It was thus that poor little Alisa Bennett assumed maternal
responsibilities at the age of ten, and gained her sobriquet of 'Marm
Lisa.' She grew more human, more tractable, under Mr. Grubb's
fostering care; but that blessed martyr had now been dead two years,
and she began to wear her former vacuous look, and to slip back into
the past that was still more dreadful than the present.
It seemed to Mrs. Grubb more than strange that she, with her desire
for freedom, should be held to earth by three children not flesh of
her flesh--and such children. The father of the twins had been a
professional pugilist, but even that fact could never sufficiently
account for Pacific Simonson. She had apparently inherited instincts
from tribes of warlike ancestors who skulked behind trees with
battle-axes, and no one except her superior in size and courage was
safe from her violent hand. She had little, wicked, dark eyes and
crimson, swollen cheeks, while Atlantic had flaxen hair, a low
forehead, and a square jaw. He had not Pacific's ingenuity in
conceiving evil; but when it was once conceived, he had a dogged
persistency in carrying it out that made him worthy of his twin.
Yet with all these crosses Mrs. Grubb was moderately cheerful, for
her troubles were as nebulous as everything else to her mind.
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