be a mere formal ceremony which +after the war they—he meant, of course, she—could +easily in that land of facile and honourable divorce get rid of. +Meanwhile, he would point out, they—she, of course; bother +these twins—would be safely American, and he would undertake +never to intrude love on them—her—unless by some +wonderful chance, it was wanted. Some wonderful chance ... Mr. +Twist's spectacles suddenly went dim, and he gulped down more +water.</p> +<p>Yes. That was the line to take: the austere line of +self-mortification for the Twinkler good. One Twinkler would be his +wife—again at the dear word he had to gulp down +water—and one his sister-in-law. They would just have to +agree to this plan. The position was too serious for +shilly-shallying. Yes. That was <a name="Page_412" id= +"Page_412"></a>the line to take; and by the time he had got to the +coffee it was perfectly clear and plain to him.</p> +<p>But he felt dreadfully damp. He longed for a liqueur, for +anything that would support him....</p> +<p>"Is there any brandy in the house?" he suddenly flung across the +web of Mrs. Bilton's words.</p> +<p>"Brandy, Mr. Twist?" she repeated, at this feeling altogether +female, for what an unusual thing for him to ask for,—"You're +not sick?"</p> +<p>"With my coffee," murmured Mr. Twist, his mouth very slack, his +head drooping. "It's nice...."</p> +<p>"I'll go and see," said Mrs. Bilton, getting up briskly and +going away rattling a bunch of keys.</p> +<p>At once he looked down the garden. Anna-Felicitas was in the act +of putting her arm round Anna-Rose's shoulder, and Anna-Rose was +passionately disengaging herself. Yes. There was trouble there. He +knew there would be.</p> +<p>He gulped down more water.</p> +<p>Anna-Felicitas couldn't expect to go off like that for a whole +morning and give Anna-Rose a horrible fright without hearing about +it. Besides, the expression on her face wanted explaining,—a +lot of explaining. Mr. Twist didn't like to think so, but +Anna-Felicitas's recent conduct seemed to him almost artful. It +seemed to him older than her years. It seemed to justify the +lawyer's scepticism when he described the twins to him as children. +That young man Elliott—</p> +<p>But here Mr. Twist started and lost his thread of thought, for +looking once more down the garden he saw that Anna-Felicitas was +coming towards the verandah, and that she was alone. Anna-Rose had +vanished. Why had he bothered about brandy, and let Mrs. Bilton go? +He had counted, somehow, on beginning with Anna-Rose....</p> +<p><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413"></a>He seized a cigarette and +lit it. He tried vainly to keep his hand steady. Before the +cigarette was fairly plight there was Anna-Felicitas, walking in +beneath the awning.</p> +<p>"I'm glad you're alone," she said, "for I want to speak to +you."</p> +<p>And Mr. Twist felt that his hour had come.</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVII"></a><a name= +"Page_414" id="Page_414"></a>CHAPTER XXXVII</h2> +<p>"Hadn't you better have lunch first?" he asked, though he knew +from the look on her face that she wouldn't. It was a very +remarkable look. It was as though an angel, dwelling in perfect +bliss, had unaccountably got its feet wet. Not more troubled than +that; a little troubled, but not more than that.</p> +<p>"No thank you," she said politely. "But if you've finished +yours, do you mind coming into the office? Because otherwise Mrs. +Bilton—"</p> +<p>"She's fetching me some brandy," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"I didn't know you drank," said Anna-Felicitas, even at this +moment interested. "But do you mind having it afterwards? Because +otherwise Mrs. Bilton—"</p> +<p>"I guess the idea was to have it first," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>She was however already making for the tea-room, proceeding +towards it without hurry, and with a single-mindedness that would +certainly get her there.</p> +<p>He could only follow.</p> +<p>In the office she said, "Do you mind shutting the door?"</p> +<p>"Not at all," said Mr. Twist; but he did mind. His hour had +come, and he wasn't liking it. He wanted to begin with Anna-Rose. +He wanted to get things clear with her first before dealing with +this one. There was less of Anna-Rose. And her dear little head +yesterday when he patted it.... <a name="Page_415" id= +"Page_415"></a>And she needed comforting.... Anna-Rose cried, and +let herself be comforted.... And it was so sweet to Mr. Twist to +comfort....</p> +<p>"Christopher—" began Anna-Felicitas, directly he had shut +the door.</p> +<p>"I know. She's mad with you. What can you expect, Anna II.?" he +interrupted in a very matter-of-fact voice, leaning against a +bookcase. Even a bookcase was better than nothing to lean +against.</p> +<p>"Christopher is being unreasonable," said Anna-Felicitas, her +voice softer and gentler than he had yet heard it.