Helens Babies | Page 6

head to avoid meeting the glance of the unknown
occupants, for my few moments of contact with my dreadful nephews
had made me feel inexpressibly unneat. Suddenly the carriage with the
ladies stopped. I heard my own name spoken, and raising my head
quickly (encountering Budge's bullet head EN ROUTE to the serious
disarrangement of my hat), I looked into the other carriage. There, erect,
fresh, neat, composed, bright-eyed, fair- faced, smiling and
observant,--she would have been all this, even if the angel of the
resurrection had just sounded his dreadful trump,--sat Miss Alice
Mayton, a lady who, for about a year, I had been adoring from afar.
"When did YOU arrive, Mr. Burton?" she asked, "and how long have
you been officiating as child's companion? You're certainly a
happy-looking trio--so unconventional. I hate to see children all dressed
up and stiff as little manikins, when they go out to ride. And you look
as if you had been having SUCH a good time with them."
"I--I assure you, Miss Mayton," said I, "that my experience has been
the exact reverse of a pleasant one. If King Herod were yet alive I'd
volunteer as an executioner, and engage to deliver two interesting
corpses at a moment's notice."
"You dreadful wretch!" exclaimed the lady. "Mother, let me make you
acquainted with Mr. Burton,--Helen Lawrence's brother. How is your
sister, Mr. Burton?"
"I don't know," I replied; "she has gone with her husband on a
fortnight's visit to Captain and Mrs. Wayne, and I've been silly enough
to promise to have an eye to the place while they're away."
"Why, how delightful!" exclaimed Miss Mayton. "SUCH horses!
SUCH flowers! SUCH a cook!"
"And such children," said I, glaring suggestively at the imps, and
rescuing from Toddie a handkerchief which he had extracted from my
pocket, and was waving to the breeze.

"Why, they're the best children in the world. Helen told me so the first
time I met her this season! Children will be children, you know. We
had three little cousins with us last summer, and I'm sure they made me
look years older than I really am."
"How young you must be, then, Miss Mayton!" said I. I suppose I
looked at her as if I meant what I said, for, although she inclined her
head and said, "Oh, thank you," she didn't seem to turn my compliment
off in her usual invulnerable style. Nothing happening in the course of
conversation ever discomposed Alice Mayton for more than a hundred
seconds, however, so she soon recovered her usual expression and
self-command, as her next remark fully indicated.
"I believe you arranged the floral decorations at the St. Zephaniah's
Fair, last winter, Mr. Burton? 'Twas the most tasteful display of the
season. I don't wish to give any hints, but at Mrs. Clarkson's, where
we're boarding, there's not a flower in the whole garden. I break the
Tenth Commandment dreadfully every time I pass Colonel Lawrence's
garden. Good-by, Mr. Burton."
"Ah, thank you; I shall be delighted. Good-by."
"Of course you'll call," said Miss Mayton, as her carriage started,--"it's
dreadfully stupid here--no men except on Sundays."
I bowed assent. In the contemplation of all the shy possibilities which
my short chat with Miss Mayton had suggested, I had quite forgotten
my dusty clothing and the two living causes thereof. While in Miss
Mayton's presence the imps had preserved perfect silence, but now
their tongues were loosened.
"Uncle Harry," said Budge, "do you know how to make whistles?"
"Ucken Hawwy," murmured Toddie, "does you love dat lady?"
"No, Toddie, of course not."
"Then you's baddy man, an' de Lord won't let you go to heaven if you

don't love peoples."
"Yes, Budge," I answered hastily, "I do know how to make whistles,
and you shall have one."
"Lord don't like mans what don't love peoples," reiterated Toddie.
"All right, Toddie," said I. "I'll see if I can't please the Lord some way.
Driver, whip up, won't you? I'm in a hurry to turn these youngsters over
to the girl, and ask her to drop them into the bath-tub."
I found Helen had made every possible arrangement for my comfort.
Her room commanded exquisite views of mountain-slope and valley,
and even the fact that the imps' bedroom adjoined mine gave me
comfort, for I thought of the pleasure of contemplating them while they
were asleep, and beyond the power of tormenting their deluded uncle.
At the supper-table Budge and Toddie appeared cleanly clothed in their
rightful faces. Budge seated himself at the table; Toddie pushed back
his high-chair, climbed into it, and shouted:
"Put my legs under ze tabo."
Rightfully construing this remark as a request to be moved to the table,
I fulfilled his desire. The girl poured tea for me and milk for