"But they's jes' one thing Uncle couldn't buy for us, 'cause they wasn't any room in the wheely-bal for it. But you'll take us for a nice walk this evening-time and buy it for us, won't you, Daddy?"
"There is some very important business which I must see your father about this evening, Beth," said the Doctor with a warning look which Mr. Selwyn did not catch. He had been so long separated from his family that he was anxious to do everything he could to make them happy. "Making up for lost time," he called it; and he would have spoiled the twins if it had not been for his wife, who would not let him buy everything they asked for.
"Perhaps I can go with you some other evening, pet. What is it you wish me to get for you?"
"O Daddy, it's the most beauty little bed for our dollies. Outside is all soft, white velvet, and inside is all white, shiny stuff and lace, and——and oh! it's jes beauty! And it has a cover to keep the flies and skeeties off when our chilluns go to sleep."
Mary and Wilhelmina left the table very quickly, and the Doctor chuckled. "We passed the undertaker's on the avenue, and it was all I could do to get them home."
The two mothers looked at each other.
"I shall see that Rob takes no more evening walks until we are safe in the country," Mrs. Selwyn declared, and then listened to her husband's answer to the twins' coaxing.
"We already have so many things to pack that I really do not see where we shall find room for anything else. Better wait until Christmas when I shall tell Santa Claus to bring each of you a pretty brass bed for your dollies, with soft, warm blankets and everything just as you have for your own cribs. Velvet and satin and lace soil so easily, you know."
Mrs. Selwyn breathed a sigh of relief, and Mary and Wilhelmina returned to the table.