“Yes,” he said, with a glance of pride and pleasure, from her to the little ones.
Then turning to his mother, “You must understand, mamma, that we had selected a suitable name for the expected little stranger, whether it should prove to belong to the one sex or the other. Of course we desired to name for you or my father; but there are already so many Elsies and Neds in the family connection that we decided to add another name, as you did in my case, to avoid confusion; that if a boy, it should be named Edward Lawrence, for both Zoe’s father and mine, and commonly called Laurie; but if a girl, should be Lily, for the dear little sister who went to heaven so many years ago.”
“I entirely approve your choice,” said his mother, her eyes shining through tears of mingled joy and sorrow, as her thoughts were carried back to the husband and child whose loved presence would cheer her earthly pilgrimage no more. “Laurie and Lily; the two names go nicely together. It will be sweet to have a Lily in the family again, and I trust she and her brother may be spared to their parents, even to be the stay and staff of their old age.”
“How cunningly you have managed to catch up with Elsie and me in the matter of providing mamma with grandchildren,” was Violet’s jesting remark to Zoe, when she came for the first time to look at the new arrivals.
“Yes, haven’t I?” laughed Zoe. “We have two apiece now, making six in all. Mamma says she is growing rich in grandchildren.”
“Six of her own, and four others who address her by that title, though it has always seemed ridiculous to me, considering how young my darling mother looks.”
“Yes, to me too. But these darlings are her very own and—Vi, don’t you think they’re the sweetest things that ever were made?”
“O Zoe, don’t ask quite so much as that of me!” returned Violet, with playful look and smile. “I do really think them as sweet as they can be, but my own two no less so!”
“Oh, of course!” laughed Zoe. “It was just like my silliness to ask such a question. I tell mamma they are Ned’s and my birthday gift to her; though they came three weeks before the time.”
“They’ll not be less worth having for being three weeks old,” remarked Violet.