"I don't care at all," Theodora answered readily. "It wouldn't do to put him in with Billy. When did Mr. Holden come?"

"At five. It was such a surprise, too. You know we didn't expect him for a week; but the heavy snow sent the party in, and he is to have a vacation till the middle of March. What do you think of my little brother, Teddy?"

"I think he's splendid," Theodora replied so emphatically that her mother smiled.

"Run along after him, then," she said. "I want you and Hope to see that his visit is a good one. Hope took your things into the back room, Teddy, so you'll find everything ready for you at bedtime."

To Theodora's eager young mind, it seemed that the evening was the shortest she had ever spent, and, when ten o'clock struck, she was still sitting perched on the arm of Hope's chair, while she listened to Archie's stirring tales of life in camp and field, in mountain and canon and desert. Then there was an interruption, for the bell rang and a voice was heard asking for the doctor. Archie rose.

"Another patient, doctor? I believe I'll go to bed. Three nights in a sleeper are too much for me. No, don't come with me, Bess; I know the way perfectly."

However, Mrs. McAlister went to his door with him. As she came downstairs, her husband met her in the hall.

"I don't quite comprehend this mystery, Bess," he said, while an anxious frown puckered his brows. "There's a policeman here that accuses me of having abducted a child. There's one missing from Water Street, it seems, and he claims that she is here in this house."

"What?"

"'Tis a remarkable story. I can't seem to get at the bottom of it. He doesn't know me; and he says his orders are not to go away without the child. I can't convince him that there's no child here."

Just then they both started violently, for a double sound broke on their ears, a long-drawn shriek as of a child in pain, followed by Archie's voice, loud and remorseful,--

"Oh, by George!"

An instant later, Theodora appeared on the landing, ejaculating,--

"Gracious me! I forgot her."

"Theodora, what does this mean?" the doctor demanded breathlessly, as he rushed up the stairs. Then, at the open door, he paused in sheer amazement. In the middle of the floor stood Archie Holden, staring at the bed with a face devoid of all expression. Sitting up in the bed and staring back at him with a face of injured innocence and pain, was an unwholesome child of Keltic extraction and unneat exterior, with a dingy knitted hood in lieu of nightcap, and two chapped hands appearing from two vast gray sleeves.

Archie appeared to think that it devolved upon him to explain the situation.

"I'm sorry," he said meekly. "You see, I didn't turn up the gas at first, but I just sat down on the edge of the bed to take off my shoes.

I didn't know this--this young person was here, and I suppose I sat on her. But really I can't imagine where she came from. I didn't bring her."

"Theodora!" said the doctor, sternly.

But Theodora had vanished, to hide her head from the sight of her protegee, and from the merriment shining in Archie's blue eyes.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Do you often do that kind of thing, Miss Teddy?"

Theodora, with her hands full of books, was pa.s.sing through the lower hall. At the sudden question, she glanced up to see Archie Holden leaning on the banisters and looking down at her.

"What thing?" she asked.

"Oh, adopting stray babies. You gave me a fine fright, last night."

Theodora blushed. Then, as she met his merry eyes, she burst out laughing.

"Wasn't it awful? I put the child to bed and promised her some supper, and then I forgot her."

"And I sat on her," Archie supplemented. "I don't know which of us was the more astonished, she or I. What were you going to do with her?"

"Why, you see," Theodora dropped her books on the seat by the staircase and settled herself beside them; "you see, it was my first experience with slumming."

"With what?"

"Don't you know? Or don't you have any slums in Montana? Everybody does it here, and it's beautiful."

"What's the usual _modus operandi_?"

"The what? Talk English, please."

"How do you go at it?" Archie sat down on the top step, to talk at his ease.

"Oh, they go to see poor people, and take them food and soap and madonnas and fumigate them."

"The madonnas?"

"No, the people. It does them ever so much good. Mrs. Farrington, Billy's mother, had a friend here that did it, and she told us all about it."

"I begin to comprehend," Archie said gravely, as he looked down at the animated face below him. "And does it belong to the plan to bring them home and hide them in the guests' beds?"

"How was I to know you were here?" Theodora demanded. "Didn't you take us all by surprise?"

"I meant to surprise Bess, and I rather flatter myself I succeeded. I say, Miss Teddy, what relation are we, anyhow?"

"Hm-m." Theodora pondered on the matter. "Cousins? No; I suppose you're my uncle. Uncle Archie. How respectful that sounds!"

Archie made a grimace of disgust.

"It suggests carpet slippers and an ivory-headed cane and a bandanna. I don't believe I care to be related at all, if that's the way you're going to work it."

Theodora laughed wickedly. She was keen enough to see that the young man was nettled by the implied addition to his years, and she was too much of a tease to allow her opportunity to slip by, unheeded. She gave him a mocking bow.

"I'm sorry you don't care to claim us, Uncle Archie," she said, as she rose. "Still, you can't expect us to call mamma's only brother Mr.

Holden."

"Call me Archie, then."

"How disrespectful! No, Uncle Archie is quite nice and proper."

"I won't answer. Where are you going?"