“And now you want to?”

Adam dropped his eyes. “It’s not curiosity. But I would like to know what kind of blood is in my boys. When they grow up—won’t I be looking for something in them?”

“Yes, you will. And I will warn you now that not their blood but your suspicion might build evil in them. They will be what you expect of them.”

“But their blood—”

“I don’t very much believe in blood,” said Samuel. “I think when a man finds good or bad in his children he is seeing only what he planted in them after they cleared the womb.”

“You can’t make a race horse of a pig.”

“No,” said Samuel, “but you can make a very fast pig.”

“No one hereabouts would agree with you. I think even Mrs. Hamilton would not.”

“That’s exactly right. She most of all would disagree, and so I would not say it to her and let loose the thunder of her disagreement. She wins all arguments by the use of vehemence and the conviction that a difference of opinion is a personal affront. She’s a fine woman, but you have to learn to feel your way with her. Let’s speak of the boys.”

“Will you have another drink?”

“That I will, thank you. Names are a great mystery. I’ve never known whether the name is molded by the child or the child changed to fit the name. But you can be sure of this—whenever a human has a nickname it is a proof that the name given him was wrong. How do you favor the standard names—John or James or Charles?”

Adam was looking at the twins and suddenly with the mention of the name he saw his brother peering out of the eyes of one of the boys. He leaned forward.

“What is it?” Samuel asked.

“Why,” Adam cried, “these boys are not alike! They don’t look alike.”

“Of course they don’t. They’re not identical twins.”

“That one—that one looks like my brother. I just saw it. I wonder if the other looks like me.”

“Both of them do. A face has everything in it right back to the beginning.”

“It’s not so much now,” said Adam. “But for a moment I thought I was seeing a ghost.”

“Maybe that’s what ghosts are,” Samuel observed.

Lee brought dishes out and put them on the table.

“Do you have Chinese ghosts?” Samuel asked.

“Millions,” said Lee. “We have more ghosts than anything else. I guess nothing in China ever dies. It’s very crowded. Anyway, that’s the feeling I got when I was there.”

Samuel said, “Sit down, Lee. We’re trying to think of names.”

“I’ve got chicken frying. It will be ready pretty soon.”

Adam looked up from the twins and his eyes were warmed and softened. “Will you have a drink, Lee?”

“I’m nipping at the og-ka-py in the kitchen,” said Lee and went back to the house.

Samuel leaned down and gathered up one of the boys and held him on his lap. “Take that one up,” he said to Adam. “We ought to see whether there’s something that draws names to them.”