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022 - A Dot and a Dimple · Miss Billy Married

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two of Miss Billy Married. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Phil Schinever, Miss Billy Married by Eleanor H. Porter,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two, A dot and a dimple. On the
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  Speaker 1: day Cyril Henshaw's twins were six months old, a momentous
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  Speaker 1: occurrence marked the date with a flaming read letter of remembrance,
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  Speaker 1: And it all began with a baby's smile. Cyril in
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  Speaker 1: quest of his wife at about ten o'clock that morning,
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  Speaker 1: and not finding her, pursued his search, even to the nursery,
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  Speaker 1: a room he very seldom entered. Cyril did not like
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  Speaker 1: to go into the nursery. He felt ill at ease,
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  Speaker 1: as if he were away from home, and Cyril was
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  Speaker 1: known to abhor being away from home since he was married.
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  Speaker 1: Now that Marie had taken over the reins of government again,
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  Speaker 1: he had been obliged to see very little of those
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  Speaker 1: straining women and babies. Not but that he liked the babies.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, they were his sons, and he was proud
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  Speaker 1: of them. They should have every advantage that college, special training,
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  Speaker 1: and travel could give them. He quite anticipated what they
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  Speaker 1: would be to him when they really knew anything. But
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  Speaker 1: of course, now when they could do nothing but cry
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  Speaker 1: and wave their absurd little fists and wobble their heads
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  Speaker 1: in so fearsome a manner as if they simply did
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  Speaker 1: not know the meaning of the word backbone, and for
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  Speaker 1: that matter, of course they didn't, why he could not
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  Speaker 1: be expected to be anything but relieved when he had
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  Speaker 1: his den to himself again, with a reasonable chance of
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  Speaker 1: finding his manuscript as he had left it, and not
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  Speaker 1: cut up into a ridiculous string of paper dolls holding hands,
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  Speaker 1: as he at once found it after a visit from
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  Speaker 1: a woman with a small girl. Since Marie had been
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  Speaker 1: at the helm, however, he had not been troubled in
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  Speaker 1: such a way. He had indeed known almost as old customer,
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  Speaker 1: peace and freedom from interruption, with only an occasional flitting
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  Speaker 1: across his path of the strange women and babies, though
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  Speaker 1: he had realized, of course, that they were in the house,
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  Speaker 1: especially in the nursery. For that reason therefore he always
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  Speaker 1: avoided the nursery when possible. But today he wanted his wife,
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  Speaker 1: and his wife was not to be found anywhere else
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  Speaker 1: in the house. So reluctantly he turned his steps toward
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  Speaker 1: the nursery, and, with a frown, knocked and pushed open
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  Speaker 1: the door, is missus heinshaw here, he demanded, not over gently.
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  Speaker 1: Absolute silence greeted his question. The man saw then that
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  Speaker 1: there was no one in the room save a baby
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  Speaker 1: sitting on a mat in the middle of the floor,
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  Speaker 1: barricaded on all sides with pillows. With a deeper frown,
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  Speaker 1: the man turned to go, when a gleeful ah goo
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  Speaker 1: halted his steps midway. He wheeled sharply. Uh ah, he queried, uncertainly,
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  Speaker 1: eyeing his small son on the floor. Haku observed the infant,
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  Speaker 1: who had been very lonesome, with greater emphasis, and this
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  Speaker 1: time he sent into his father's eyes the most bewitching
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  Speaker 1: of smiles. Well by George, murmured the man weakly, a
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  Speaker 1: dawning amazement, driving the frown from his face. Smile whah,
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  Speaker 1: gurgled the boy, holding out two tiny fists. A slow
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  Speaker 1: smile came to the man's face. Well, I'll be darned,
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  Speaker 1: he muttered, half shamedfacedly, holly delightedly. If the rascal doesn't
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  Speaker 1: act as if he knew me. A goose plush grinned
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  Speaker 1: the infant toothlessly but entrancingly. With a stealthy touch, Cyril
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  Speaker 1: closed the door back of him and advanced a little
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  Speaker 1: dubiously toward his son. His countenance carried a mixture of guilt, curiosity,
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  Speaker 1: and dogged determination, so ludicrous that it was a pity.