</p> +<p>Then she stopped, and considered him a moment with much of the +look of one who on a rather cold day considers the sea before +diving in—with, that is, a slight but temporary reluctance to +proceed.</p> +<p>"Won't you sit down?" said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Perhaps I'd better," she said, disposing herself in the big +chair. "It's very strange, but my legs feel funny. You wouldn't +think being in love would make one want to sit down."</p> +<p>"I beg your pardon?" said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"I have fallen in love," said Anna-Felicitas, looking up at him +with a kind of pensive radiance. "I did it this morning."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist stared at her. "I beg your—what did you say?" he +asked.</p> +<p>She said, still with that air as she regarded him of pensive +radiance, of not seeing him but something beyond him that was very +beautiful to her and satisfactory, "I've fallen in love, and I +can't tell you how pleased I am because I've always been afraid I +was going to find it a difficult thing to do. But it wasn't. Quite +the contrary."</p> +<p><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a>Then, as he only staged at +her, she said, "He's coming round this afternoon on the new +footing, and I wanted to prepare your and Christopher's minds in +good time so that you shouldn't be surprised."</p> +<p>And having said this she lapsed into what was apparently, +judging from her expression, a silent contemplation of her +bliss.</p> +<p>"But you're too young," burst out Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Too young?" repeated Anna-Felicitas, coming out of her +contemplation for a moment to smile at him. "We don't think +so."</p> +<p>Well. This beat everything.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist could only stare down at her.</p> +<p>Conflicting emotions raged in him. He couldn't tell for a moment +what they were, they were so violent and so varied. How dared +Elliott. How dared a person they had none of them heard of that +time yesterday come making love to a girl he had never seen before. +And in such a hurry. So suddenly. So instantly. Here had he himself +been with the twins constantly for weeks, and wouldn't have dreamed +of making love to them. They had been sacred to him. And it wasn't +as if he hadn't wanted to hug them often and often, but he had +restrained himself as a gentleman should from the highest motives +of delicacy, and consideration, and respect, and propriety, besides +a great doubt as to whether they wouldn't very energetically mind. +And then comes along this blundering Britisher, and straight away +tumbles right in where Mr. Twist had feared to tread, and within +twenty-four hours had persuaded Anna-Felicitas to think she was in +love. New footing indeed. There hadn't been an old footing yet. And +who was this Elliott? And how was Mr. Twist going to be able to +find out if he were <a name="Page_417" id="Page_417"></a>a proper +person to be allowed to pay his addresses to one so precious as a +Twinkler twin?</p> +<p>Anger, jealousy, anxiety, sense of responsibility and +mortification, all tumbled about furiously together inside Mr. +Twist as he leaned against the bookcase and gazed down at +Anna-Felicitas, who for her part was gazing beatifically into +space; but through the anger, and the jealousy, and the anxiety, +and the sense of responsibility and mortification one great thought +was struggling, and it finally pushed every other aside and got out +to the top of the welter: here, in the chair before him, he beheld +his sister-in-law. So much at least was cleared up.</p> +<p>He crossed to the bureau and dragged his office-stool over next +to her and sat down. "So that's it, is it?" he said, trying to +speak very calmly, but his face pulled all sorts of ways, as it had +so often been since the arrival in his life of the twins.</p> +<p>"Yes," she said, coming out of her contemplation. "It's love at +last."</p> +<p>"I don't know about at last. Whichever way you look at it, Anna +II., that don't seem to hit it off as a word. What I meant was, +it's Elliott."</p> +<p>"Yes," said Anna-Felicitas. "Which is the same thing. I +believe," she added, "I now have to allude to him as John."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist made another effort to speak calmly. "You don't," he +said, "think it at all unusual or undesirable that you should be +calling a man John to-day of whom you'd never heard yesterday."</p> +<p>"I think it's wonderful," said Anna-Felicitas beaming.</p> +<p>"It doesn't strike you in any way as imprudent to be so hasty. +It doesn't strike you as foolish."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_418" id="Page_418"></a>On the contrary," said +Anna-Felicitas. "I can't help thinking I've been very clever. I +shouldn't have thought it of myself. You see, I'm not +<i>naturally</i> quick." And she beamed with what she evidently +regarded as a pardonable pride.