He was now engaged in the unhoped for
bliss of singing three babies to sleep with one lullaby.
The other occupants of the room were just beginning to relax and
to show some resemblance to their natural selves, when their
features were again simultaneously frozen by a ring at the
outside door.
CHAPTER XXVIII
Annoyed at being interrupted in the midst of his lullaby, to
three, Alfred looked up to see Maggie, hatless and out of breath,
bursting into the room, and destroying what was to him an ideally
tranquil home scene. But Maggie paid no heed to Alfred's look of
inquiry. She made directly for the side of Zoie's bed.
"If you plaze, mum," she panted, looking down at Zoie, and
wringing her hands.
"What is it?" asked Aggie, who had now reached the side of the
bed.
" 'Scuse me for comin' right in"--Maggie was breathing hard--"but
me mother sint me to tell you that me father is jus afther comin'
home from work, and he's fightin' mad about the babies, mum."
"Sh! Sh!" cautioned Aggie and Zoie, as they glanced nervously
toward Alfred who was rising from his place beside the cradle
with increasing interest in Maggie's conversation.
"Babies?" he repeated, "your father is mad about babies?"
"It's all right, dear," interrupted Zoie nervously; "you see,"
she went on to explain, pointing toward the trembling Maggie,
"this is our washerwoman's little girl.
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