"I suppose even a man bred to the sea loses the look of a sailor if he lives inland long enough," Ba.s.sett observed.
"I think my brief interview with him rather indicated that he had been a man of action--the old discipline of the ship may have been in that,"
remarked Harwood. Then, fearing that he might be laying himself open to questions that he should have to avoid answering, he said: "Kelton wrote a good deal on astronomical subjects, and his textbooks have been popular. Sylvia Garrison, the granddaughter, is something of a wonder herself."
"Bright girl, is she?"
"Quite so; and very nice to look at. I met her on the train when I went to Boston with those bonds in January. She was going back to college after the holidays. She"s very interesting--quite different."
"Different?" repeated Ba.s.sett vaguely, dropping back in his chair, but again referring absently to the letter.
"Yes," Dan smiled. "She has a lot of individuality. She"s a serious young person; very practical-minded, I should say. They tell me she walks through mathematics like a young d.u.c.h.ess through the minuet. Some other Wellesley girls were on the train and they did not scruple to attribute miraculous powers to her; a good sign, other girls liking her so much. They were very frank in their admiration."
"Mrs. Owen had her at Waupegan several years ago, and my wife and Marian met her there. Mrs. Ba.s.sett was greatly impressed by her fine mind. It seems to me I saw her, too, that summer; but of course she"s grown up since then."
He glanced at Harwood as though for confirmation of these details, but Dan"s thoughts were elsewhere. He was thinking of Sylvia speeding homeward, and of the little cottage beside the campus. His subsequent meetings with Sylvia had caused a requickening of all the impressions of his visit to Professor Kelton, and he had been recalling that errand again to-day. The old gentleman had given his answer with decision; Harwood recalled the crisp biting-off of the negative, and the Professor had lifted his head slightly as he spoke the word. Dan remembered the peace of the cottage, the sweet scents of June blowing through the open windows; and he remembered Sylvia as she had opened the door, and their colloquy later, on the campus.
"You"d better go to Montgomery with Miss Garrison and report to Mrs.
Owen for any service you may render her. Does the old gentleman"s death leave the girl alone?"
"Quite so, I think. She had lived with him nearly all her life. The papers mentioned no other near relatives."
"I"ll be in town a day or two. You do what you can over there for Mrs.
Owen."
That evening, returning to the office to clear off his desk in preparation for his absence the next day, Dan found Ba.s.sett there. This was unusual; Ba.s.sett rarely visited the office at night. He had evidently been deeply occupied with his thoughts, for when Dan entered he was sitting before his closed desk with his hat on. He nodded, and a few moments later pa.s.sed through the library on his way out.
"Suppose I won"t see you to-morrow. Well, I"m going to be in town a few days. Take your time."
Dan Harwood never doubted that he loved Sally Owen after that dark day of Sylvia"s home-coming. From the time Sylvia stepped from the train till the moment when, late that same afternoon, just as the shadows were gathering, Andrew Kelton was buried with academic and military honors befitting his two-fold achievements, Mrs. Owen had shown the tenderness of the gentlest of mothers to the forlorn girl. The scene at the grave sank deep into Dan"s memory--the patriarchal figure of Dr. Wandless, with the faculty and undergraduates ranged behind him; the old minister"s voice lifted in a benediction that thrilled with a note of triumphant faith; and the hymn sung by the students at the end, boys"
voices, sweet and clear, floating off into the sunset. And nothing in Dan"s life had ever moved him so much as when Mrs. Owen, standing beside Sylvia and representing in her gaunt figure the whole world of love and kindness, bent down at the very end and kissed the sobbing girl and led her away.
Harwood called on Mrs. Owen at the cottage in Buckeye Lane that evening. She came down from Sylvia"s room and met him in the little library, which he found unchanged from the day of his visit five years before.
"That little girl is a hero," she began. "I guess she"s about the lonesomest girl in the world to-night. Andrew Kelton was a man and a good one. He hadn"t been well for years, the doctor tells me; trouble with his heart, but he kept it to himself; didn"t want to worry the girl. I tell you everything helps at a time like this. Admiral Martin came over to represent the Navy, and you saw the G.A.R. there; it caught me in the throat when the bugle blew good-night for Andrew. Sylvia will rally and go on and do some big thing. It"s in her. I reckon she"ll have to go back to college, this being her last year. Too bad the commencement"s all spoiled for her."
"Yes; she won"t have much heart for it; but she must get her degree."
"She"ll need a rest after this. I"ll go back with her, and then I"m going to take her up to Waupegan with me for the summer. There are some things to settle about her, and I"m glad you stayed. Andrew owned this house, but I shouldn"t think Sylvia would want to keep it: houses in a town like this are a nuisance if you don"t live where you can watch the tenants," she went on, her practical mind a.s.serting itself.
"I suppose--" Dan began and then hesitated. It gave him a curious feeling to be talking of Sylvia"s affairs in this way.
"Go on, Daniel,"--this marked a departure; she had never called him by his first name before. "I"m closer to that girl than anybody, and I"m glad to talk to you about her affairs."
