"It's only the
nurse."
"Oh, that's it," said Alfred, with a wise nod of comprehension;
"the nurse, then she's in the joke too?" He glanced from one to
the other. They all nodded. "You're all in it," he exclaimed,
flattered to think that they had considered it necessary to
combine the efforts of so many of them to deceive him.
"Yes," assented Jimmy sadly, "we are all 'in it.' "
"Well, she's a great actress," decided Alfred, with the air of a
connoisseur.
"She sure is," admitted Donneghey, more and more disgruntled as
he felt his reputation for detecting fraud slipping from him.
"She put up a phoney story about the kid being hers," he added.
"But I could tell she wasn't on the level. Good-night, sir," he
called to Alfred, and ignoring Jimmy, he passed quickly from the
room.
"Oh, officer," Alfred called after him. "Hang around downstairs.
I'll be down later and fix things up with you." Again Alfred
gave his whole attention to his new-found family. He leaned over
the cradle and gazed ecstatically into the three small faces
below his. "This is too much," he murmured.
"Much too much," agreed Jimmy, who was now sitting hunched up on
the couch in his customary attitude of gloom.
"You were right not to break it to me too suddenly," said Alfred,
and with his arms encircling three infants he settled himself on
the couch by Jimmy's side.
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