"Hold on, Jimmy," exclaimed Alfred good-naturedly, and he laid a detaining hand on his friend's shoulder. "Where are you going?"

"I'll be back," stammered Jimmy weakly, edging his way toward the door, and contriving to keep his back toward Alfred.

"Wait a minute," said Alfred jovially, as he let his hand slip onto Jimmy's arm, "you haven't told me the news yet."

"I'll tell you later," mumbled Jimmy, still trying to escape. But Alfred's eye had fallen upon a bit of white flannel dangling below the bottom of Jimmy's ulster, it travelled upward to Jimmy's unusually rotund figure.

"What have you got there?" he demanded to know, as he pointed toward the centre b.u.t.ton of Jimmy's overcoat.

"Here?" echoed Jimmy vapidly, glancing at the b.u.t.ton in question, "why, that's just a little----" There was a faint wail from the depths of the ulster. Jimmy began to caper about with elephantine tread. "Oochie, coochie, oochie," he called excitedly.

"What's the matter with you?" asked Alfred. The wail became a shriek.

"Good Heavens!" cried the anxious father, "it's my boy." And with that he pounced upon Jimmy, threw wide his ulster and s.n.a.t.c.hed from his arms Jimmy's latest contribution to Zoie's scheme of things.

As Aggie had previously remarked, all young babies look very much alike, and to the inexperienced eye of this new and overwrought father, there was no difference between the infant that he now pressed to his breast, and the one that, unsuspected by him, lay peacefully dozing in the crib, not ten feet from him. He gazed at the face of the newcomer with the same ecstasy that he had felt in the possession of her predecessor. But Zoie and Aggie were looking at each other with something quite different from ecstasy.

"My boy," exclaimed Alfred, with deep emotion, as he clasped the tiny creature to his breast. Then he turned to Jimmy. "What were you doing with my baby?" he demanded hotly.

"I--I was just taking him out for a little walk!" stammered Jimmy.

"You just try," threatened Alfred, and he towered over the intimidated Jimmy. "Are you crazy?"

Jimmy was of the opinion that he must be crazy or he would never have found himself in such a predicament as this, but the anxious faces of Zoie and Aggie, denied him the luxury of declaring himself so. He sank mutely on the end of the couch and proceeded to sulk in silence.

As for Aggie and Zoie, they continued to gaze open-mouthed at Alfred, who was waltzing about the room transported into a new heaven of delight at having s.n.a.t.c.hed his heir from the danger of another night ramble with Jimmy.

"Did a horrid old Jimmy spoil his 'itty nap'?" he gurgled to Baby. Then with a sudden exclamation of alarm, he turned toward the anxious women.

"Aggie!" he cried, as he stared intently into Baby's face. "Look--his rash! It's turned IN!"

Aggie pretended to glance over Alfred's shoulder.

"Why so it has," she agreed nervously.

"What shall we do?" cried the distraught Alfred.

"It's all right now," counselled Aggie, "so long as it didn't turn in too suddenly."

"We'd better keep him warm, hadn't we?" suggested Alfred, remembering Aggie's previous instructions on a similar occasion. "I'll put him in his crib," he decided, and thereupon he made a quick move toward the ba.s.sinette.

Staggering back from the cradle with the unsteadiness of a drunken man Alfred called upon the Diety. "What is THAT?" he demanded as he pointed toward the unexpected object before him.

Neither Zoie, Aggie, nor Jimmy could command words to a.s.sist Alfred's rapidly waning powers of comprehension, and it was not until he had swept each face for the third time with a look of inquiry that Zoie found breath to stammer nervously, "Why--why--why, that's the OTHER one."

"The other one?" echoed Alfred in a dazed manner; then he turned to Aggie for further explanation.

"Yes," affirmed Aggie, with an emphatic nod, "the other one."

An undescribable joy was dawning on Alfred's face.

"You don't mean----" He stared from the infant in his arms to the one in the cradle, then back again at Aggie and Zoie. The women solemnly nodded their heads. Even Jimmy unblushingly acquiesced. Alfred turned toward Zoie for the final confirmation of his hopes.

"Yes, dear," a.s.sented Zoie sweetly, "that's Alfred."

What Jimmy and the women saw next appeared to be the dance of a whirling dervish; as a matter of fact, it was merely a man, mad with delight, clasping two infants in long clothes and circling the room with them.

When Alfred could again enunciate distinctly, he rushed to Zoie's side with the babes in his arms.

"My darling," he exclaimed, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I was ashamed," whispered Zoie, hiding her head to shut out the sight of the red faces pressed close to hers.

"My angel!" cried Alfred, struggling to control his complicated emotions; then gazing at the precious pair in his arms, he cast his eyes devoutly toward heaven, "Was ever a man so blessed?"

Zoie peeped from the covers with affected shyness.

"You love me just as much?" she queried.

"I love you TWICE as much," declared Alfred, and with that he sank exhausted on the foot of the bed, vainly trying to teeter one son on each knee.

CHAPTER XXII

When Jimmy gained courage to turn his eyes in the direction of the family group he had helped to a.s.semble, he was not rea.s.sured by the reproachful glances that he met from Aggie and Zoie. It was apparent that in their minds, he was again to blame for something. Realising that they dared not openly reproach him before Alfred, he decided to make his escape while his friend was still in the room. He reached for his hat and tiptoed gingerly toward the door, but just as he was congratulating himself upon his decision, Alfred called to him with a mysterious air.

"Jimmy," he said, "just a minute," and he nodded for Jimmy to approach.

It must have been Jimmy's guilty conscience that made him powerless to disobey Alfred's every command. Anyway, he slunk back to the fond parent's side, where he ultimately allowed himself to be inveigled into swinging his new watch before the unattentive eyes of the red-faced babes on Alfred's knees.

"Lower, Jimmy, lower," called Alfred as Jimmy absent-mindedly allowed the watch to swing out of the prescribed orbit. "Look at the darlings, Jimmy, look at them," he exclaimed as he gazed at the small creatures admiringly.

"Yes, look at them, Jimmy," repeated Zoie, and she glared at Jimmy behind Alfred's back.

"Don't you wish you had one of them, Jimmy?'" asked Alfred.

"Well, _I_ wish he had," commented Zoie, and she wondered how she was ever again to detach either of them from Alfred's breast.

Before she could form any plan, the telephone rang loud and persistently. Jimmy glanced anxiously toward the women for instructions.

"I'll answer it," said Aggie with suspicious alacrity, and she crossed quickly toward the 'phone. The scattered bits of conversation that Zoie was able to gather from Aggie's end of the wire did not tend to soothe her over-excited nerves. As for Alfred, he was fortunately so engrossed with the babies that he took little notice of what Aggie was saying.

"What woman?" asked Aggie into the 'phone. "Where's she from?" The answer was evidently not rea.s.suring. "Certainly not," exclaimed Aggie, "don't let her come up; send her away. Mrs. Hardy can't see anyone at all." Then followed a bit of pantomime between Zoie and Aggie, from which it appeared that their troubles were multiplying, then Aggie again gave her attention to the 'phone. "I don't know anything about her," she fibbed, "that woman must have the wrong address." And with that she hung up the receiver and came towards Alfred, anxious to get possession of his two small charges and to get them from the room, lest the mother who was apparently downstairs should thrust herself into their midst.

"What's the trouble, Aggie?" asked Alfred, and he nodded toward the telephone.

"Oh, just some woman with the wrong address," answered Aggie with affected carelessness. "You'd better let me take the babies now, Alfred."

"Take them where?" asked Alfred with surprise.