Part 31 (1/2)

Bilton that he was the Miss Twinklers' guardian, though it was not at that moment true. It was clear, he thought, that it should be made true as quickly as possible, and he therefore sought out a lawyer in Acapulco the morning after the interview. This was not the same lawyer who did his estate business for him; Mr. Twist thought it best to have a separate one for more personal affairs.

On hearing Mr. Twist's name announced, the lawyer greeted him as an old friend. He knew, of course, all about the teapot, for the Non-Trickler was as frequent in American families as the Bible and much more regularly used; but he also knew about the cottage at the foot of the hills, what it had cost--which was little--and what it would cost--which was enormous--before it was fit to live in. The only thing he didn't know was that it was to be used for anything except an ordinary _pied-a-terre_. He had heard, too, of the presence at the Cosmopolitan of the twins, and on this point, like the rest of Acapulco, was a little curious.

The social column of the Acapulco daily paper hadn't been able to give any accurate description of the relations.h.i.+p of the Twinklers to Mr.

Twist. Its paragraph announcing his arrival had been obliged merely to say, while awaiting more detailed information, that Mr. Edward A. Twist, the well-known Breakfast Table Benefactor and gifted inventor of the famous Non-Trickler Teapot, had arrived from New York and was staying at the Cosmopolitan Hotel with _entourage_; and the day after this the lawyer, who got about a bit, as everybody else did in that encouraging climate, happening to look in at the Cosmopolitan to have a talk with a friend, had seen the _entourage_.

It was in the act of pa.s.sing through the hall on its way upstairs, followed by a boy carrying a canary in a cage. Even without the boy and the canary it was a conspicuous object. The lawyer asked his friend who the cute little girls were, and was interested to hear he was beholding Mr. Edward A. Twist's _entourage_. His friend told him that opinion in the hotel was divided about the precise nature of this _entourage_ and its relations.h.i.+p to Mr. Twist, but it finally came to be generally supposed that the Miss Twinklers had been placed in his charge by parents living far away in order that he might safely see them put to one of the young ladies' finis.h.i.+ng schools in that agreeable district.

The house Mr. Twist was taking was not connected in the Cosmopolitan mind with the Twinklers. Houses were always being taken in that paradise by wealthy persons from unkinder climates. He would live in it three months in the year, thought the Cosmopolitan, bring his mother, and keep in this way an occasional eye on his charges. The hotel guests regarded the Twinklers at this stage with nothing but benevolence and goodwill, for they had up to then only been seen and not heard; and as one of their leading characteristics was a desire to explain, especially if anybody looked a little surprised, which everybody usually did quite early in conversation with them, this was at that moment, the delicate moment before Mrs. Bilton's arrival, fortunate.

The lawyer, then, who appreciated the young and pretty as much as other honest men, began the interview with Mr. Twist by warmly congratulating him, when he heard what he had come for, on his taste in wards.

Mr. Twist received this a little coldly, and said it was not a matter of taste but of necessity. The Miss Twinklers were orphans, and he had been asked--he cleared his throat--asked by their relatives, by, in fact, their uncle in England, to take over their guardians.h.i.+p and see that they came to no harm.

The lawyer nodded intelligently, and said that if a man had wards at all they might as well be cute wards.

Mr. Twist didn't like this either, and said briefly that he had had no choice.

The lawyer said, ”Quite so. Quite so,” and continued to look at him intelligently.

Mr. Twist then explained that he had come to him rather than, as might have been more natural, to the solicitor who had arranged the purchase of the cottage because this was a private and personal matter--

”Quite so. Quite so,” interrupted the lawyer, with really almost too much intelligence.

Mr. Twist felt the excess of it, and tried to look dignified, but the lawyer was bent on being friendly and frank. Friendliness was natural to him when visited for the first time by a new client, and that there should be frankness between lawyers and clients he considered essential.

If, he held, the client wouldn't be frank, then the lawyer must be; and he must go on being so till the client came out of his reserve.

Mr. Twist, however, was so obstinate in his reserve that the lawyer cheerfully and unhesitatingly jumped to the conclusion that the _entourage_ must have some very weak spots about it somewhere.

”There's another way out of it of course, Mr. Twist,” he said, when he had done rapidly describing the different steps to be taken. There were not many steps. The process of turning oneself into a guardian was surprisingly simple and swift.

”Out of it?” said Mr. Twist, his spectacles looking very big and astonished. ”Out of what?”

”Out of your little difficulty. I wonder it hasn't occurred to you. Upon my word now, I do wonder.”

”But I'm not in any little diff--” began Mr. Twist.

”The elder of these two girls, now--”

”There isn't an elder,” said Mr. Twist.

”Come, come,” said the lawyer patiently, waiting for him to be sensible.

”There isn't an elder,” repeated Mr. Twist, ”They're twins.”

”Twins, are they? Well I must say we manage to match up our twins better than that over here. But come now--hasn't it occurred to you you might marry one of them, and so become quite naturally related to them both?”

Mr. Twist's spectacles seemed to grow gigantic.

”Marry one of them?” he repeated, his mouth helplessly opening.