"On St. Martin's Eve!" Was Mr. Carleton St. John a Roman Catholic, that he should chronicle the birth of his children by the saints' days? No. And it was not by Mr. St. John's wish that it had been so worded, but by Mrs. Darling's.
It was no doubt a somewhat singular coincidence that this second child should have been born on the same day as Benja, the 10th of November. Mrs. Darling, who was temporarily sojourning at Alnwick Hall, and was naturally a little inclined to be superstitious, regarded it as a most ominous event. What, she thought, if the advent of this child should be succeeded by the dreadful tragedy that had so fatally characterized the last? And it would perhaps hardly be believed, but that some of you may have had opportunities of witnessing these foolish fancies, that she dreaded the announcement being made in the newspapers in the same words as the last.
"I cannot bear it," she said to Mr. St. John, "I could not look at it without a shudder. Put anything else you like, but don't put 'On the 10th of November!'"
Mr. St. John laughed outright; he could not help it. "Charlotte is as well as she can be," he rejoined.
"I know; but a change might take place at any moment. Pray do not laugh at me, Mr. St. John. Call it folly; superstition; what you will; only don't word this announcement as you worded the last."
"But how am I to word it?" he asked. "If the child was born on the tenth, I can't put it the ninth or the eleventh. I won't send any notice at all, if you like; I don't care about it."
"Not send any notice of Charlotte's child!" she echoed in displeasure. "That would be a slight indeed."
"As you please. But you see the little fellow has chosen to come on the tenth, and we can't send him back again to await a more convenient day."
"Put 'On St. Martin's Eve,'" said Mrs. Darling, after a pause of somewhat blank consideration.
"St. Martin's Eve!"