e stared at him the
harder.

"Go away," whispered Jimmy, but Maggie did not move. "Shoo, shoo!" he
said, 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 the
prompt 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 to
stop longer, Zoie called to her haughtily, "You needn't wait, Maggie; we
understand."

"Sure, an' it's more 'an I do," answered Maggie, and shaking her head
sadly, she slipped from the room.

But Alfred could not immediately dismiss from his mind the picture of
Maggie's inhuman parent.

"Just fancy," he said, turning his head to one side meditatively, "fancy
any man not liking to be the father of twins," and with that he again
bent over the cradle and surveyed its contents. "Think, Jimmy," he said,
when he had managed to get the three youngsters in his arms, "just think
of 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 a
crash 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 go
see----" and before Jimmy was aware of the honour about to be thrust
upon him, he felt three red, spineless morsels, wriggling about in his
arms. 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 had
strode into the adjoining room with the air of a conqueror. Aggie looked
at Zoie, with dreadful foreboding.

"You don't suppose it could be?" she paused.

"My baby!" shrieked the voice of the Italian mother from the adjoining
room. "Where IS he?"

Regardless of the discomfort of his three disgruntled charges, Jimmy
began to circle the room. So agitated was his mind that he could
s