them, of
course, as I suppressed these concerning Mrs. Carville's trip to New
York and the secular gaiety that now sat like a diadem on Mrs.
Carville's forehead; but I have them all the same.

I was roused by Mrs. Carville's rising and saying that the children must
go to bed.

"Let them come in again soon," said Mac. "We would like to say 'any
time,' you know, but we're like parsons and doctors, we work at home and
we can't have holidays every day."

"I am glad they have been no trouble," she replied, regarding them with
a preoccupied approval.

"Trouble!" My friend was indignant. "We haven't enjoyed ourselves so
much in years, I assure you, Mrs. Carville. You've had a good time, you
chaps, eh?" he asked them and they nodded with reminiscent delight
shining in their eyes. "Bully!" said Beppo, and Ben, more taciturn,
added an expressive glance at his brother that signified profound
assent. I found their scarlet woolen caps while my friend expatiated
upon the delightful privilege of having two such fine little chaps.
Mrs. Carville at first sought, by a quick glance at her hostess, some
sympathy for her own soberer feelings in the matter. But Bill, though
not caring for children to madness, had fallen in love with these two,
and gave to them much of the credit for their pretty ways and well-bred
habits that by right belonged to their mother. And so Mrs. Carville,
seeing only corroborative enthusiasm in Bill's expression, turned to me.

"To us they are angels," I explained, laughing, "and you must permit us
to love them in our own way. It is so easy to love without
responsibility, you know."

She pondered this an instant, looking at me sombrely the while and then
illumination came, and she flashed a glance of vivid answering
intelligence and nodded.

"Yes," she said, turning to the door, and lifting the latch. "Yes," she
repeated, opening the door and looking out into the night. "It is very
easy."

And the next moment they were gone and we were alone once more.

"Gee!" said my friend, yawning. "If I'm not all in!"

"You've both got to go straight to bed," said his wife briskly. "You
won't be worthy thirty cents in the morning, and you'll just loaf round
and ..."

The telephone bell whirred and Mac closed his mouth abruptly on his
third consecutive yawn and sprang to the instrument. We sat and watched.
There was some little trouble on the line at first, common in party
lines where outside bells sometimes ring