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  Speaker 1: None but the baby's eyes could see it. As if
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  Speaker 1: to meet more nearly on a level this baffling new acquaintance,
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  Speaker 1: Cyril got to his knees somewhat stiffly, it must be confessed,
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  Speaker 1: and faced his son. Goo youah, crowed the baby, now
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  Speaker 1: thrashing legs and arms about in a transport of joy
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  Speaker 1: at the acquisition of this new playmate. Well, well, young man,
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  Speaker 1: you you don't say so, stammered the growingly proud father,
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  Speaker 1: thrusting a plainly timid and unaccustomed finger toward his offspring.
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  Speaker 1: So you do know me? Eh? Oh, who am I
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  Speaker 1: die die, gurgled the boy, triumphantly, clutching the outstretched finger
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  Speaker 1: and holding on with a tenacity that brought a gleeful
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  Speaker 1: chuckle to the lips of the man. Jove, But aren't
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  Speaker 1: you the strong little beggar. Though needn't tell me. You
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  Speaker 1: don't know a good thing when you see it. So
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  Speaker 1: I'm die, die, am I, He went on, unhesitatingly, accepting
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  Speaker 1: as the pure gold of knowledge the shameless imitation vocabulary
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  Speaker 1: his son was feisting upon him. Well, I expect I am,
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  Speaker 1: and oh, Cyril. The door was opened and Marie was
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  Speaker 1: in the room. If she gave a start of surprise
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  Speaker 1: at her husband's unaccustomed attitude, she quickly controlled herself. Julia said,
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  Speaker 1: you wanted me. I must have been going down the
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  Speaker 1: back stairs when you came up the front. And please,
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  Speaker 1: Missus Henshaw, is it Dot you have here? Or Dimple?
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  Speaker 1: Asked a new voice, as the second nurse entered by
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  Speaker 1: another door. Before Missus Henshaw could answer, Cyril, who had
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  Speaker 1: got to his feet, turned abruptly. Is it who? He demanded? Oh? Oh,
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  Speaker 1: mister Henshaw, stammered the girl. I beg your pardon. I
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  Speaker 1: didn't know you were here. It was only that I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to know which baby it was. We thought we
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  Speaker 1: had Dot with us until Dot Dimple exploded the man.
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  Speaker 1: Do you mean to say you have given my sons
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  Speaker 1: their ridiculous names of Dot and Dimple? Why? No, yes, well,
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  Speaker 1: that is, we had to call them something, faltered the nurse,
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  Speaker 1: as with a despairing glance at her mistress, she plunged
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  Speaker 1: through the doorway. Cyril turned to his wife, Marie. What
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  Speaker 1: is the meaning of this, he demanded. Why Cyril, dear,
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  Speaker 1: don't get so wrought up? She begged, It's only as
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  Speaker 1: Mary said, we had to call them something and wrought up? Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: interrupted Cyril savagely. Who wouldn't be dot and dimple, great Scott,
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  Speaker 1: one would think those bars were a couple of kittens
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  Speaker 1: or puppies, that they didn't know anything, didn't have any brains.
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  Speaker 1: But they have if the other is anything like this
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  Speaker 1: one at least, he declared, pointing to his son on
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  Speaker 1: the floor. Whould this opportune moment joined in the conversation
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  Speaker 1: to the extent of an appropriate ah? Goodaa there here
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  Speaker 1: that will you? Triumphed the father? What did I tell you?
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  Speaker 1: That's the way he's been going on ever since I
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  Speaker 1: came into the room. The little rascal knows me so soon.
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  Speaker 1: Marie clapped her fingers to her lips and turned her
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  Speaker 1: back suddenly with a spismodic little cough. But her husband,
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  Speaker 1: if he noticed the interruption paid no heed, dot and dimple. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: he went on wrathfully. That settles it. We'll name those
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  Speaker 1: boys today, Marie, to day, not once again? Will I
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  Speaker 1: let the son go down on a dot and a dimple?
