Phebe, Her Profession - A Sequel to Teddy: Her Book | Page 4

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complaint. At his best, Allyn was the brightest and most winning of his
family; at his worst, it was advisable to let him severely alone. In the
whole wide world, only two persons could manage him in his
refractory moods. One was his father; the other was his sister Theodora,
and Theodora had been in Helena, all winter long. However, she was
coming home that night, and Allyn's nose grew quite white at the tip, as
he pressed it against the windowpane, in a futile effort to see still
farther up the street.
Theodora, meanwhile, sat watching the familiar landscape sweeping
backward past the windows of the express train. She knew it all by
heart, the low hillocks crowned with clusters of shaggy oaks still thick
with unshed leaves, the strips of salt marsh with the haycocks like
gigantic beehives, the peeps of blue sea, sail-dotted or crossed by a thin
line of smoke, and the neat little towns so characteristic of southern
New England. Impulsively she turned to her husband.
"Oh, don't you pity Hope, Billy?"
"What for?"
"To live out there. I suppose Archie's business makes it a necessity; but
I do wish he would come back and settle down near us."
"He 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, in
spite of Hubert's successful business life and Theodora's devotion to her
husband, the twins were as necessary to each other as the blades of a
pair of scissors.
"How well you are looking! Have you missed me? Aren't you glad to
see us back? How are they all at home?" she demanded breathlessly.
Her brother laughed, as he shook hands with Billy.
"Steady, Ted! One at a time. You haven't lost your old trick of asking
questions. We are all well, and I left the mother alternately peering out
of the front window of our house and punching up the pillows on the
couch in your library."
"And papa?"
"Splendid, and covered with glory for his last operation on the Gaylord
child. It is the talk of the town."
Theodora's eyes flashed proudly.
"Isn't he wonderful? If he had never had a patient but Billy, he might
have been content. I wish you could be