Gerard, meanwhile, was manfully making the best of his return to his old home. He rejoiced to be again among the familiar surroundings, and especially he rejoiced in his mother’s company. He spent long hours in her boudoir every morning, helping her with the Memoir, and, therefore, talking much about old times. It was a difficult diversion. He did his very best to laugh.
He also did his very best to make things pleasant with Otto. Towards Ursula he could not but feel differently; he avoided her as much as possible, and she, in her eagerness to conciliate, seemed almost to be laying herself out to please him. Their relations were strained, and everybody noticed it.
“And what do you say to the baby, Gerard?” demanded Aunt Louisa.
“Nothing, aunt. One has to say, ‘Tiddie, iddie, too-tums, then,’ to babies, or something of that kind, and I don’t feel equal to it. I never say anything to babies.”
“Ah, but this is the baby,” retorted the old maid, annoyed. “However, I can understand your not caring much about him; he has definitely put your handsome nose out of joint.”
Gerard did not answer, in his sudden distress. And then, that none might harbor such horrible thoughts with any show of reason, he set himself to heroically admiring his little nephew, and the forlornness of his affectionate nature soon facilitated the task. Ursula was delighted at this rapprochement on neutral ground. She initiated her brother-in-law into many shades of infant development where the careless observer would merely have seen a blank.
They were together by the cradle in the breakfast-room on the morning of Christmas Eve. There was to be a small dinner-party in the evening, the Christmas Tree for the villagers not taking place till the following day. The Van Trossarts were coming, and Helena Van Troyen with her husband. Helena had written to say that she must bring a German friend of Willie’s.
“He is beginning to take notice,” said Ursula, for the twentieth time. “Don’t you see how he opens and shuts his little fingers?”
“But he always did that,” objected Gerard.
“He did it without any reason,” exclaimed the young mother, sagely. “He does it now when he knows there’s something near.”