Theodora followed her aunt and mother, and as soon as the baize door was shut on them, Violet hugged her baby closely, whispering, ‘No welcome for the poor little boy! nobody cares for him but his own mamma! Never mind, my Johnnie, we are not too grand to love each other.’
Theodora in the meantime could not help exclaiming, ‘Poor child! It is just like a changeling!’
‘Don’t talk of it, my dear,’ said Lady Martindale, with a shudder and look of suffering. ‘Poor little dear! He looks exactly as your poor little brother did!’ and she left the room with a movement far unlike her usually slow dignified steps.
‘Ah!’ said her aunt, in a tone between grief and displeasure; ‘here’s a pretty business! we must keep him out of her way! Don’t you ever bring him forward, Theodora, to revive all that.’
‘What is the meaning of it?’ said Theodora. ‘I did not know I ever had another brother.’
‘It was long before your time, my dear, but your mamma has never entirely got over it, though he only lived nine weeks. I would not have had the recollection recalled on any account. And now John has brought this child here! If he was to die here I don’t know what the effect on your mamma would be.’
‘He is not going to die!’ said Theodora, hastily; ‘but let me hear of my other brother, aunt.’
‘There is nothing to hear, my dear,’ said Mrs. Nesbit. ‘How could the girl think of bringing him on us without preparation? An effect of John’s spoiling her, of course. She expects him to be made much of; but she must be taught to perceive this is no house of which she can make all parts a nursery.’
‘Let me hear about my brother,’ repeated Theodora. ‘How old would he be? What was his name?’
‘His name was Theodore. He never could have lived,’ said Mrs. Nesbit: ‘it was much as it was with this child of Arthur’s. He was born unexpectedly at Vienna. Your mamma had a dreadful illness, brought on by your father’s blundering sudden way of telling her of the death of poor little Dora and Anna. He has not a notion of self-command or concealment; so, instead of letting me prepare her, he allowed her to come home from the drive, and find him completely overcome.’