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  Speaker 1: Under my roof, Marie turned with a quick little cry
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  Speaker 1: of happiness. Oh, Cyril, I'm so glad. I've so wanted
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  Speaker 1: to have them named, you know. And shall we call
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  Speaker 1: them Franz and Felix as we talked, Franz Felix, John James, Paul,
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  Speaker 1: Charles anything, so it's sane and sensible. I'd even adopt
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  Speaker 1: Calderwell's absurd Bill DoD and uh Tom Dowd or whatever
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  Speaker 1: it was, rather than have those poor little chaps insulted
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  Speaker 1: a day longer with a dot and a dimple. Great
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  Speaker 1: Scott and entirely forgetting what he had come to the
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  Speaker 1: nursery for Cyril strode from the room, Ah goosesh committed
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  Speaker 1: baby from the middle of the floor. It was a
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  Speaker 1: very windy March day that Bertram Henshaw's son Bertram Junior,
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  Speaker 1: arrived at the Strata. Billy went so far into the
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  Speaker 1: Valley of the Shadow of the Death for her baby
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  Speaker 1: that it was some days before she realized in all
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  Speaker 1: its importance the presence of the new member of her family.
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  Speaker 1: Even when the days had become weeks and Bertram Junior
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  Speaker 1: was a month and a half old, the extreme lassitude
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  Speaker 1: and weariness of his young mother was the source of
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  Speaker 1: ever growing anxiety. To her family and friends. Billy was
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  Speaker 1: so unlike herself, they all said, if something could only
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  Speaker 1: rouse her, suggested the Hinshaw's old family physician, one day,
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  Speaker 1: a certain sort of mental shock, if not too severe,
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  Speaker 1: would do the deed, I think, and with no injury,
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  Speaker 1: only benefit. Her physical condition is in just the state
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  Speaker 1: that needs a stimulus to stir it into new life
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  Speaker 1: and vigor. As it happened, this was said on a
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  Speaker 1: certain Monday. Two days later, Bertram's sister Kate, on her
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  Speaker 1: way with her husband to mister Hartwell's old home in Vermont,
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  Speaker 1: stopped over in Boston for a two days visit. She
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  Speaker 1: made her headquarters at Cyril's home, but very naturally she
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  Speaker 1: went without much delay to pay her respects to Bertram Junior.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Hartwell's brother isn't well, she explained to Billy after
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  Speaker 1: the greetings were over. You know, he's the only one
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  Speaker 1: left there since mother and father Hartwell came west. We
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  Speaker 1: shall go right on up to Vermont in a couple
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  Speaker 1: of days, But we just had to stay over long
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  Speaker 1: enough to see the baby. And we hadn't ever seen
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  Speaker 1: the twins either. You know, by the way, how perfectly
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  Speaker 1: ridiculous Cyril is over those boys, is, he smiled Billy faintly. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: one would think there were never any babies born before
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  Speaker 1: to hear him talk. He thinks they're the most wonderful
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  Speaker 1: things in the world. They are cunning little fellows, I'll admit.
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  Speaker 1: But Cyril thinks they know so much, went on Kate laughingly.
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  Speaker 1: He's always bragging of something one or the other of
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  Speaker 1: them has done. Think of it. Cyril Marie says it
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  Speaker 1: all started from the time last January when he discovered
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  Speaker 1: the nurses had been calling them dot and dimple. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I know, smiled Billy again, faintly, lifting a thin, white,
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  Speaker 1: very unbilly like hand to her head. Kate frowned and
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  Speaker 1: regarded her sister in law thoughtfully. Mercy, how you look, Billy,
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  Speaker 1: she exclaimed, with cheerful tactlessness. They said, you did, But
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  Speaker 1: I declare you look worse than I thought. Billy's pale
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  Speaker 1: face reddened perceptibly. Nonsense, it's just that I'm so so tired,
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  Speaker 1: she insisted, I shall be all right soon. How did
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  Speaker 1: you leave the children well and happy? Especially little Kate?
