“Paul,” interrupted his mother sharply, “that will do. How many times have I told you that you must never call your little sister names?”
“Well, but she is,” insisted the round-eyed Paul, whereat his exasperated parent pushed him gently but very very firmly toward the front door.
“There, go outside, both of you,” she said. “And see if you can stop quarreling for five minutes. What have I done to have such terrible children!”
As the door closed upon the obstreperous twins she raised her hands in a typically French gesture and turned to the girls, despairingly.
“You see how it is,” she said, leading the way once more into the cool peace of the living-room. “Not five minutes in the day do they give me peace. Sometime I think I shall go mad.”
“Poor mother,” said Mollie, putting her arm about the little woman and seating her in the easiest chair in the room. “I know they’re a dreadful pest, but just think how much worse it would be if you didn’t have them. Remember the time when they were kidnapped——”
But Mrs. Billette stopped her with a quick gesture.
“Do not remind me of that!” she commanded, sharply. “Have I not done my best to forget that dreadful time? But you do well to speak of it, after all, Mollie,” she said, more gently, patting Mollie’s hand. “It make me more contented to bear with them. They are very little yet and it is natural for children to be always in mischief.”
Those who are familiar with the Outdoor Girls will remember when the mischievous, adorable twins, Dodo and Paul, had been kidnapped by a villain who demanded an outrageous sum of money for their safe return and how the same twins had been rescued from a ship, wrecked on the rocks of Bluff Point near the cottage where the Outdoor Girls were summering. And it was true that whenever Mrs. Billette or Mollie were tempted to be impatient with the twins they remembered the despair of that dreadful time and dealt gently with the erring Dodo and Paul, aggravating little wretches that they could be.
“Just the same,” said Grace as, a few hours later, the girls started for home and dinner, “I’d just as soon leave the twins behind when we go on our vacation.”