</p> +<p>"It doesn't strike you as even a little—well, a little +improper."</p> +<p>"On the contrary," said Anna-Felicitas. "Aunt Alice told us that +the one man one could never be improper about, even if one tried, +was one's husband."</p> +<p>"Husband?" Mr. Twist winced. He loved, as we have seen, the word +wife, but then that was different.</p> +<p>"It's not time yet to talk of husbands," he said, full of a +flaming unreasonableness and jealousy and the sore feeling that he +who had been toiling so long and so devotedly in the heat of the +Twinkler sun had had a most unfair march stolen on him by this +eleventh-hour stranger.</p> +<p>He flamed with unreasonableness. Yet he knew this was the +solution of half his problem,—and of much the worst half, for +it was after all Anna-Felicitas who had produced the uncomfortable +feeling of slipperiness, of eels; Anna-Rose had been quite good, +sitting in a chair crying and just so sweetly needing comfort. But +now that the solution was presented to him he was full of fears. +For on what now could he base his proposal to Anna-Rose? Elliott +would be the legitimate protector of both the Twinklers. Mr. Twist, +who had been so much perturbed by the idea of having to propose to +one or other twin, was miserably upset by the realization that now +he needn't propose to either. Elliott had cut the ground from under +his feet. He had indeed—what was the expression he used the +evening before?—yes, nipped in. There was now no necessity +for <a name="Page_419" id="Page_419"></a>Anna-Rose to marry him, +and Mr. Twist had an icy and forlorn feeling that on no other basis +except necessity would she. He was thirty-five. It was all very +well for Elliott to get proposing to people of seventeen; he +couldn't be more than twenty-five. And it wasn't only age. Mr. +Twist hadn't shaved before looking-glasses for nothing, and he was +very distinctly aware that Elliott was extremely attractive.</p> +<p>"It's not time yet to talk of husbands," he therefore hotly and +jealously said.</p> +<p>"On the contrary," said Anna-Felicitas gently, "it's not only +time but war-time. The war, I have observed, is making people be +quick and sudden about all sorts of things."</p> +<p>"You haven't observed it. That's Elliott said that."</p> +<p>"He may have," said Anna-Felicitas. "He said so many +things—"</p> +<p>And again she lapsed into contemplation; into, thought Mr. Twist +as he gazed jealously at her profile, an ineffable, ruminating, +reminiscent smugness.</p> +<p>"See here, Anna II.," he said, finding it impossibly painful to +wait while she contemplated, "suppose you don't at this particular +crisis fall into quite so many ecstatic meditations. There isn't as +much time as you seem to think."</p> +<p>"No—and there's Christopher," said Anna-Felicitas, giving +herself a shake, and with that slightly troubled look coming into +her face again as of having, in spite of being an angel in glory, +somehow got her feet wet.</p> +<p>"Precisely," said Mr. Twist, getting up and walking about the +room. "There's Christopher. Now Christopher, I should say, would be +pretty well heart-broken over this."</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a>But that's so +unreasonable," said Anna-Felicitas with gentle deprecation.</p> +<p>"You're all she has got, and she'll be under the +impression—the remarkably vivid impression—that she's +losing you."</p> +<p>"But <i>that's</i> so unreasonable. She isn't losing me. It's +sheer gain. Without the least effort or bother on her part she's +acquiring a brother-in-law."</p> +<p>"Oh, I know what Christopher feels," said Mr. Twist, going up +and down the room quickly. "I know right enough, because I feel it +all myself."</p> +<p>"But <i>that's</i> so unreasonable," said Anna-Felicitas +earnestly. "Why should two of you be feeling things that +aren't?"</p> +<p>"She has always regarded herself as responsible for you, and I +shouldn't be surprised if she were terribly shocked at your +conduct."</p> +<p>"But there has to <i>be</i> conduct," said Anna-Felicitas, still +very gentle, but looking as though her feet were getting wetter. "I +don't see how anybody is ever to fall in love unless there's been +some conduct first."</p> +<p>"Oh, don't argue—don't argue. You can't expect Anna-Rose +not to mind your wanting to marry a perfect stranger, a man she +hasn't even seen."</p> +<p>"But everybody you marry started by being a perfect stranger and +somebody you hadn't ever seen," said Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>"Oh Lord, if only you wouldn't <i>argue</i>!" exclaimed Mr. +Twist. "And as for your aunt in England, what's she going to say to +this twenty-four-hours, quick-lunch sort of engagement? She'll be +terribly upset. And Anna-Rose knows that, and is I expect nigh +worried crazy."</p> +<p>"But what," asked Anna-Felicitas, "have aunts to do with +love?"