Part 25 (1/2)
”That paying teller got twenty years in prison for his penmans.h.i.+p,” said Maude. ”Father thought you were the bad man until Aunt Ella sent the message that led father to investigate and find out who deposited the check. I was awful glad that you got out of it so nicely.”
”So was I,” said Reginald. ”I hope some day I can help somebody else out of a bad box just to show my grat.i.tude.”
Maude thought of her ”bad box,” but Reginald could not help her or Harry.
”Are you going to India?” she asked. ”How is it that you are not with the army?”
”I have sold my captaincy. Florence did not wish me to leave her, and my eldest brother decided the matter. He hates farming and accounts. I love both, so I am in charge of the estate. My brother Paul has been given a living as they call it in the church, and Geoffrey has entered the navy.
My brother Wilfred will inherit the t.i.tle, so we are all provided for.”
Aunt Ella and Alice had many long confabs about the young couple, and how to reinstate Maude in her father's good graces when the truth became known to him.
”I have an idea,” said Alice one morning to Aunt Ella. ”Yesterday I had a letter from Dr. Paul Culver, one of the executors of Quincy's will. He says his practice is so great that he cannot do justice to my interests, and asks me to suggest some one to be appointed in his stead.”
”What's your idea? Though perhaps I can guess,” said Aunt Ella.
”I am going to suggest Mr. Merry. I had many talks with him while you were away with Maude, and I am deeply impressed in his favour. Are you surprised?”
”Not so much as you will be when I tell you that Florence and her husband are going back with Maude. Harry will have to go too, so something must be done. Now, you know that I gave Quincy an allowance of five thousand dollars a year when he was married. I am going to give it to Harry.”
”And why not let them live in the Mount Vernon Street house--until--”
Her voice broke.
”I know what you were going to say, Alice. It is a good idea--all furnished and ready for occupancy. I shall never see it again--and you may not for years--for I can't spare you.”
”When do they sail?” Alice asked.
”In about a week. I'm going to write a letter to Sarah to-night to pave the way.”
It was midnight when Aunt Ella completed a letter that seemed to fit the case.
”MY DEAR SISTER SARAH:--I write to let you know that Florence and her husband will sail for America in about a week. This may not be news to you, for probably Florence has written you, but it will be news when I tell you that Maude and her husband, Mr. Merry, will sail on the same steamer. They have visited Florence and are now here with me.
”I presume Nathaniel will be very angry, and he may say that I am responsible, as he did in Quincy's case. I did help Quincy and Alice and I am going to help Maude and Harry. I am going to allow them five thousand a year and Alice gives them the free use of the Mount Vernon Street house. She has written Nathaniel about Mr. Merry taking Dr.
Culver's place as one of Quincy's executors.
”Now, if Nathaniel gets very angry and threatens to disinherit Maude, just ask him, for me, why it is that all his children have been married away from home. Has it always been their fault, or is his home discipline in part, or wholly, the cause? It didn't make so much difference in Quincy's case, but here in England no girl is married outside of her father's house, unless it be in church.
”Your children are now all married, and, I think, well married. Let Nathaniel make the best of it, and, instead of keeping up a family warfare, change his tactics and become an indulgent, loving father.
”Your sister,
”ELLA.
”P. S. Let Nathaniel read this letter. It will do him good.”
Aunt Ella read her letter over before sealing it. There was a quiet smile on her face as she pressed the seal upon the melted wax. Then she soliloquized: