A TEMPEST IN A TEAPOT
It was almost dark and still the twins had not returned. The maid came
in and turned on the electric light and brought me the menu from the
cafe. I ordered a substantial dinner for the three of us and with the
assistance of the good-natured girl got myself into another dress and
smoothed myself up a bit.
A quick step sounded in the hall just as I settled in my chair and the
maid went down to order dinner. Tweedles at last--one of them, anyhow!
It turned out to be Mr. Tucker, and I was covered with confusion! What
on earth was I to say to him? What business did he have coming home
before he was expected?
"Hello, little friend! Where are those girls? You don't mean that both
of them have had the heartlessness to go out at one time and leave you
all by yourself? I wouldn't have thought it of them!"
"Oh, they--they--I reckon they'll be in soon. I haven't been lonesome at
all. Brindle and I have been looking out of the window at the jitneys--"
dangerous ground! If the girls wanted to tell their father of their
escapades they were to be allowed to do so, but it was not my business.
Why didn't they come on in? I knew they would sooner or later divulge to
their beloved Zebedee, but they had certainly meant to get all over with
their schemes while he was away.
"We weren't looking for you until day after tomorrow," I stammered.
"Well, is that any reason why you shouldn't be glad to see me now?"
"Oh, no! We are glad to see you--that is, I am."
"That is to say, Tweedles will not be?" he questioned.
"Of course they will be." Why, oh, why didn't they come on?
Weary footsteps dragging along the hall and Dum appeared. Her hat was on
one side, not at a jaunty angle but just at that hopelessly out-of-plumb
slant. Her face was dirty enough to suit Dee's idea of a jitney driver.
Her hair was dishevelled and her shoes very dusty.
"Oh, Page, only fifteen orders in all the afternoon and I am nearly
dead! I'll never be able to make a living peddling household no----
What,--you!" and her mouth formed itself into a round O as she spied her
wonderful parent.
"Yes, I!"
"You!"
"Yes, me! If you understand that better."
"Oh!"
"Is that all you can say when I chased back from the meeting in Norfolk
expecting to find three lone ladies so glad to see me? Page greets me
with an icy mitt, and now all you can say is 'You!' and 'Oh!' Where is
Dee? Maybe she will at least ask me how I am."
More tired footsteps dragging along the hall, and in came Dee.
"I am rolling in wealth but I am so tired that nobody had better say
'boo' to me or I'll weep."
"'Boo!'" said Zebedee.
"Oh, you?" and Dee proceeded to burst into tears which certainly did not
improve her begrimed countenance.
"Great heavens! What is the matter?" he cried, turning fiercely on Dum.
Dum did the most natural thing in the world for a poor little
half-orphan who had been trying to pay her debts by honest toil, selling
household novelties at back doors and tramping up and down cobble-stoned
alleys until she had worn a blister on her heel--she just burst out
crying, too.
Zebedee looked hopelessly at me, evidently expecting me to be dissolved
in tears, too, but the ludicrous side of things had struck my risibles
and, willy-nilly, I succumbed to laughter. Brindle, however, was
sympathetic with his beloved mistress, and set up such a howling as
never was heard before.
"By the great Jumping Jingo! What is the matter? Have I done something?
Is anybody dead? What do you mean, Dee, by having on my coat and cap?
What do you mean, Dum, by fifteen orders? Page, you can speak; tell me
what's up."
"I--I----"
"Go on and tell him, Page!" tweedled the twins, trying to control their
emotions.
"Well, Tweedles got a little behind with their finances and the fire
came along at Gresham at a rather inopportune moment as they were
expecting to save up on allowances----"
"And the old clothes! Don't forget the old clothes!" from a very
crumpled-up Dee.
"They also were negotiating some sales with the laundress, of cast-off
clothing." Zebedee was looking me through and through with his ice-blue
eyes. I had never had the least fear of him from the moment I had met
him, but now I felt, to say the least, quite confused. He looked stern,
and his eyes, which had been only the color of blue, blue ice, but
always seemed warm, were now as cold as ice, too.
