“Blunt as ever, Teddy?” Hope’s laugh had no sting.

“Yes.  I haven’t reformed yet.  Things ‘rile’ me, just as they used to, things and people.  I’m a good hater, Hope.”  There was a suspicious glitter in her eyes; but it vanished, as Hope’s hand touched her own.

“And a good lover, too, dear.  I wasn’t criticising, for I think you are in the right of it.  But Babe really seems rather practical.  She only wants the child for a week, and she agrees to take all the care of it and give it its meals away from the table.”

“Yes; but what will she do with it?” Theodora’s tone showed her perplexity.  “There’s no telling what may happen in the course of a week.  She will test all the theories of all the cranks on the one poor baby, one theory a day, and by the end of the week, there won’t be any baby left to send home again.”

“My chief worry is for Mac,” Hope said resignedly.

“Oh, I don’t think the child will hurt him,” Theodora reassured her.  “They won’t dare send a very bad one.”

“No; but it may work the other way about.  I am a good deal more worried in regard to Mac’s effect on the child, and—­”

“Mam-ma!”

“No, Mac.  I told you that you mustn’t come here.  This is Aunt Teddy’s house, and people don’t come here, unless she invites them.”

The door swung open a little way, and a chubby face appeared in the crack.

“Ven please ’vite me now, Aunt Teddy.”

“You may come in, Mac.”

Mac came in, wriggled his fat little body into the narrow space between his mother and his aunt, and gave a sigh of relief.

“Vere,” he said gravely; “we’re all fixed nice, Aunt Teddy, just ve way my mamma does when she’s going to give me somefing good to eat.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“I really can’t see why they should call this cottage Valhalla,” Dr. McAlister said thoughtfully.

“Probably because there isn’t any hall, and the dining-room is a tight fit for five of us,” Phebe answered, as she took a cup from the china closet without troubling herself to leave her seat at the table.

“Teddy’s establishment boasts the poetic name of Dandelion Lodge,” Mrs. McAlister added.  “There isn’t a dandelion in sight, and, architecturally speaking, it is more like a hen-house than a lodge.  Still, I suppose it is well to have a name, even if there isn’t anything in it.”

“No matter,” Hope said contentedly; “it’s good to be free from the everlasting Belviews and Wavecrests.  Valhalla isn’t trite; Babe and I will be the Valkyries, and we have caught one hero already.”  She smiled at her father, as she spoke.

“I intend to have another before I leave here,” Phebe proclaimed, as she passed her plate for more fish.  “One hero isn’t enough for us; we need one apiece.”

“Where will you get him, sister Valkyrie?”

“I don’t know; out of the briny deep perhaps, but time will show.”