Why should he let himself drop back from heights like
those to the old ridiculous timidities, the miserable habit of avoiding
the truth? Rebellion, hope, determination, seized Mr. Twist. His eyes
shone behind his spectacles. His ears were two red flags of revolution.
He gripped hold of the twins, one under each arm.

"You come right in," he said, louder than he had ever spoken in his
life. "Edith, see these girls? They're the two Annas. Their other name
is Twinkler, but Anna'll see you through. They want supper, and they
want beds, and they want affection, and they're going to get it all. So
hustle with the food, and send the Cadillac for their baggage, and fix
up things for them as comfortably as you know how. And as for Mrs.
Sack," he said, looking first at one twin and then at the other, "if it
hadn't been for her running away from her worthless husband--I'm
convinced that fellow Sack is worthless--you might never have come here
at all. So you see," he finished, laughing at Anna-Rose, "how good comes
out of evil."

And with the sound of these words preceding him he pushed open the
dining-room door and marched them in.

CHAPTER XVI

At the head of the table sat his mother; long, straight, and grave. She
was in the seat of authority, the one with its back to the windows and
its face to the door, from whence she could see what everybody did,
especially Amanda. Having seen what Amanda did, she then complained to
Edith. She didn't complain direct to Amanda, because Amanda could and
did give notice.

Her eyes were fixed on the door. Between it and her was the table,
covered with admirable things to eat, it being supper and therefore,
according to a Twist tradition surviving from penurious days, all the
food, hot and cold, sweet and salt, being brought in together, and
Amanda only attending when rung for. Half-eaten oyster patties lay on
Mrs. Twist's plate. In her glass neglected champagne had bubbled itself
flat. Her hand still held her fork, but loosely, as an object that had
lost its interest, and her eyes and ears for the last five minutes had
not departed from the door.

At first she had felt mere resigned annoyance that Amanda shouldn't have
answered the bell, but she didn't wish to cast a shadow over Edward's
homecoming by drawing poor Edith's attention before him to how very
badly she trained the helps, and therefore she said nothing at the
moment; then, when Edith, going in search of Amanda, had ope