</p> +<p><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421"></a>Then she said very +earnestly, her face a little flushed, her eyes troubled, +"Christopher said all that you're saying now, and a lot more, down +in the garden before I came to you, and I said what I've been +saying to you, and a lot more, but she wouldn't listen. And when I +found she wouldn't listen I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn't +be comforted. And then I came to you; for besides wanting to tell +you what I've done I wanted to ask you to comfort Christopher."</p> +<p>Mr. Twist paused a moment in his walk. "Yes," he said, staring +at the carpet. "Yes. I can very well imagine she needs it. But I +don't suppose anything I would say—"</p> +<p>"Christopher is very fond of you," said Anna-Felicitas +gently.</p> +<p>"Oh yes. You're both very fond of me," said Mr. Twist, pulling +his mouth into a crooked and unhappy smile.</p> +<p>"We love you," said Anna-Felicitas simply.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked at her, and a mist came over his spectacles. +"You dear children," he said, "you dear, dear children—"</p> +<p>"I don't know about children—" began Anna-Felicitas; but +was interrupted by a knock at the door.</p> +<p>"It's only the brandy," said Mr. Twist, seeing her face assume +the expression he had learned to associate with the approach of +Mrs. Bilton. "Take it away, please Mrs. Bilton," he called out, +"and put it on the—"</p> +<p>Mrs. Bilton however, didn't take anything away, but opened the +door an inch instead. "There's someone wants to speak to you, Mr. +Twist," she said in a loud whisper, thrusting in a card. "He says +he just must. I found him on the verandah when I took your <a name= +"Page_422" id="Page_422"></a>brandy out, and as I'm not the woman +to leave a stranger alone with good brandy I brought him in with +me, and he's right here back of me in the tea-room."</p> +<p>"It's John," remarked Anna-Felicitas placidly. "Come early."</p> +<p>"I say—" said a voice behind Mrs. Bilton.</p> +<p>"Yes," nodded Anna-Felicitas, getting up out of the deep chair. +"That's John."</p> +<p>"I say—may I come in? I've got something +important—"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist looked at Anna-Felicitas. "Wouldn't you +rather—?" he began.</p> +<p>"I don't mind John," she said softly, her face flooded with a +most beautiful light.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist opened the door and went out. "Come in," he said. +"Mrs. Bilton, may I present Mr. Elliott to you—Commander +Elliott of the British Navy."</p> +<p>"Pleased to meet you, Commander Elliott," said Mrs. Bilton. "Mr. +Twist, your brandy is on the verandah. Shall I bring it to you in +here?"</p> +<p>"No thank you, Mrs. Bilton. I'll go out there presently. Perhaps +you wouldn't mind waiting for me there—I don't suppose Mr. +Elliott will want to keep me long. Come in, Mr. Elliott."</p> +<p>And having disposed of Mrs. Bilton, who was in a particularly +willing and obedient and female mood, he motioned Elliott into the +office.</p> +<p>There stood Anna-Felicitas.</p> +<p>Elliott stopped dead.</p> +<p>"This isn't fair," he said, his eyes twinkling and dancing.</p> +<p>"What isn't?" inquired Anna-Felicitas gently, beaming at +him.</p> +<p>"Your being here. I've got to talk business. Look <a name= +"Page_423" id="Page_423"></a>here, sir," he said, turning to Mr. +Twist, "could <i>you</i> talk business with her there?"</p> +<p>"Not if she argued," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Argued! I wouldn't mind her arguing. It's just her being there. +I've got to talk business," he said, turning to +Anna-Felicitas,—"business about marrying you. And how can I +with you standing there looking like—well, like that?"</p> +<p>"I don't know," said Anna-Felicitas placidly, not moving.</p> +<p>"But you'll interrupt—just your being there will +interrupt. I shall see you out of the corner of my eye, and it'll +be impossible not to—I mean I know I'll want to—I mean, +Anna-Felicitas my dear, it isn't done. I've got to explain all +sorts of things to your guardian—"</p> +<p>"He isn't my guardian," corrected the accurate Anna-Felicitas +gently. "He only very nearly once was."</p> +<p>"Well, anyhow I've got to explain a lot of things that'll take +some time, and it isn't so much explain as persuade—for I +expect," he said, turning to Mr. Twist, "this strikes you as a bit +sudden, sir?"</p> +<p>"It would strike anybody," said Mr. Twist trying to be stern but +finding it difficult, for Elliott was so disarmingly engaging and +so disarmingly in love. The radiance on Anna-Felicitas's face might +have been almost a reflection caught from his. Mr. Twist had never +seen two people look so happy. He had never, of course, before been +present at the first wonderful dawning of love. The whole room +seemed to glow with the surprise of it.