Part 42 (2/2)

Miss Peasley smiled. ”We used to wonder why Elizabeth kept runnin' to the judge's all the time,” she said. ”He was sick and feeble and we thought 'twas queer her pesterin' him so. _Now_--well, it pays to hang around sick folks, don't it? They're easier to coax, maybe, than the well kind.... Course I ain't sayin' there was any coaxin' done.”

Little Mrs. Tidditt's feathers had begun to rise. ”Oh, no!” she snapped.

”You ain't _sayin'_ anything, any of you. Judge Knowles was business head of this--this old cats' home afore he app'inted Cap'n Kendrick to the job, and you know that. Elizabeth _had_ to go to him about all sorts of money matters, and you know that, too. As for her tryin' to coax him to leave her money, that's just rubbish. He always liked her, thought the world of her ever since she was a little girl, and he left her the twenty thousand because of that and for no other reason. That's why _I_ think he left it to her; but, if some of the rest of you would be better satisfied, I'll tell her what you say--or _ain't_ sayin', Desire--and let her answer it herself.”

This not being at all what Miss Peasley and the others wished, no more was said about undue influence at the time. But much was said at times when the pugnacious Esther was not present, and there was marked speculation concerning what Miss Berry would do with her money, what Mr.

Phillips would do when he returned to Bayport, whether or not Cordelia Berry would continue to be matron at the Harbor, and what Sears Kendrick's plans for the future might be.

”Of course,” said Mrs. Brackett, ”the judge fixed it so he would get his fifteen hundred so long as he stays manager. But will he stay long?

There's Mr. Phillips to be considered now, I should think. _He'll_ have somethin' to say about the--er--retreat his wife founded, won't he?”

Mrs. Constance Cahoon made a remark.

”George Kent'll come in for a nice windfall some of these days, it looks like,” she observed, significantly. ”What makes you look so funny, Elviry?”

Miss Snowden smiled. ”Will he?” she inquired.

”Well, won't he? When he marries Elizabeth----”

”Yes. Yes, _when_ he does.”

”Well, he's goin' to, ain't he? Why, he's been keepin' comp'ny with her for two years. Everybody cal'lates they're engaged.”

”Yes. But _they_ don't say they are.... Oh, what is it Aurora?”

Mrs. Chase, who had been listening with her hand at her ears, had caught a little of the conversation.

”If you mean her and George Kent is engaged, Constance,” she declared, ”they ain't. I asked Elizabeth if they was, myself, asked her much as a month ago, and she said no. Pretty nigh took my head off, too.”

Elvira's smile broadened. She nodded, slowly and with mysterious significance. ”I'm not so sure about that engagement,” she observed.

”Some things I've seen lately have set me to thinking. To thinking a good deal.... Um ... yes. It looks to me as if somebody--_somebody_, I mention no names--may have had a hint of what was coming and began to lay plans according.... No, I shan't say any more--now. And I give in that it seems too perfectly ridiculous to believe. But things like that sometimes do happen, and ... Well, we'll wait and see.”

Happy in the knowledge that she had aroused curiosity as well as envy of her superior knowledge, she subsided. Mrs. Tidditt concluded that portion of the discussion.

”Well,” she remarked, crisply, ”I don't see why we need to sit here talkin' about engagements or folks' gettin' married. n.o.body has shown any symptoms of wantin' to marry any of _this_ crowd, so far as I can make out.”

While the town was at the very height of its agitation concerning the Knowles will, there came another earthquake. Egbert Phillips returned.

He alighted from the train at the Bayport depot on the second morning of Sears's imprisonment in the spare stateroom and before night the information that he imparted--confidentially, of course--and the hints he gave concerning his plans for the future, made the Berry legacies and all the other legacies take second place as gossip kindlers.

Judah came rus.h.i.+ng into the house later that afternoon, his arms full of bundles--purchases at Eliphalet's store--and his mouth full of words. He dropped everything, eggs, salt fish, tea and shoe laces, on the kitchen table and tore pell-mell into his lodger's bedroom. Captain Kendrick, propped up with pillows, was of course stretched out in bed. There was what appeared to be a letter in his hand, a letter apparently just received, for a recently opened envelope lay on the comforter beside him, and upon his face was an expression of bewilderment, surprise and marked concern. Judah was too intent upon his news to notice anything else and Sears hastily gathered up letter and envelope and thrust them beneath the pillow. Then Judah broke loose.

Egbert had come back, had come back to Bayport to live, for good. He had come on the morning train. Lots of folks saw him; some of them had talked with him. ”And what do you cal'late, Cap'n Sears? You'll never guess in _this_ world! By the crawlin' prophets, he swears he ain't rich, the way all hands figured out he was. No, sir, he ain't! 'Cordin'

to his tell he ain't got no money at all, scarcely. All them stocks and--and bonds and--and securitums and such like have gone on the rocks.

They was unfort'nate infestments, he says. He says he's in straightened out circ.u.mstances, whatever they be, but he's come back here to spend his declinin' days--that's what Joe Macomber says he called 'em, his declinin' days--in Bayport, 'cause he loves the old place, 'count of Lobelia, his wife, lovin' it so, and he can maybe scratch along here on what income he's got, and--and----”

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