Part 21 (2/2)
It was Antonia, who had come in un.o.bserved. She wore a felt hat with one little feather on it, driving-gloves, and a dark cloth dress. She stood, rosy with driving, her blonde curls cl.u.s.tering in airy confusion about her forehead, a tailor-gowned Brunhilde.
”Why, h.e.l.lo, Antonia!” said Jim. ”He went away some time ago. Wasn't that a corking good speech? Ah! You never know the value of an old friend until you use him as audience at the dress rehearsal of a speech!
Pacers or trotters?”
”Pacers,” said she, ”Storm and The Friar.”
”If you'll let me drive,” he stipulated, ”I'd like to go home with you.”
”n.o.body but myself,” said she, ”ever drives this team. You'd spoil The Friar's temper with that unyielding wrist of yours; but if you are good, you may hold the ends of the lines, and say 'Dap!' occasionally.”
And down to the street we went together, our cares dismissed. Jim handed Antonia into the trap, and they spun away toward Lynhurst, apparently the happiest people in Lattimore.
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Going Away of Laura and Clifford, and the Departure of Mr. Trescott.
”Thet little quirly thing there,” said Mr. Trescott, spreading a map out on my library table and pointing with his trembling and k.n.o.bby forefinger, ”is Wolf Nose Crick. It runs into the Cheyenne, down about there, an' 's got worlds o' water fer any sized herds, an' carries yeh back from the river fer twenty-five miles. There's a big spring at the head of it, where the ranch buildin's is; an' there's a clump o' timber there--box elders an' cottonwoods, y' know. Now see the advantage I'll have. Other herds'll hev to traipse back an' forth from gra.s.s to water an' from water to gra.s.s, a-runnin' theirselves poor; an' all the time I'll hev livin' water right in the middle o' my range.”
His wife and daughter had carefully nursed him through the fever, as Dr.
Aylesbury called it, and for two weeks Mr. Trescott was seen by no one else. Then from our windows Alice and I could see him about his grounds, at work amongst his shrubbery, or busying himself with his horses and carriages. Josie had transformed herself into a woman of business, and every day she went to her father's office, opened his mail, and held business consultations. Whenever it was necessary for papers to be executed, Josie went with the lawyer and notary to the Trescott home for the signing.
The Trescott and Tolliver business brought her into daily contact with the Captain. He used to open the doors between their offices, and have the mail sorted for Josie when she came in. There was something of homage in the manner in which he received her into the office, and laid matters of business before her. It was something larger and more expansive than can be denoted by the word courtesy or politeness.
”Captain,” she would say, with the half-amused smile with which she always rewarded him, ”here is this notice from the Grain Belt Trust Company about the interest on twenty-five thousand dollars of bonds which they have advanced to us. Will you please explain it?”
”Sutt'nly, Madam, sutt'nly,” replied he, using a form of address which he adopted the first time she appeared as Bill's representative in the business, and which he never cheapened by use elsewhere. ”Those bonds ah debentures, which--”
”But what _are_ debentures, Captain?” she inquired.
”Pahdon me, my deah lady,” said he, ”fo' not explaining that at fuhst!
Those ah the debentures of the Trescott Development Company, fawmed to build up Trescott's Addition. We sold those lands on credit, except fo'
a cash payment of one foath the purchase-price. This brought to us, as you can see, Madam, a lahge amount of notes, secured by fuhst mortgages on the Trescott's Addition properties. These notes and mortgages we deposited with the Grain Belt Trust Company, and issued against them the bonds of the Trescott Development Company--debentures--and the G. B. T.
people floated these bonds in the East and elsewhah. This interest mattah was an ovahsight; I should have looked out fo' it, and not put the G. B. T. to the trouble of advancing it; but as we have this mawnin'
on deposit with them several thousand dollahs from the sale of the Tolliver's Subdivision papah, the thing becomes a mattah of no impo'tance whatevah!”
”But,” went on Josie, ”how shall we be able to pay the next installment of interest, and the princ.i.p.al, when it falls due?”
”Amply provided foh, my deah Madam,” said the Captain, waving his arm; ”the defe'ed payments and the interest on them will create an ample sinking fund!”
”But if they don't?” she inquired.
”That such a contingency can possibly arise, Madam,” said the Captain in his most impressive orotund, and with his hand thrust into the bosom of his Prince Albert coat, ”is something which my loyalty to Lattimore, my faith in my fellow citizens, my confidence in Mr. Elkins and Mr.
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