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  Speaker 1: Because mother was going away. Kate is mistress, you know
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  Speaker 1: when I'm gone, and she takes herself very seriously mistress,
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  Speaker 1: A little thing like her. Why she can't be more
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  Speaker 1: than ten or eleven, murmured Billy. She isn't. She was
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  Speaker 1: ten last month, but you'd think she was forty. The
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  Speaker 1: airs she gives herself sometimes. Oh, of course, there's Nora
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  Speaker 1: and the cook and Miss Wynton, the governess, there to
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  Speaker 1: really manage things. And mother Heartwell is just around the corner.
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  Speaker 1: But little Kate thinks she's managing, so she's happy. Billy
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  Speaker 1: suppressed a smile. Billy was thinking that little Kate came
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  Speaker 1: naturally by at least one of her traits. Really, that
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  Speaker 1: child is impossible, sometimes, resumed missus Hartwell with a sigh.
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  Speaker 1: You know the absurd thing she was always saying two
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  Speaker 1: or three years ago when we came on to Cyril's wedding. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: I remember, well. I thought she would get over it,
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  Speaker 1: but she doesn't. She's worse, if anything, and sometimes her
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  Speaker 1: inside or intuition or whatever you may call it, is
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  Speaker 1: positively uncandy. I never know what she's going to remark
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  Speaker 1: next when I take her anywhere, but it's safe to say,
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  Speaker 1: whatever it is, it'll be unexpected and usually embarrassing to somebody.
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  Speaker 1: And is that the baby broke off, missus hartwell? As
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  Speaker 1: a cooing laugh and a woman's voice came from the
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  Speaker 1: next room. Yes, the nurse has just brought him in,
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  Speaker 1: I think, said Billy. Then I'll go right now and
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  Speaker 1: see him, rejoined Kate, rising to her feet and hurrying
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  Speaker 1: into the next room. Left alone, Billy lay back wearily
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  Speaker 1: in her reclining chair. She wondered why Kate always tired
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  Speaker 1: her so. She wished she had had on her blue kimono.
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  Speaker 1: Then perhaps Kate would not have thought she looked so badly.
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  Speaker 1: Blue was always more becoming to her than Billy turned
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  Speaker 1: her head. Suddenly, from the next room had come Kty
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  Speaker 1: eight's clear cut, decisive voice. Oh no, I don't think
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  Speaker 1: he looks a bit like his father. That little stubby
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  Speaker 1: nose was never the Hinshaw nose. Billy drew in her
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  Speaker 1: breath sharply and pulled herself half erect in her chair.
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  Speaker 1: From the next room, came Kate's voice again, after a
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  Speaker 1: low murmur from the nurse. Ohbody, isn't I tell you
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  Speaker 1: he isn't one bit Ahinshaw baby. The Injaw babies are
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  Speaker 1: always pretty ones. They have more hair, and they look
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  Speaker 1: well different. Billy gave a low cry and struggled to
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  Speaker 1: her feet. Oh no, spoke up Kate, in answer to
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  Speaker 1: another indistinct something from the nurse. I don't think he's
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  Speaker 1: near as pretty as the twins. Of course, the twins
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  Speaker 1: are a good deal older, but they have such a
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  Speaker 1: bright look, and they did have from the very first.
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  Speaker 1: I saw it in their tiniest baby pictures. But this baby,
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  Speaker 1: this baby is mine. Please cut in a tremulous but
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  Speaker 1: resolute voice, and Missus hart Well turned to confront Bertram
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  Speaker 1: Junior's mother, manifestly weak and trembling, but no less manifestly
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  Speaker 1: blazing eyed and determined. Why Billy expostulated Missus Hartwell as
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  Speaker 1: Billy stumbled forward and snatched the child into her arms.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps he doesn't look like the Henshaw twins. Perhaps he
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  Speaker 1: isn't as pretty as the twins. Perhaps he hasn't much
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  Speaker 1: hair and does have a snub nose. He's my baby
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  Speaker 1: just the same, and I shall not stay calmly by
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  Speaker 1: and see him abused. Besides, I think he's prettier than
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  Speaker 1: the twins ever thought of being, and he's got all
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  Speaker 1: the hair I want him to have, and his nose
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  Speaker 1: is just exactly what a baby's nose ought to be.
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  Speaker 1: With a superb gesture, Billy turned and bore the baby
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  Speaker 1: away into chapter twenty two.