The Heavenly Twins | Page 9

wisteria, modes of egress which they

very much preferred to commonplace doors; and Mr. Hamilton-Wells
had been reluctantly obliged to have the moat, which was deep and full
of fish, and had been the glory of Hamilton House for generations,
drained for fear of accidents. Argument was unavailing with the twins
as a means of repression, but they were always prepared to argue out
any question of privilege with their father and mother cheerfully.
Punishment, too, had an effect quite other than that intended. They
were interested at the moment, but they would slap each other's hands
and put each other in the corner for fun five minutes after they had
received similar chastisement in solemn earnest.
They would have lived out of doors altogether by choice, and they
managed to make their escape in all weathers. If the vigilant watch that
was kept upon them were relaxed for a moment, they disappeared as if
by magic, and would probably only be recovered at the farthest limit of
their father's property, or in the kitchen of some neighbouring country
gentleman, where they were sure to be popular. They were always busy
about something, and when every usual occupation failed, they fought
each other. After a battle they counted scars and scratches for the
honour of having most, and if there were not bruises enough to satisfy
one of them, the other was always obligingly ready to fight again until
there were.
Mr. Hamilton-Wells had great faith in the discipline of the Church
service for them, and was anxious that they should be early accustomed
to go there. They behaved pretty well while the solemnity was strange
enough to awe them, and one Sunday when Lady Adeline--their
mother--could not accompany him, Mr. Hamilton-Wells ventured to go
alone with them. He took the precaution to place them on either side of
him so as to separate them and interpose a solid body between them
and any signals they might make to each other; but in the quietest part
of the service, when everybody was kneeling, some movement of
Diavolo's attracted his attention for a moment from Angelica, and when
he looked again the latter had disappeared. She had discovered that it
was possible to creep from pew to pew beneath the seats, and had
started to explore the church. On her way, however, she observed a pair
of stout legs belonging to a respectable elderly woman who was too

deep in her devotion to be aware of the intruder, and, being somewhat
astonished by their size, she proceeded to test their quality with a pin,
the consequence being an appalling shriek from the woman, which
started a shrill treble cry from herself. The service was suspended, and
Mr. Hamilton-Wells, the most precise of men, hastened down the aisle,
and fished his daughter out, an awful spectacle of dust, from under the
seat, incontinently.
When Mr. and Lady Adeline Hamilton-Wells went from home for any
length of time they were obliged to take their children with them, as
servants who knew the latter would rather leave than be left in charge
of them, and this was how it happened that Evadne made their
acquaintance at an early age.
It was during their first visit to Fraylingay, while they were still quite
tiny, and she was hardly in her teens, that the event referred to in
illustration of one of Evadne's characteristics occurred.
The twins had arrived late in the afternoon, and were taken into the
dining room, where the table was already decorated for dinner. It
evidently attracted a good deal of their attention, but they said nothing.
At dessert, however, to which Evadne had come down with the elder
children, the dining room door was seen to open with portentous
slowness, and there appeared in the aperture two little figures in long
nightgowns, their forefingers in their mouths, their inquisitive noses
tilted in the air, and their bright eyes round with astonishment. It was
like the middle of the night to them, and they had expected to find the
room empty.
"Oh, you naughty children!" Lady Adeline exclaimed.
"The darlings!" cried Mrs. Frayling, Evadne's mother. "Do let them
come in," and she picked up Angelica, and held her on her knee, one of
the other ladies at the opposite end of the long table taking Diavolo up
at the same time. But the moment the children found themselves on a
level with the table they made a dart for the centre piece simultaneously
on their hands and knees, regardless of the smash of dessert plates,
decanters, wineglasses, and fruit dishes, which they upset by the way.

"It is!" shrieked Angelica, thumping the flat mirror which was part of
the table decorations triumphantly.
"It is what?" cried Lady Adeline, endeavoring to reach the child.
"It's looking-glass,