</p> +<p>"There. You see?" said Elliott, again appealing to +Anna-Felicitas, who stood smiling beatifically at <a name= +"Page_424" id="Page_424"></a>him without moving. "I've got to +explain that it isn't after all as mad as it seems, and that I'm a +fearfully decent chap and can give you lots to eat, and that I've +got a jolly little sister here who's respectable and well-known +besides, and I'm going to produce references to back up these +assertions, and proofs that I'm perfectly sound in health except +for my silly foot, which isn't health but just foot and which you +don't seem to mind anyhow, and how—I ask you <i>how</i>, +Anna-Felicitas my dear, am I to do any of this with you standing +there looking like—well, like that?"</p> +<p>"I don't know," said Anna-Felicitas again, still not moving.</p> +<p>"Anna-Felicitas, my dear," he said, "won't you go?"</p> +<p>"No, John," said Anna-Felicitas gently.</p> +<p>His eyes twinkled and danced more than ever. He took a step +towards her, then checked himself and looked round beseechingly at +Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"<i>Somebody's</i> got to go," he said.</p> +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Twist. "And I guess it's me."</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXVIII"></a><a name= +"Page_425" id="Page_425"></a>CHAPTER XXXVIII</h2> +<p>He went straight in search of Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>He was going to propose to her. He couldn't bear it. He couldn't +bear the idea of his previous twins, his blessed little Twinklers, +both going out of his life at the same time, and he couldn't bear, +after what he had just seen in the office, the loneliness of being +left outside love.</p> +<p>All his life he had stood on the door-mat outside the shut door +of love. He had had no love; neither at home, where they talked so +much about it and there wasn't any, nor, because of his home and +its inhibitions got so thoroughly into his blood, anywhere else. He +had never tried to marry,—again because of his home and his +mother and the whole only-son-of-a-widow business. He would try +now. He would risk it. It was awful to risk it, but it was more +awful not to. He adored Anna-Rose. How nearly the afternoon before, +when she sat crying in his chair, had he taken her in his arms! +Why, he would have taken her into them then and there, while she +was in that state, while she was in the need of comfort, and never +let her go out of them again, if it hadn't been that he had got the +idea so firmly fixed in his head that she was a child. Fool that he +was. Elliott had dispelled that idea for him. It wasn't children +who looked as Anna-Felicitas had looked just now in the office. +Anna-Rose, it is true, seemed younger than Anna-Felicitas, but that +was because she was little and easily cried. He loved <a name= +"Page_426" id="Page_426"></a>her for being little. He loved her +because she easily cried. He yearned and hungered to comfort, to +pet to take care of. He was, as has been pointed out, a born +mother.</p> +<p>Avoiding the verandah and Mrs. Bilton, Mr. Twist filled with +recklessness, hurried upstairs and knocked at Anna-Rose's door. No +answer. He listened. Dead silence. He opened it a slit and peeped +in. Emptiness. Down he went again and made for the kitchen, because +Li Koo, who always knew everything, might know where she was. Li +Koo did. He jerked his head towards the window, and Mr. Twist +hurried to it and looked out. There in the middle of the yard was +the cat, exactly where he had left her an hour before, and kneeling +beside her stroking her stomach was Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>She had her back to the house and her face was hidden. The sun +streamed down on her bare head and on the pale gold rings of hair +that frisked round her neck. She didn't hear him till he was close +to her, so much absorbed was she apparently in the cat; and when +she did she didn't look up, but bent her head lower than before and +stroked more assiduously.</p> +<p>"Anna-Rose," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Yes."</p> +<p>"Come and talk to me."</p> +<p>"I'm thinking."</p> +<p>"Don't think. Come and talk to me, little—little dear +one."</p> +<p>She bent her head lower still. "I'm thinking," she said +again.</p> +<p>"Come and tell me what you're thinking."</p> +<p>"I'm thinking about cats."</p> +<p>"About cats?" said Mr. Twist, uncertainly.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_427" id="Page_427"></a>Yes," said Anna-Rose, +stroking the cat's stomach faster and carefully keeping her face +hidden from him. "About how wise and wonderful they are."</p> +<p>"Well then if that's all, you can go on with that presently and +come and talk to me now."</p> +<p>"You see," said Anna-Rose, not heeding this, "they're invariably +twins, and more than twins, for they're often fours and sometimes +sixes, but still they sit in the sun quietly all their lives and +don't mind a bit what their—what their twins do—"</p> +<p>"Ah," said Mr. Twist. "Now I'm getting there."