“Oh, yes—with their proud little noses well in the air. Every one was awfully nice to them though, and no one pitied them except young Pearlie Alexander, who reeks of money. And Jean looked at her and said, ‘Oh, but it’s so horribly boring to stay at school after you’re sixteen!’—with such an air that Pearlie actually believed her, and felt quite crushed. All the small fry have been weeping on their necks—the juniors all love them. Lots of girls might have their heads turned, but the twinses are sublimely unconscious of being regarded with affection by the school. Jo merely remarked to me that it was queer how decent everybody was to people in a hole!”
“Are they very good-natured and easy-going, Helen? Or will they be firm with Rex?”
“They have heaps of sense,” Helen said slowly. “Of course they haven’t been tried out at school yet, but I should think, from their way with the juniors, that they wouldn’t stand any nonsense.”
“Rex needs firmness,” Mrs. Forester said, a little anxiously. “He has got rather out of hand lately—Father has had to be away so much, and I have been busy preparing the house for being shut up. He has had no lessons since Miss Green left.”
“Well, there will be Mr. Weston. I don’t suppose he is likely to let Master Rex think he can do as he likes.”
“Not if he has time to be bothered with him. However, Rex is less likely to get his own way in a household like the Westons’ than with a governess in a boarding-house; and we were beginning to face that possibility. If the twins are sensible with him, he will be all right—I mean, if they don’t pet him. Not that Rex is altogether pettable!”
“You needn’t worry about that,” Helen said decidedly. “They have a little brother of their own—I fancy the ways of small boys are quite well known to them.”
“Yes, that’s a great help,” her mother said. “Well, I shan’t worry—except as to the possibility of Mr. and Mrs. Weston putting a veto on the proposal altogether.”
So Helen carried back a hopeful message to the anxiously awaiting twins; and next evening they rushed into her study with excited faces, waving a letter.
“It’s all settled, Helen! What a nice mother you’ve got!”