"I suppose there will be something for her; she"s not thrown on her own resources?"
"I guess he didn"t make any will, but what he left is Sylvia"s. He had a brother in Los Angeles, who died ten years ago. He was a rich man, and left a big fortune to his children. If there"s no will there"ll have to be an administrator. Sylvia"s of age and she won"t need a guardian."
Dan nodded. He knew Mrs. Owen well enough by this time to understand that she usually perfected her plans before speaking, and that she doubtless had decided exactly how Andrew Kelton"s estate should be administered.
"I"m going to ask the court to appoint you administrator, Daniel. You ever acted? Well, you might as well have the experience. I might take it myself, but I"m pretty busy and there"ll be some running back and forth to do. You come back in a day or two and we"ll see how things stand by that time. As soon as Sylvia gets rested she"ll go back to college to finish up, and then come to me for the summer."
"She might not like my having anything to do with her affairs," Dan suggested. "I shouldn"t want to seem to be intruding."
"Oh, Sylvia likes you well enough. The main thing is getting somebody that you"ve got confidence in. I know some people here, and I guess the court will do about what we want."
"I should have to come over here frequently until everything was settled," Dan added, thinking of his duties in the city. "I suppose if you find it possible for me to serve that I shall have to get Mr.
Ba.s.sett"s consent; he pays for my time, you know."
"That"s right, you ask him; but be sure to tell him that I want it to be that way. Morton won"t make any fuss about it. I guess you do enough work for him. What"s he paying you, Daniel?"
"Eighteen hundred since he got the paper-mill receivership."
She made no comment, but received the intelligence in silence. He knew from the characteristic quick movement of her eyelids that she was pondering the equity of this carefully; and his loyalty to Ba.s.sett a.s.serting itself, he added, defensively:--
"It"s more than I could begin to make any other way; and he"s really generous about my time--he"s made it plain that he wants me to keep up my reading."
"They don"t read much after they"re admitted, do they? I thought when you got admitted you knew it all."
"Not if you mean to be a real lawyer," said Dan, smiling.
"Well, I guess you had better go now. I don"t want to leave Sylvia alone up there, poor little girl. I"ll let you know when to come back."
CHAPTER XV
A SURPRISE AT THE COUNTRY CLUB
"That"s all right. I shall be glad to have you serve Mrs. Owen in any way. It"s a good deal of a compliment that she thought of you in that connection. Go ahead, and call on me if I can help you. You"ll have to furnish local bondsmen. See what"s required and let me know."
Such was Ba.s.sett"s reply when Harwood asked his permission to serve as administrator of Andrew Kelton"s estate. Ba.s.sett was a busy man, and his domestic affairs often gave him concern. He had talked to Harwood a good deal about Marian, several times in fits of anger at her extravagance.
His wife retired fitfully to sanatoriums, and he had been obliged to undertake the supervision of his children"s schooling. Blackford was safe for the time in a military school, and Marian had been tutored for a year at home. The idea of a college course for Marian had been, since Sylvia appeared, a mania with Mrs. Ba.s.sett. Marian had not the slightest interest in the matter, and Ba.s.sett was weary of the struggle, and sick of the idea, that only by a college career for her could Mrs. Owen"s money be a.s.sured to his children. Mrs. Ba.s.sett being now at a rest cure in Connecticut, and Ba.s.sett, much away from home, and seeing nothing to be gained by keeping his daughter at Fraserville, had persuaded Miss Waring to take her as a special student, subject to the discipline of the school, but permitted to elect her own studies. It was only because Ba.s.sett was a man she liked to please that the princ.i.p.al accepted Marian, now eighteen years old, on this anomalous basis. Marian was relieved to find herself freed of the horror of college, but she wished to be launched at once upon a social career; and the capital and not Fraserville must be the scene of her introduction. Ba.s.sett was merely tiding over the difficult situation until his wife should be able to deal with it. Marian undoubtedly wheedled her father a good deal in the manner of handsome and willful daughters. She had rarely experienced his anger; but the remembrance of these occasions rose before her as the shadowy background of any filial awe she may be said to have had.
Ba.s.sett asked Dan to accompany him and Marian to the Country Club for dinner one evening while Harwood still waited for Mrs. Owen"s summons to Montgomery. Picking up Marian at Miss Waring"s, they drove out early and indulged in a loitering walk along the towpath of the old ca.n.a.l, not returning to the clubhouse until after seven. When they had found a table on the veranda, Dan turned his head slightly and saw Thatcher, Allen, and Pett.i.t, the Fraserville editor, lounging in after-dinner ease at a table in a dim corner.
"Why, there"s Mr. Thatcher," exclaimed Marian.
"And if that isn"t Mr. Pett.i.t! I didn"t know he ever broke into a place like this."
They all bowed to the trio. Thatcher waved his hand.
"Mr. Pett.i.t," observed Ba.s.sett dryly, "is a man of the world and likely to break in anywhere."
His manner betrayed no surprise; he asked Marian to order dinner, and bowed to a tableful of golfers, where an acquaintance was whispering his name to some guests from out of town.