Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/121

Rh into their well-ordered lives, and when those ladies sulked, they sulked in silence. Spottswood was singularly reticent. He resented the arrival of this child, whom he considered a fraud, and he wondered at his astute father's accepting the little waif as his grandchild.

Major Taylor, in his endeavor to keep the house quiet so that Rebecca might sleep, made more noise than all the rest of the family put together.

"Heavens, Spot!" he exploded at the supper table, "do you have to make so much noise eating toast? You will disturb the child."

Spot turned red and gulped some water. The sound he made in swallowing called forth another remark from his father.

"I believe you are trying to wake her up. I never saw such a noisy lot of people."

The sisters looked at each other with raised eyebrows as much as to say their father was evidently slightly demented. Spot hurriedly finished his supper and left the table. Aunt Testy moved in and out of the dining room with guarded steps, directing Mandy, her assistant, with hoarse whispers.

"Don't rattle them knives an' forks! Prop open that there pantry do' less'n you kin open it 'thout fallin' 'ginst it ev'ry time. Looks like