</p> +<p>"They don't mind a bit about anything. They just clean their +whiskers and they purr. Perhaps it's that that comforts them. +Perhaps if I—if I had whiskers and a—and a +purr—"</p> +<p>The cat leaped suddenly to her feet and shook herself violently. +Something hot and wet had fallen on her beautiful stomach.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose made a little sound strangers might have taken for a +laugh as she put out her arms and caught her again, but it was a +sound so wretched, so piteous in the attempt to hide away from him, +that Mr. Twist's heart stood still. "Oh, don't go," she said, +catching at the cat and hugging her tight, "I can't let <i>you</i> +go—" And she buried her face in her fur, so that Mr. Twist +still couldn't see it.</p> +<p>"Now that's enough about the cat," he said, speaking very +firmly. "You're coming with me." And he stooped and picked her up, +cat and all, and set her on her feet.</p> +<p>Then he saw her face.</p> +<p>"Good God, Anna-Rose!" he exclaimed.</p> +<p>"I did try not to show you," she said; and she added, taking +shelter behind her pride and looking at him as <a name="Page_428" +id="Page_428"></a>defiantly as she could out of eyes almost closed +up, "but you mustn't suppose just because I happen to—to seem +as if I'd been crying that I—that I'm minding anything."</p> +<p>"Oh no," said Mr. Twist, who at sight of her face had +straightway forgotten about himself and his longings and his +proposals, and only knew that he must comfort Christopher. "Oh no," +he said, looking at her aghast, "I'm not supposing we're minding +anything, either of us."</p> +<p>He took her by the arm. Comfort Christopher; that's what he had +got to do. Get rid as quickly as possible of that look of +agony—yes, it was downright agony—on her face.</p> +<p>He thought he guessed what she was thinking and feeling; he +thought—he was pretty sure—she was thinking and feeling +that her beloved Columbus had gone from her, and gone to a +stranger, in a day, in a few hours, to a stranger she had never +even seen, never even heard of; that her Columbus had had secrets +from her, had been doing things behind her back; that she had had +perfect faith and trust in her twin, and now was tasting the +dreadful desolation of betrayal; and he also guessed that she must +be sick with fears,—for he knew how responsible she felt, how +seriously she took the charge of her beautiful twin—sick with +fear about this unknown man, sick with the feeling of helplessness, +of looking on while Columbus rushed into what might well be, for +all any one knew, a deadly mess-up of her happiness.</p> +<p>Well, he could reason her out of most of this, he felt. +Certainly he could reassure her about Elliott, who did inspire one +with confidence, who did seem, anyhow outwardly, a very fitting +mate for Anna-Felicitas. <a name="Page_429" id="Page_429"></a>But +he was aghast at the agony on her face. All that he guessed she was +thinking and feeling didn't justify it. It was unreasonable to +suffer so violently on account of what was, after all, a natural +happening. But however unreasonable it was, she was suffering.</p> +<p>He took her by the arm. "You come right along with me," he said; +and led her out of the yard, away from Li Koo and the kitchen +window, towards the eucalyptus grove behind the house. "You come +right along with me," he repeated, holding her firmly for she was +very wobbly on her feet, "and we'll tell each other all about the +things we're not minding. Do you remember when the <i>St. Luke</i> +left Liverpool? You thought I thought you were minding things then, +and were very angry with me. We've made friends since, haven't we, +and we aren't going to mind anything ever again except each +other."</p> +<p>But he hardly knew what he was saying, so great was his concern +and distress.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose went blindly. She stumbled along, helped by him, +clutching the cat. She couldn't see out of her swollen eyes. Her +foot caught in a root, and the cat, who had for some minutes past +been thoroughly uneasy, became panic-stricken and struggled out of +her arms, and fled into the wood. She tried to stop it, but it +would go. For some reason this broke down her self-control. The +warm cat clutched to her breast had at least been something living +to hold on to. Now the very cat had gone. Her pride collapsed, and +she tumbled against Mr. Twist's arm and just sobbed.</p> +<p>If ever a man felt like a mother it was Mr. Twist at that +moment. He promptly sat her down on the grass. "There +now—there, there now," he said, whipping out his handkerchief +and anxiously mopping up <a name="Page_430" id="Page_430"></a>her +face. "This is what I did on the <i>St. Luke</i>—do you +remember?