"Well, go on!"
"The fire broke out and now the old laundress has the clothes and the
money, too. So Tweedles were all broken up over owing so much money and
I suggested that they turn in and earn some."
"You suggested it?" still very coldly.
"Yes, I suggested it, and I would do the same thing again. I think it is
a great deal better for people to get to work and pay off their debts at
any honest labor than to keep on owing them----"
I gulped and got red. I was tired of having Mr. Tucker look at me with
his cold expression of a criminal judge. I had done nothing wrong, and
neither had the girls, for that matter. I felt a great wave of anger
rising in me, and I stood up on my bad ankle, forgetting all about
having one, and faced my host, ready for battle. He looked rather
startled, and the twins stopped sobbing and began to dry their eyes on
two very grimy handkerchiefs. I do not often get very angry, but there
was something about being looked at as Zebedee looked at me, that made
me lose all control of myself. He made me feel that I was a bad little
girl while he considered himself a superior old gentleman. Now up to
this time the father of my two best friends had always treated me like a
grown-up young lady, and had never made me feel that there was any
difference to speak of between his age and mine, and he had no right
with one wave of his hand to put me back in the kindergarten class.
"Why, Page----"
"Don't 'Why, Page' me! You came back before we expected you and startled
us somewhat, as Tweedles hoped to get the money earned before you
returned. The girls are dead tired and need their dinner and kind
sympathy instead of being bullyragged----"
"Page! Please! I only wanted to know how Tweedles went to work to make
all the money you say they owe. I am not a bit angry, not the least
little bit. I think you are very unkind to me."
"Well, you looked at me so coldly and sneered so."
"No! You are mistaken!"
"Yes, you did, when I said I suggested it."
"I am awfully sorry, little friend," and now his ice-blue eyes melted,
literally melted, as he, too, began to leak, as the Tuckers call their
free giving way to tears. You remember, it was a trait of the family.
They thought no more of weeping than of laughing or sneezing. They wept
when they felt weepy just as they laughed when anything amused them or
sneezed when they felt sneezy.
"I tell you what you do, girls: you go on and wash up and change your
dresses, and then we'll have dinner, and after dinner we'll talk it all
over like sensible people without getting angry or huffy or anything
that we might get." Zebedee wiped his eyes and gave his girls a hug and
kiss in spite of their grimy, soiled countenances, and then he turned to
me as they flew to the bathroom to do his bidding. I had become
conscious of my ankle as I stood there disobeying the doctor's commands,
and now that it was all over I flopped back in my chair, feeling very
grateful for its support.
"Now you have gone and put your weight on your foot and it is all my
fault."
"Oh, no! Not at all!"
"It is just as much my fault as that Tweedles came in worn out with
making a living and had dirty faces and were hungry----"
"Nobody said that was your fault!"
"Well, what was my fault, then?"
"It was your fault for looking at me so disapprovingly. You were what
Tweedles call Mr. Tuckerish. You were so cold and grown-up and made me
feel so young and naughty, and as I had not done a thing on earth but
just suggest to the girls that they try to earn some money, not
specifying how they should go about it, it did seem hard that you should
be so hard on me. It hurt my feelings."
"Well, on the other hand, little girl, how about my feelings? Here I had
come tearing home from Norfolk expecting to find three charming girls,
all of them overjoyed to see me, and what do I find? Nothing but 'What,
yous!' from first one and then the other--stammered greetings, and then
tears and flashing eyes and false accusations."
At that I burst out laughing, and Zebedee did the same. It was such a
tempest in a teapot! I was ahead of him, however, and by my sudden anger
over nothing or almost nothing I had unwittingly turned his attention
from Tweedles and their misdemeanors, and now I was sure he would be
only amused over their escapade.
"We are all of us mighty glad to have you back. I don't see what made
you think we weren't."
"Foolish of me, wasn't it? I realize now that it was excess of emotion
and delight that made all of you behave as you did."