"Now, Alice, that is absurd. Of course he would know. He would have to know. A girl doesn"t inherit 5000 without her father"s knowing where it comes from. And, anyway, Mr. Carter said that Mr. Gray would have to make a statement and swear to it. Of course he would--know."
"Do you mean you don"t want me to have it at all?" Alice said, blankly.
"I"ve just explained it to you," Rebecca said, her voice harsh with anxiety. "You _can"t_ have it."
"But it"s my money; I have a right to it. And it would make all the difference in the world to Lute. If he is going to take a girl--like me, he ought to have the money, anyhow."
"And kill your father?" Rebecca said. "Alice! Don"t you see, he must go on believing that she is"--her voice grew suddenly tender--"that she is "a creature of light?""
"I want Lute to have the money," Alice said.
"Alice!" the other exclaimed, with dismay, "don"t you think of your father at all? And--for your mother"s sake."
Alice was silent; then, in a hard voice, "I don"t like her."
"Oh!" Rebecca cried, and shivered. There was a pause; then she said, faintly, "For your own sake?"
Alice looked up sullenly. "n.o.body need know; we would only say it had been left to--her. n.o.body would know."
Suddenly, as she spoke, despite the plain face and the red hair, Alice looked like her mother. Rebecca stepped back with a sort of shock.
Alice, crying a little, got up and began to pull down her hair and braid it, with unsteady fingers. Her step-mother watched her silently; then she turned to go away; then came back swiftly, the tears running down her face.
"Oh, Alice, it is my fault! I"ve had you twenty-two years, and yet you are like-- See, Alice, child; give her a chance to be kind to him, in you. Oh, I--I don"t know how to say it; I mean, let her have a chance!
Oh--don"t you see what I mean? She said she was sorry!" All the harshness had melted out of Rebecca"s face; she was nothing but gentleness, the tears falling down her cheeks, her voice broken with love. "Alice, be good, dear. Be good. Be good. And I--I _will_ be pleasanter, Alice; I"ll try, indeed; I"ll try--"
VI
"Well," said Mr. Amos Hughes, a week later, in the cool dusk of Dr.
Lavendar"s study, just before tea, "this is a most extraordinary situation, sir!"
"Will ye have a pipe?" said Dr. Lavendar, hospitably.
John Carter, his feet well apart, his back to the fireless grate, his hands thrust down into his pockets, said, looking over at his partner:
"Amos, Dr. Lavendar once remarked to me that there was no telling what human critters would do."
Dr. Lavendar chuckled.
"Very true," Amos Hughes admitted, putting one fat knee over the other; "but I must say that I never before knew a human critter throw away 5000."
"I"m sorry you haven"t had better acquaintances," said Dr. Lavendar.
"I have. I"m not in the least surprised at this child"s behavior. Mr.
Carter, are you looking for anything? You"ll find a decanter on the sideboard in the next room, sir. This is a pretty good world, Mr. Amos Hughes; I"ve lived in it longer than you have, so you"ll take my word for it. It"s a pretty good old world, and Miss Alice Gray has simply decided to do the natural and proper thing. Why, what else could she do?"
"I could mention at least one other thing," said Mr. Carter.
"Extraordinary situation! but I suppose the residuary legatees won"t make any objection," murmured Amos Hughes.
Dr. Lavendar rapped on the table with the bowl of his pipe. "My dear sir, would you have a girl, for a paltry 5000, break her father"s heart?"
"Her father?"
"Mr. Gray would not, in my judgment, survive such a revelation," said Dr. Lavendar, stiffly.
"May I ask one question?" John Carter said.
"G"on," said Dr. Lavendar.
"What I would like to know is: How did you bring Miss Gray to look at the thing in this way?"
"I didn"t bring her," said Dr. Lavendar, indignantly; "her Heavenly Father brought her. Look here, sir; this business of the law is all very well, and necessary, I suppose, in its way, but let me tell you, it"s a dangerous business. You see so much of the sin of human nature that you get to thinking human nature has got to sin. You are mistaken, sir; it has got to be decent. We are the children of G.o.d, sir. I beg that you"ll remember that--and then you won"t be surprised when a child like our Alice does the right thing. Surprise is confession, Mr. Carter."
Mr. Carter laughed, and apologized as best he could for his view of human nature; and Dr. Lavendar was instantly amicable and forgiving.
He took Mr. Amos Hughes"s warning, that he should, as a matter of duty, lay very clearly before the young lady the seriousness of what she proposed to do, and not until he had exhausted every argument would he permit her to sign the papers of release which (as a matter of precaution) he had prepared. "She"s of age," said Amos Hughes, "and n.o.body can say that she has not a right to refuse to proceed further in the matter. But I shall warn her."
""Course, man," said Dr. Lavendar; "that"s your trade."
And so the evening came, and the three men went up to Robert Gray"s house.
It was a long evening. More than once Dr. Lavendar trembled as he saw the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them spread before his child"s eyes. But he said no word, and once, sternly, he laid his hand on Rebecca"s arm to check some word of hers.
"Let her alone," he said.
It was eleven o"clock before there came a moment of solemn silence.
Alice bent over a paper, which John Carter had read aloud to her, and signed her name. Luther and Rebecca and Dr. Lavendar witnessed the signature. Then Rebecca Gray took the girl in her arms.
"That young man has got something to him," Mr. Amos Hughes said, as they went back to the Rectory.
"If you could put some printing in his way, it would be a favor to me,"
said Dr. Lavendar.
"I shouldn"t wonder if I could," the lawyer said.
"The girl is a fine creature, poor child," said Mr. Carter.
"Gentlemen," said Dr. Lavendar, "they are both good children, and they have behaved well; but there"s somebody else, let me tell you!"
However, he did not tell them. Perhaps he kept his opinion for Robert Gray"s ears, for once he said, smiling, in Rebecca"s presence:
"Robert, this wife of yours is a n.o.ble woman."
Mr. Gray, a little surprised, said, politely, looking with kind eyes at Rebecca, "Mrs. Gray is a very good wife, sir."
And Rebecca went up and hid herself in the garret and cried with joy.