—there now—that time you told me about your +mother—it looks like being my permanent job—there, +there now—don't now—you'll have no little eyes left +soon if you go on like this—"</p> +<p>"Oh but—oh but—Co-Columbus—"</p> +<p>"Yes, yes I know all about Columbus. Don't you worry about her. +She's all right. She's all right in the office at this moment, and +we're all right out here if only you knew it, if only you wouldn't +cry such quantities. It beats me where it all comes from, and you +so little—there, there now—"</p> +<p>"Oh but—oh but Columbus—"</p> +<p>"Yes, yes, I know—you're worrying yourself sick because +you think you're responsible for her to your aunt and uncle, but +you won't be, you know, once she's married—there, there +now—"</p> +<p>"Oh but—oh but—"</p> +<p>"Now don't—now please—yes, yes, I know—he's a +stranger, and you haven't seen him yet, but everybody was a +stranger once," said Mr. Twist, quoting Anna-Felicitas's own +argument, the one that had especially irritated him half-an-hour +before, "and he's real good—I'm sure of it. And you'll be +sure too the minute you see him. That's to say, if you're able to +see anything or anybody for the next week out of your unfortunate +stuck-together little eyes."</p> +<p>"Oh but—oh but—you don't—you +haven't—"</p> +<p>"Yes, yes, I have. Now turn your face so that I can wipe the +other side properly. There now, I caught an enormous tear. I got +him just in time before he trickled into your ear. Lord, how sore +your poor little eyes are. Don't it even cheer you to think you're +going to be a sister-in-law, Anna-Rose?"</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_431" id="Page_431"></a>Oh but you don't—you +haven't—" she sobbed, her face not a whit less agonized for +all his reassurances.</p> +<p>"Well, I know I wish I were going to be a brother-in-law," said +Mr. Twist, worried by his inability to reassure, as he tenderly and +carefully dabbed about the corners of her eyes and her soaked +eyelashes. "My, shouldn't I think well of myself."</p> +<p>Then his hand shook.</p> +<p>"I wish I were going to be Anna-Felicitas's brother-in-law," he +said, suddenly impelled, perhaps by this failure to get rid of the +misery in her face, to hurl himself on his fate. "Not +<i>yours</i>—get your mind quite clear about that,—but +Anna-Felicitas's." And his hand shook so much that he had to leave +off drying. For this was a proposal. If only Anna-Rose would see +it, this was a proposal.</p> +<p>Anna-Rose, however, saw nothing. Even in normal times she wasn't +good at relationships, and had never yet understood the +that-man's-father-was-my-father's-son one; now she simply didn't +hear. She was sitting with her hands limply in her lap, and sobbing +in a curious sort of anguish.</p> +<p>He couldn't help being struck by it. There was more in this than +he had grasped. Again he forgot himself and his proposal. Again he +was overwhelmed by the sole desire to help and comfort.</p> +<p>He put his hand on the two hands lying with such an air of being +forgotten on her lap. "What is it?" he asked gently. "Little dear +one, tell me. It's clear I'm not dead on to it yet."</p> +<p>"Oh—Columbus—"</p> +<p>She seemed to writhe in her misery.</p> +<p>"Well yes, yes Columbus. We know all about that."</p> +<p><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432"></a>Anna-Rose turned her +quivering face to him. "Oh, you haven't seen—you don't +see—it's only me that's seen—"</p> +<p>"Seen what? What haven't I seen? Ah, don't cry—don't cry +like that—"</p> +<p>"Oh, I've lost her—lost her—"</p> +<p>"Lost her? Because she's marrying?"</p> +<p>"Lost her—lost her—" sobbed Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Come now," remonstrated Mr. Twist. "Come now. That's just flat +contrary to the facts. You've lost nothing, and you've gained a +brother."</p> +<p>"Oh,—lost her—lost her," sobbed Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Come, come now," said Mr. Twist helplessly.</p> +<p>"Oh," she sobbed, looking at him out of her piteous eyes, "has +nobody thought of it but me? Columbus hasn't. I—I know she +hasn't from what—from what—she said. She's +too—too happy to think. But—haven't you +thought—haven't you seen—that she'll be English +now—really English—and go away from me to England with +him—and I—I can't go to England—because I'm +still—I'm still—an alien enemy—and so I've lost +her—lost her—lost my own twin—"</p> +<p>And Anna-Rose dropped her head on to her knees and sobbed in an +abandonment of agony.</p> +<p>Mr. Twist sat without saying or doing anything at all. He hadn't +thought of this; nor, he was sure, had Anna-Felicitas. And it was +true. Now he understood Anna-Rose's face and the despair of it. He +sat looking at her, overwhelmed by the realization of her +misfortune. For a moment he was blinded by it, and didn't see what +it would mean for him. Then he did see. He almost leaped, so sudden +was the vision, and so luminous.