"Humph! Well, take my advice and don't. Yachts are all right, to have a good time on, but they cost like the devil to keep up. An auto is bad enough. By the way, Sylvester, did you hear about my running over the Irishman this morning?""Running over?" repeated the captain, aghast. "You didn't run over nobody, I hope.""Well, I came devilish near it. Ha! ha! You see, the old tarrier was crossing Saint Nicholas Avenue, with a big market basket full of provisions--the family dinner, I suppose. By Jove, the household appetites must be good ones. It was slippery as the mischief, I was running the car, and I tried to go between the fellow and the curb. It would have been a decent bit of steering if I'd made it. But--ha! ha!--by Jove, you know, I didn't. Iskidded. The man himself managed to hop out of the way, but his foot slipped, and down he went. Most ridiculous thing you ever saw. And the street! 'Pon my word it was paved with eatables."Sylvester, plainly annoyed, did not reply. But Captain Elisha's concern was evident.
"The poor critter!" he exclaimed. "What did you do?""The last I saw of him he was sitting in the mud, looking at the upset. I didn't linger. Peters took the wheel, and we beat it.
Lucky the cop didn't spot the license number. Might have cost me fifty. They've had me up for speeding twice before. What are you and the Admiral discussing, Sylvester?""We were discussing a business matter," answered the lawyer, with significant emphasis.
"Business? Why, sure! I forgot that you were Graves's partner.
Settling the family affairs, hey? Well, I won't butt in. Ta, ta!
See you later, Captain. You must go for a spin in that car of mine. I'll call for you some day. I'll show you something they don't do on Cape Cod. Regards to Caro and Steve."He moved off, feeling that his invitation would have met with his mother's approval. She had announced that the country uncle was to be "cultivated."Captain Elisha's cigar had gone out. He did not attempt to relight it.
"Whew!" he whistled. "Well, when I go for a 'spin,' as he calls it, with HIM, I cal'late my head'll be spinnin' so I won't be responsible for my actions. Whew!"Sylvester looked curiously at him.
"So you met him before?" he asked.
"Yes. He was at the rooms when I fust landed. Or his mother was there then. He came a little later with Caroline and Stephen.""I see."
"Yes. Know him and his ma pretty well, do you?""Slightly. I've met them, at mutual acquaintances' homes and about town.""Pretty well fixed, I s'pose, ain't they?"
"I presume so. I don't know."
"Um. He's a sociable young feller, ain't he? Don't stand on any ceremony, hey? Caro and Steve think a lot of him and his mother.""Yes. Graves has told me the Dunns were very intimate with the Warrens. In fact, just before your brother's death, I remember hearing a rumor that the two families might be even closer connected.""You mean--er--Caroline and--er--him?"
"There was such a rumor. Probably nothing in it. There is no engagement, I am very sure.""Yes, yes, I see. Well, Mr. Sylvester, I must be trottin' on.
I'll think the whole business over for another day or so and then give you my decision, one way or the other.""You can't give it now?"
"No-o. I guess I'd better not. However, I think--""Yes."
"Well, I think I may take the job. Take it on trial, anyhow.""Good! I'm glad of it."
"You ARE?"
"I certainly am. And I'm very glad indeed to have made your acquaintance, Captain Warren. Good afternoon. I shall hope to see you again soon."Captain Elisha left the Central Club in a surprised frame of mind.
What surprised him was that a man of such thorough city training and habits as the senior partner of the law firm should express pleasure at the idea of his accepting the charge of A. Rodgers Warren's heirs and estate. Mr. Graves had shown no such feeling.
If he had heard Sylvester's report to Kuhn, at the office next day, he might have been even more surprised and pleased.
"He's a brick, Kuhn," declared the senior partner. "A countryman, of course, but a keen, able, honest man, and, I think, a mighty good judge of character. If I was as sure of his ability to judge investments and financial affairs, I should be certain the Warren children couldn't be in better hands. And no doubt we can help him when it comes to that. He'll probably handle the girl and boy in his own way, and his outside greenness may jar them a little. But it'll do them good to be jarred at their age. He's all right, and I hope he accepts the whole trust.""Well," exclaimed Mr. Kuhn; "you surprise me. Graves seemed to be--""Graves suffers from the absolute lack of a sense of humor. His path through life is about three feet wide and bordered with rock-ribbed conventionality. If a man has a joke in his system, Graves doesn't understand it and is suspicious. I tell, you, Kuhn, there's more honest common sense and ability in the right hand of this Down-East salt than there ever was in Rodgers Warren's whole body."