Part 22 (2/2)
”Don't worry about me,” she remarked kindly. ”Just as soon as I finish my errands I shall start home.”
”You'd be wise to.”
As the mare scuffed off down the road, amid a cloud of dust, Lucy entered the store.
A stuffy odor of coffee, mola.s.ses, and calico greeted her; so, too, did Elias Barnes, who came forward from behind the counter, extending his damp and sticky palm and showing every tooth that an expansive smile permitted.
”So it's you, Miss Lucy,” he observed with pleasure. ”I was expecting to see your aunt. She was here the other day.”
”Yes, she drove to town last Friday.”
”Came on an interestin' errand, too,” chirped Elias. ”Leastwise, I 'magine 'twas interestin' to you.” He grinned slyly.
”Why?”
”Why?” repeated the man, taken aback. ”Because--well, ain't such things always interestin'?”
”What things?”
Elias stared, uncertain as to how to proceed.
Was it possible the girl was ignorant of her aunt's mission?
”Mebbe you didn't know Miss Webster's errand in town,” he began eagerly.
”I know she went to see Mr. Benton and get her will made, if that is what you mean.”
”An' don't you call that interestin'?” demanded the discomfited Elias.
”Not particularly.”
The storekeeper gasped.
”Likely the matter was all cut an' dried an' nothin' new to you,”
persisted he, with a wan, disappointed smile. ”There warn't much choice left your aunt, fur as relatives went, was there? Still, I reckon she couldn't 'a' found a better one to pa.s.s her property on to than you,”
concluded the man with a leer.
”What makes you so sure she has pa.s.sed it on to me?” inquired Lucy, annoyed.
”Well, ain't she?”
”I don't know.”
”You don't--by thunder! She ain't told you nothin'?”
”Certainly not.”
Elias looked puzzled.
”Why,” he said, ”most folks thought that was the condition that brought you to Sefton Falls. Surely nothin' but some sort of a reward, an' a big one, too, would coax a body to come an' live with such a----”
<script>