ertain windows on the second floor of the house wide open, and the
curtains drawn back. They halted in something more than astonishment,
and looked at each other solemnly.

"That's Aunt Dora's room!" gasped Dora.

"She's here!" returned Dorothy, in the same awe-struck voice.

"Oh, dear!" sighed her twin.

"_Now_ we're in for it," rejoined Dorothy.

Then both together they exclaimed: "Poor papa!"

It was a solemn moment for the whole household, and the twins felt it.

CHAPTER V

AUNT DORA

"I feel just like running away," said Dora, "and staying until Auntie
goes."

"Don't do it," begged Dorothy, "for I shall have to go, too."

"Poor papa!" they both exclaimed again.

"No. We shall have to stay and brace papa up," admitted Dora.

"We've just _got_ to," groaned her twin.

"And if she begins to nag him again about giving one of us up----"

"We won't leave him," declared Dorothy, very firmly.

"_I_ wouldn't live at her house for a fortune!" repeated Dorothy.

"Come on! let's see how the land lies," suggested Dora. "Perhaps the
worst of it's over."

"No such luck," groaned Dorothy. "There's Betsey."

They ran up the winding path to the kitchen porch. The gentle,
pink-faced old lady who met them at the door, had a worried brow.

"Hush, girls! you're aunt is here," she whispered.

"We know it. We saw the windows of the best room wide open. Is she
making Mary clean the room all over again?"

"Yes," sighed Mrs. Betsey. "Your aunt declared it smelled musty from
being shut up. She has _such_ a nose," and the little old lady shook her
head.

"Interfering old thing!" snapped Dora.

"Hush! you must not speak so," admonished Mrs. Betsey.

"Well, she _is_," declared Dorothy, of course agreeing with her twin.

"Where is she?" queried Dora.

"With your father in the hot-house."

"Come on, then," said Dora to her sister. "Let's get it over right
away."

They heard voices in the conservatory, for the sashes were open on this
warm day. There was the stern, uncompromising tone of Aunt Dora, and the
gentle, worried voice of Mr. Lockwood. The twins never liked to hear
their father's voice when he was worried, and they saw to it--with Mrs.
Betsey--that it did not occur frequently. But there was no help for it
when Aunt Dora was about!

First of all, the twins heard their aunt say:

"You're no more fit to bring up girls, Lemuel, than I am to steer one of
these dratted airships the papers are full o