Letty had a good deal of red in her bronze hair and her brown eyes were as capable of flashing fire as Eva’s black ones; so the girl not only refrained from venting her spleen upon the absent David, but ceased to talk altogether, and the gloom in the house was as black as if Mrs. Popham and all her despondent ancestors were living under its roof.

The good doctor called often and did his best, shrugging his shoulders and lifting his eyebrows as he said:  “Let her work out her own salvation.  I doubt if she can, but we’ll give her the chance.  If the problem can be solved, the child will do it.”

[Illustration]

IV

Well, the problem never was solved, never in this world, at least; and those who were in the sitting-room chamber when Eva was shown her two babies lying side by side on a pillow, never forgot the quick glance of horrified incredulity, or the shriek of aversion with which she greeted them.

Letty had a sense of humor, and it must be confessed that when the scorned and discarded babies were returned to her, and she sat by the kitchen stove trying to plan a second bottle, a second cradle, and see how far the expected baby could divide its modest outfit with the unexpected one, she burst into a fit of hysterical laughter mingled with an outpour of tears.

The doctor came in from the sick-room puzzled and crestfallen from his interview with an entirely new specimen of woman-kind.  He had brought Letty and David into the world and soothed the last days of all her family, and now in this tragedy—­for tragedy it was—­he was her only confidant and adviser.

Letty looked at him, the tears streaming from her eyes.

“Oh, Doctor Lee, Doctor Lee!  If an overruling Providence could smile, wouldn’t He smile now?  David and Eva never wanted to marry each other, I’m sure of it, and the last thing they desired was a child.  Now there are two of them.  Their father is away, their mother won’t look at them!  What will become of me until Eva gets well and behaves like a human being?  I never promised to be an aunt to twins; I never did like twins; I think they’re downright vulgar!”

    “Waly waly! bairns are bonny: 
    One’s enough and twa’s ower mony,”

quoted the doctor.  “It’s worse even than you think, my poor Letty, for the girl can’t get well, because she won’t!  She has gritted her teeth, turned her face to the wall, and refused her food.  It’s the beginning of the end.  You are far likelier to be a foster mother than an aunt!”

Letty’s face changed and softened and her color rose.  She leaned over the two pink, crumpled creatures, still twitching nervously with the amazement and discomfort of being alive.

[Illustration:  “Come to your aunt Letty then and be mothered!” She sobbed]