under the circumstances? Sometimes I think I ought to have made up to
Ellen instead of Dorothy."

"What's the matter with _us_?" said Alice, and she laid her hand upon
Evelyn's.

"Oh, you little rotters!" exclaimed the earl, whom they sometimes teased
to the point of agony. "No man in his senses would look at _you_."

"Right-O!" said young Stephen Ballin, who made the eighth at table.
"They're like germs," he explained to Forrest--"very troublesome to
deal with."

"It's because we're twins," said Evelyn. "Everybody who isn't twins is
down on them."

"It's because they are always beautiful and good," said Alice. "Why
don't you stand up for us, father?"

It was noticed that Mr. Ballin was not looking well; that the chicken
_mousse_ upon his plate was untouched, and that he fooled with his
bread, breaking it, crumbling it, and rolling it into pellets. He pulled
himself together and smiled upon his beloved twins.

Forrest had turned to the Earl of Moray.

"Was it your ancestor," he said, "who 'was a bra' gallant, and who raid
at the gluve'?"

"I am confident of it," said the young Englishman.