If I am, why, then, you see, I shall really be earning my own living; you will not have to give up your own home and all your interests there to make me comfortable: you can--""Here! here!" Captain Elisha put in, desperately; "don't talk so ridiculous, Caroline. I ain't givin' up anything. I never was more happy than I've been right here with you this summer. I'm satisfied.""I know, but I am not. And neither is Steve. He and I have planned it all. His salary at first will be small, and so will mine. But together we can earn enough to live somehow and, later on, when he earns more, perhaps we may be able to repay a little of all that you have given us. We shall try. _I_ shall insist upon it.""Caroline Warren, is THAT the reason you sent Jim away? Did you tell him that? Did you tell him you wouldn't marry him on account of me?""No, of course I did not," indignantly. "I told him--I said I must not think of marriage; it was impossible. And it is! You KNOW it is, Uncle Elisha!""I don't know any such thing. If you want to make me happy, Caroline, you couldn't find a better way than to be Jim Pearson's wife. And you would be happy, too; you said so.""But I am not thinking of happiness. It is my duty--to you and to my own self-respect. And not only that, but to Steve. Someone must provide a home for him. Neither he nor I will permit you to do it a day longer than is necessary. I am his sister and I shall not leave him.""But you won't have to leave him. Steve's future's all fixed.
I've provided for Steve."
"What do you mean?"
"What I say." The captain was very much excited and, for once, completely off his guard. "I've had plans for Steve all along.
He's doin' fust-rate in that broker's office, learnin' the trade.
Next summer he'll have another whack at it and learn more. When he's out of college I'm goin' to turn over your dad's seat on the Stock Exchange to him. Not give it to him, you know--not right off--but let him try; and then, if he makes a good fist at it, he'll have it permanent. Steve's got the best chance in the world.
He couldn't ask much better, seems to me. You ain't got to fret yourself about Steve."He paused, almost out of breath. He had been speaking rapidly so as to prevent interruption. Caroline's astonishment was too great for words, just then. Her uncle anxiously awaited her reply.
"You see, don't you?" he asked. "You understand. Steve's goin' to have the chance to make a good livin' at the very thing he declares he's set on doin'. I ain't told him, and I don't want you to, but it's what I've planned for him and--""Wait! wait, Uncle, please! The Stock Exchange seat? Father's seat? I don't see . . . I don't understand.""Yes, yes!" eagerly; "your pa's seat. I've meant it for Steve.
There's been chances enough to sell it, but I wouldn't do that.
'Twas for him, Caroline; and he's goin' to have it.""But I don't see how . . . Why, I thought--"The door of the dining room opened. Annie appeared on the threshold.
"Dinner is served," she announced.
"Be right there, Annie. Now you see that you ain't got to worry about Steve, don't you, Caroline?"His niece did not answer. By the light from the doorway he saw that she was gazing at him with a strange expression. She looked as if she was about to ask another question. He waited, but she did not ask it.
"Well," he said, rising, "we won't talk any more just now. Annie's soup's gettin' cold, and she'll be in our wool if we don't have dinner. Afterwards we can have another session. Come, Caroline."She also rose, but hesitated. "Uncle Elisha," she said, "will you excuse me if I don't talk any more to-night? And, if you don't mind, I won't dine with you. I'm not hungry and--and my head aches. I'll go to my room, I think.""Yes, yes," he said, hastily, "of course. I'm afraid I've talked too much as 'tis. You go up and lie down, and Annie can fetch you some toast and tea or somethin' by and by. But do just answer me this, Caroline, if you can: When you told Jim marryin' was out of the question for you, did he take that as final? Was he contented with that? Didn't he say he was willin' to wait for you, or anything?""Yes, he said he would wait, always. But I told him he must not.
And I told him he must go and not see me again. I couldn't see him as I have been doing; Uncle, I couldn't!""I know, dearie, I know. But didn't you say anything more? Didn't you give him ANY hope?""I said," she hesitated, and added in a whisper, "I said if Ishould ever need him or--or change my mind, I would send for him.
I shouldn't have said it. It was weak and wicked of me, but I said it. Please let me go now, Uncle dear. Good night."She kissed him and hurried away. He ate his lonely dinner absent-mindedly and with little appetite. After it was finished he sat in the living room, the lamp still unlighted, smoking and thinking.
And in her chamber Caroline, too, sat thinking--not altogether of the man she loved and who loved her. She thought of him, of course; but there was something else, an idea, a suspicion, which over and over again she dismissed as an utter impossibility, but which returned as often.
The Stock Exchange seat had been a part of her father's estate, a part of her own and Steve's inheritance. Sylvester had told her so, distinctly. And such a seat was valuable; she remembered her brother reading in the paper that one had recently sold for ninety thousand dollars. How could Captain Warren have retained such a costly part of the forfeited estate in his possession? For it was in his possession; he was going to give it to her brother when the latter left college. But how could he have obtained it? Not by purchase; for, as she knew, he was not worth half of ninety thousand dollars. Surely the creditor, the man who had, as was his right, seized all Rodgers Warren's effects, would not have left that and taken the rest. Not unless he was a curiously philanthropic and eccentric person. Who was he? Who was this mysterious man her father had defrauded? She had never wished to know before; now she did. And the more she pondered, the more plausible her suspicion became. It was almost incredible, it seemed preposterous; but, as she went back, in memory, over the events since her father's death and the disclosure of his astonishing will, little bits of evidence, little happenings and details came to light, trifles in themselves, but all fitting in together, like pieces of an inscription in mosaic, to spell the truth.