CHAPTER XXVIII
Annoyed at being interrupted in the midst of his lullaby, to three,Alfred looked up to see Maggie, hatless and out of breath, bursting intothe room, and destroying what was to him an ideally tranquil home scene.But Maggie paid no heed to Alfred's look of inquiry. She made directlyfor the side of Zoie's bed.
"If you plaze, mum," she panted, looking down at Zoie, and wringing herhands.
"What is it?" asked Aggie, who had now reached the side of the bed.
"'Scuse me for comin' right in"--Maggie was breathing hard--"but memother sint me to tell you that me father is jus afther comin' home fromwork, and he's fightin' mad about the babies, mum."
"Sh! Sh!" cautioned Aggie and Zoie, as they glanced nervously towardAlfred who was rising from his place beside the cradle with increasinginterest in Maggie's conversation.
"Babies?" he repeated, "your father is mad about babies?"
"It's all right, dear," interrupted Zoie nervously; "you see," shewent on to explain, pointing toward the trembling Maggie, "this is ourwasherwoman's little girl. Our washerwoman has had twins, too, and itmade the wash late, and her husband is angry about it."
"Oh," said Alfred, with a comprehensive nod, but Maggie was not to be soeasily disposed of.
"If you please, mum," she objected, "it ain't about the wash. It's aboutour baby girls."
"Girls?" exclaimed Zoie involuntarily.
"Girls?" repeated Alfred, drawing himself up in the fond conviction thatall his heirs were boys, "No wonder your pa's angry. I'd be angry too.Come now," he said to Maggie, patting the child on the shoulder andregarding her indulgently, "you go straight home and tell your fatherthat what HE needs is BOYS."
"Well, of course, sir," answered the bewildered Maggie, thinking thatAlfred meant to reflect upon the gender of the offspring donated by herparents, "if you ain't afther likin' girls, me mother sint the moneyback," and with that she began to feel for the pocket in her red flannelpetticoat.
"The money?" repeated Alfred, in a puzzled way, "what money?"
It was again Zoie's time to think quickly.
"The money for the wash, dear," she explained.
"Nonsense!" retorted Alfred, positively beaming generosity, "who talksof money at such a time as this?" And taking a ten dollar bill from hispocket, he thrust it in Maggie's outstretched hand, while she was tryingto return to him the original purchase money. "Here," he said to theastonished girl, "you take this to your father. Tell him I sent it tohim for his babies. Tell him to start a bank account with it."
This was clearly not a case with which one small addled mind could deal,or at least, so Maggie decided. She had a hazy idea that Alfred wasadding something to the original purchase price of her young sisters,but she was quite at a loss to know how to refuse the offer of sucha "grand 'hoigh" gentleman, even though her failure to do so would nodoubt result in a beating when she reached home. She stared at Alfredundecided what to do, the money still lay in her outstretched hand.
"I'm afraid Pa'll niver loike it, sir," she said.
"Like it?" exclaimed Alfred in high feather, and he himself closed herred little fingers over the bill, "he's GOT to like it. He'll GROW tolike it. Now you run along," he concluded to Maggie, as he urged hertoward the door, "and tell him what I say."
"Yes, sir," murmured Maggie, far from sharing Alfred's enthusiasm.
Feeling no desire to renew his acquaintance with Maggie, particularlyunder Alfred's watchful eye, Jimmy had sought his old refuge, the highbacked chair. As affairs progressed and there seemed no doubt of Zoie'sbeing able to handle the situation to the satisfaction of all concerned,Jimmy allowed exhaustion and the warmth of the firelight to have theirway with him. His mind wandered toward other things and finally intospace. His head dropped lower and lower on his chest; his breathingbecame laboured--so laboured in fact that it attracted the attention ofMaggie, who was about to pass him on her way to the door.
"Sure an it's Mr. Jinks!" exclaimed Maggie. Then coming close to theside of the unsuspecting sleeper, she hissed a startling message in hisear. "Me mother said to tell you that me fadder's hoppin' mad at you,sir."
Jimmy sat up and rubbed his eyes. He studied the young person at hiselbow, then he glanced at Alfred, utterly befuddled as to what hadhappened while he had been on a journey to happier scenes. ApparentlyMaggie was waiting for an answer to something, but to what? Jimmythought he detected an ominous look in Alfred's eyes. Letting his handfall over the arm of the chair so that Alfred could not see it, Jimmybegan to make frantic signals to Maggie to depart; she stared at him theharder.
"Go away," whispered Jimmy, but Maggie did not move. "Shoo, shoo!" hesaid, and waved her off with his hand.
Puzzled by Jimmy's sudden aversion to this apparently harmless child,Alfred turned to Maggie with a puckered brow.
"Your father's mad at Jimmy?" he repeated. "What about?"
For once Jimmy found it in his heart to be grateful to Zoie for theprompt answer that came from her direction.
"The wash, dear," said Zoie to Alfred; "Jimmy had to go after the wash,"and then with a look which Maggie could not mistake for an invitation tostop longer, Zoie called to her haughtily, "You needn't wait, Maggie; weunderstand."
"Sure, an' it's more 'an I do," answered Maggie, and shaking her headsadly, she slipped from the room.
But Alfred could not immediately dismiss from his mind the picture ofMaggie's inhuman parent.
"Just fancy," he said, turning his head to one side meditatively, "fancyany man not liking to be the father of twins," and with that he againbent over the cradle and surveyed its contents. "Think, Jimmy," he said,when he had managed to get the three youngsters in his arms, "just thinkof the way THAT father feels, and then think of the way _I_ feel."
"And then think of the way _I_ feel," grumbled Jimmy.
"You!" exclaimed Alfred; "what have you to feel about?"
Before Jimmy could answer, the air was rent by a piercing scream and acrash of glass from the direction of the inner rooms.
"What's that?" whispered Aggie, with an anxious glance toward Zoie.
"Sounded like breaking glass," said Alfred.
"Burglars!" exclaimed Zoie, for want of anything better to suggest.
"Burglars?" repeated Alfred with a superior air; "nonsense! Nonsense!Here," he said, turning to Jimmy, "you hold the boys and I'll gosee----" and before Jimmy was aware of the honour about to be thrustupon him, he felt three red, spineless morsels, wriggling about in hisarms. He made what lap he could for the armful, and sat up in a stiff,strained attitude on the edge of the couch. In the meantime, Alfred hadstrode into the adjoining room with the air of a conqueror. Aggie lookedat Zoie, with dreadful foreboding.
"You don't suppose it could be?" she paused.
"My baby!" shrieked the voice of the Italian mother from the adjoiningroom. "Where IS he?"
Regardless of the discomfort of his three disgruntled charges, Jimmybegan to circle the room. So agitated was his mind that he couldscarcely hear Aggie, who was reporting proceedings from her place at thebedroom door.
"She's come up the fire-escape," cried Aggie; "she's beating Alfred todeath."
"What?" shrieked Zoie, making a flying leap from her coverlets.
"She's locking him in the bathroom," declared Aggie, and with that shedisappeared from the room, bent on rescue.
"My Alfred!" cried Zoie, tragically, and she started in pursuit ofAggie.
"Wait a minute," called Jimmy, who had not yet been able to finda satisfactory place in which to deposit his armful of clothes andhumanity. "What shall I do with these things?"
"Eat 'em," was Zoie's helpful retort, as the trailing end of hernegligee disappeared from the room.
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