</p> +<p>"Anna-Rose," he said, his voice trembling, "I <a name="Page_433" +id="Page_433"></a>want to put my arm round you. That's because I +love you. And if you'll let me do that I could tell you of a way +there is out of this for you. But I can't tell you so well +unless—unless you let me put my arm round you first...."</p> +<p>He waited trembling. She only sobbed. He couldn't even be sure +she was listening. So he put his arm round her to try. At least she +didn't resist. So he drew her closer. She didn't resist that +either. He couldn't even be sure she knew about it. So he put his +other arm round her too, and though he couldn't be sure, he +thought—he hardly dared think, but it did seem as +if—she nestled.</p> +<p>Happiness, such as in his lonely, loveless life he had never +imagined, flooded Mr. Twist. He looked down at her face, which was +now so close to his, and saw that her eyes were shut. Great sobs +went on shaking her little body, and her tears, now that he wasn't +wiping them, were rolling down her cheeks unchecked.</p> +<p>He held her closer to him, close to his heart where she +belonged, and again he had that sensation, that wonderful +sensation, of nestling.</p> +<p>"Little Blessed, the way out is so simple," he whispered. +"Little Blessed, don't you see?"</p> +<p>But whether Anna-Rose saw seemed very doubtful. There was only +that feeling, as to which he was no doubt mistaken, of nestling to +go on. Her eyes, anyhow, remained shut, and her body continued to +heave with sobs.</p> +<p>He bent his head lower. His voice shook. "It's so, so simple," +he whispered. "All you've got to do is to marry me."</p> +<p>And as she made an odd little movement in his arms he held her +tighter and began to talk very fast.</p> +<p>"No, no," he said, "don't answer anything yet. <a name= +"Page_434" id="Page_434"></a>Just listen. Just let me tell you +first. I want to tell you to start with how terribly I love you. +But that doesn't mean you've got to love me—you needn't if +you don't want to—if you can't—if you'd rather not I'm +eighteen years older than you, and I know what I'm like to look +at—no, don't say anything yet—just listen quiet +first—but if you married me you'd be an American right away, +don't you see? Just as Anna-Felicitas is going to be English. And I +always intended going back to England as soon as may be, and if you +married me what is to prevent your coming too? Coming to England? +With Anna-Felicitas and her husband. Anna-Rose—little +Blessed—think of it—all of us together. There won't be +any aliens in that quartette, I guess, and the day you marry me +you'll be done with being German for good and all. And don't you +get supposing it matters about your not loving me, because, you +see, I love you so much, I adore you so terribly, that anyhow +there'll be more than enough love to go round, and you needn't ever +worry about contributing any if you don't feel like it—"</p> +<p>Mr. Twist broke off abruptly. "What say?" he said, for Anna-Rose +was making definite efforts to speak. She was also making definite +and unmistakable movements, and this time there could be no doubt +about it; she was coming closer.</p> +<p>"What say?" said Mr. Twist breathlessly, bending his head.</p> +<p>"But I do," whispered Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"Do what?" said Mr. Twist, again breathlessly.</p> +<p>She turned her face up to his. On it was the same look he had +lately seen on Anna-Felicitas's, shining through in spite of the +disfiguration of her tears.</p> +<p>"<a name="Page_435" id="Page_435"></a>But—<i>of course</i> +I do," whispered Anna-Rose, an extraordinary smile, an awe-struck +sort of smile, coming into her face at the greatness of her +happiness, at the wonder of it.</p> +<p>"What? Do what?" said Mr. Twist, still more breathlessly.</p> +<p>"I—always did," whispered Anna-Rose.</p> +<p>"<i>What</i> did you always did?" gasped Mr. Twist, hardly able +to believe it, and yet—and yet—there on her little +face, on her little transfigured face, shone the same look.</p> +<p>"Oh—<i>love</i> you," sighed Anna-Rose, nestling as close +as she could get.</p> +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> +<p>It was Mr. Twist himself who got on a ladder at five minutes +past four that afternoon and pasted a strip of white paper +obliquely across the sign of The Open Arms with the word.</p> +<h3>SHUT</h3> +<p>on it in big letters. Li Koo held the foot of the ladder. Mr. +Twist had only remembered the imminence of four o'clock and the +German inrush a few minutes before the hour, because of his being +so happy; and when he did he flew to charcoal and paper. He got the +strip on only just in time. A car drove up as he came down the +ladder.</p> +<p>"What?" exclaimed the principal male occupant of the car, +pointing, thwarted and astonished, to the sign.</p> +<p>"Shut," said Mr. Twist.</p> +<p>"Shut?"</p> +<p>"Shut."</p> + +<p> </p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14646 ***</div> +</body> +</html> |