n to play, and that she never heard such queer,
creepy, shivery music in her life; but that he hadn't been playing five
minutes before one of the nurses came into the living-room where Julia
was dusting, and told her to tell whoever was playing to stop that
dreadful noise, as they wanted to take the twins in there for their nap.

"'But I didn't do it, ma'am,' Julia says. 'I wa'n't lookin' for losin'
my place, an' I let the young woman do the job herself. An' she done
it, pert as you please. An' jest as I was seekin' a hidin'-place for the
explosion, if Mr. Henshaw didn't come out lookin' a little wild, but as
meek as a lamb; an' when he sees me he asked wouldn't I please get him a
cup of coffee, good an' strong. An' I got it.'

"So you see," finished Billy, "Cyril is learning things--lots of
things."

"Oh, my grief and conscience! I should say he was," half-shivered Aunt
Hannah. "_Cyril_ looking meek as a lamb, indeed!"

Billy laughed merrily.

"Well, it must be a new experience--for Cyril. For a man whose daily
existence for years has been rubber-heeled and woolen-padded, and whose
family from boyhood has stood at attention and saluted if he so much as
looked at them, it must be quite a change, as things are now. However,
it'll be different, of course, when Marie is on her feet again."

"Does she know at all how things are going?"

"Not very much, as yet, though I believe she has begun to worry some.
She confided to me one day that she was glad, of course, that she had
two darling babies, instead of one; but that she was afraid it might be
hard, just at first, to teach them both at once to be quiet; for she was
afraid that while she was teaching one, the other would be sure to cry,
or do something noisy."

"Do something noisy, indeed!" ejaculated Aunt Hannah.

"As for the real state of affairs, Marie doesn't dream that Cyril's
sacred den is given over to Teddy bears and baby blankets. All is, I
hope she'll be measurably strong before she does find it out," laughed
Billy, as she rose to go.

CHAPTER XX. ARKWRIGHT'S EYES ARE OPENED

William came back from his business trip the eighth of July, and on the
ninth Billy and Bertram went to New York. Eliza's mother was so well
now that Eliza had taken up her old quarters in the Strata, and the
household affairs were once more running like clockwork. Later in the
season William would go away for a month's fishing trip, and the house
would be closed.

Mr.