e would be like a bull in a china shop, Teddy. Fancy Archie Holden,
after having all the Rocky Mountains for his workshop, coming back and
settling down into one of these bandboxy little towns! He is better off,
out there."

"Perhaps. But isn't it good to get back again?"

He looked at her in some perplexity.

"I thought you were having such a good time, Ted."

"I was, a beautiful one; but I am so glad to see blue, deep water again.
I was perfectly happy, while I was there; but now I feel as if I couldn't
wait to be in our own home again, Billy, and gossip with you after dinner
in the library. People are so in the way. It will be like a second
honeymoon, with nobody to interrupt us."

He laughed at her enthusiasm.

"Old married people like us! But you will mourn for Mac, Ted; you know
you will."

Forgetting the familiar landscape, she turned to face him with a laugh
which chased all the dreaminess from her eyes.

"Billy Farrington! But did you ever know such a mockery of fate?"

"As Mac?"

"Yes, as Hope's having such a child?"

"It is a little incongruous."

"It is preposterous. Hope was always the meek angel of the household, and
Archie is not especially obstreperous. But Mac--" Theodora's pause was
expressive.

Billy laughed.

"He combines the face of an angel and the wisdom of a serpent," he
remarked. "I don't know whether his morals or his vocabulary are more
startling. Hope has her hands full; but she will find a way to manage
him, even if she can't learn from her own childhood, as you could."

"Thank you, dear. Your compliments are always charming. Perhaps I
wasn't an angel-child; but you generally aided and abetted me in my
misdeeds. I do hope, though, that Mac will grow in grace before they
come East, next summer."

Her husband glanced up, started slightly, then leaned back in his chair
while a sudden look of amusement came into his blue eyes. The next
moment, Theodora sprang up with a glad exclamation.

"Hu!"

The train had stopped, and a young man had come into the car, given a
quick look at the passengers and then marched straight to Mrs.
Farrington's chair. Resting his hands on her shoulders, he bent down and
laid his cheek against hers, and Theodora, regardless of the people
about her, turned and cast herself into his arms. Tall and lithe and
singularly alike in face, it scarcely needed a second glance to show
that they were not only brother and sister, but twins as well. Moreover,