w.i.l.l.y, who was of a fair complexion, reddened somewhat as she shook hands with the gentleman, informed him, in answer to his questions, that Mrs. Cliff was very well, that she was very well; that the former was at home and would be glad to see him, and that she herself was going into the business part of the town to make some little purchases.
She would have been better pleased if she had not been obliged to tell him where she was going, but she could not do otherwise when he said he supposed she was walking for the benefit of the fresh morning air. He added to her discomfiture by requesting to be allowed to walk with her, and by offering to carry her basket. This threw w.i.l.l.y"s mind into a good deal of a flutter. Why could she not have met this handsomely dressed gentleman sometime when she was not going to the grocery store to buy such things as stove-blacking and borax?
It seemed to her as if these commodities must suggest to the mind of any one rusty iron and obtrusive insects, and as articles altogether outside the pale of allusion in high-toned social intercourse.
It also struck her as a little odd that a gentleman should propose to accompany a lady when she was going on domestic errands; but then this gentleman was different from any she had known, and there were many ways of the world with which she was not at all acquainted.
Mr. Burke immediately began to speak of the visit of the day before. He had enjoyed seeing Mrs. Cliff again and he had never sat down to a better dinner.
"Yes," said w.i.l.l.y, "she likes good eatin", and she knows what it is, and if she had a bigger dining-room she would often invite people to dinner, and I expect the house would be quite lively, as she seems more given to company than she used to be, and that"s all right, considerin" she"s better able to afford it."
Mr. Burke took a deep satisfied breath. The opportunity had already come to him to speak his mind.
"Afford it!" said he. "I should think so! Mrs. Cliff must be very rich.
She is worth, I should say--well, I don"t know what to say, not knowing exactly and precisely what each person got when the grand division was made."
w.i.l.l.y"s loyalty to Mrs. Cliff prompted her to put her in as good a light as possible before this man of the world, and her own self-esteem prompted her to show that, being a friend and relative of this rich lady, she was not ignorant of her affairs in life.
"Oh, she"s rich!" said w.i.l.l.y. "I can"t say, of course, just how much she has, but I"m quite sure that she owns at least--"
w.i.l.l.y wished to put the amount of the fortune at one hundred thousand dollars, but she was a little afraid that this might be too much, and yet she did not wish to make the amount any smaller than could possibly be helped. So she thought of seventy-five, and then eighty, and finally remarked that Mrs. Cliff must be worth at least ninety thousand dollars.
Mr. Burke looked up at the sky and wanted to whistle.
"Ninety thousand dollars!" he said to himself. "I know positively that it was at least four millions at the time of the division, and she says she"s richer now than she was then, which is easy to be accounted for by the interest coming in. I see her game! She wants to keep shady about her big fortune because her neighbors would expect her to live up to it, and she knows it isn"t in her to live up to it. Now, I"m beginning to see through the fog." "It seems to me," said he, "that Mrs. Cliff ought to have a bigger dining-room."
This remark pulled up the flood-gate to w.i.l.l.y"s acc.u.mulated sentiments on the subject, and they poured forth in a rushing stream.
Yes, indeed, Mrs. Cliff ought to have a bigger dining-room, and other rooms to the house, and there was the front fence, and no end of things she ought to have, and it was soon made clear to Mr. Burke that w.i.l.l.y had been lying awake at night thinking, and thinking, and thinking about what Mrs. Cliff ought to have and what she did not have. She said she really and honestly believed that there was no reason at all why she did not have them, except that she did not want to seem to be setting herself up above her neighbors. In fact, Mrs. Cliff had told w.i.l.l.y two or three times, when there had been a discussion about prices, that she was able to do anything she wanted, and if she could do that, why did she not do it? People were all talking about it, and they had talked and talked her fortune down until in some families it was not any more than ten thousand dollars.
On and on talked w.i.l.l.y, while Mr. Burke said scarcely a word, but he listened with the greatest attention. They had now walked on until they had reached the main street of the little town, gone through the business part where the shops were, and out into the suburbs. Suddenly w.i.l.l.y stopped.
"Oh dear!" she exclaimed, "I"ve gone too far! I was so interested in talking, that I didn"t think."
"I"m sorry," said Mr. Burke, "that I"ve taken you out of your way. Can"t I get you what you want and save you the trouble?"
Now w.i.l.l.y was in another flutter. After the walk with the fur-trimmed coat, and the talk about dollars by thousands and tens of thousands, she could not come down to mention borax and blacking.
"Oh no, thank you!" said she, trying her best to think of some other errand than the one she had come upon. "I don"t believe it"s finished yet, and it"s hardly worth while to stop. There was one of those big cushion covers that she brought from Paris, that was to be filled with down, but I don"t believe it"s ready yet, and I needn"t stop."
Mr. Burke could not but think it a little odd that such a small basket should be brought for the purpose of carrying home a large down cushion, but he said nothing further on the subject. He had had a most gratifying conversation with this communicative and agreeable person, and his interest in Mrs. Cliff was greatly increased.
When he neared the hotel, he took leave of his companion, saying that he would call in the afternoon; and w.i.l.l.y, after she had looked back and was sure he was out of sight, slipped into the grocery store and got her borax and blacking.
Mr. Burke called on Mrs. Cliff that afternoon, and the next morning, and two or three times the day after. They came to be very much interested in each other, and Burke in his mind compared this elderly friend with his mother, and not to the advantage of the latter. Burke"s mother was a woman who would always have her own way, and wanted advice and counsel from no one, but Mrs. Cliff was a very different woman.
She was so willing to listen to what Burke said--and his remarks were nearly always on the subject of the proper expenditure of money--and appeared to attach so much importance to his opinions, that he began to feel that a certain responsibility, not at all an unpleasant one, was forcing itself upon him.
He did not think that he should try to const.i.tute himself her director, or even to a.s.sume the position of professional suggester, but in an amateur way he suggested, and she, without any idea of depending upon him for suggestions, found herself more and more inclined to accept them as he continued to offer them.
She soon discovered that he was the only person in Plainton who knew her real fortune, and this was a bond of sympathy and union between them, and she became aware that she had succeeded in impressing him with her desire to live upon her fortune in such a manner that it would not interfere with her friendships or a.s.sociations, and her lifelong ideas of comfort and pleasure.
The people of the town talked a great deal about the fine gentleman at the hotel, but they knew he was one of the people who had become rich in consequence of Captain Horn"s discovery; and some of them, good friends of Mrs. Cliff, felt sorry that she had not profited to as great a degree by that division as this gentleman of opulent taste, who occupied two of the best rooms in the hotel, and obliged Mr. Williams to send to Harrington, and even to Boston, for provisions suitable to his epicurean tastes, and who drove around the country with a carriage and pair at least once a day.
When Burke was ready to make his suggestions, he thought he would begin in a mild fashion, and see how Mrs. Cliff would take them.
"If I was in your place, madam," said he, "the first thing I would do would be to have a lot of servants. There"s nothin" money can give a person that"s better than plenty of people to do things. Lots of them on hand all the time, like the crew of a ship."
"But I couldn"t do that, Mr. Burke," said she; "my house is too small. I haven"t any place for servants to sleep. When I enlarge my house, of course, I may have more servants."
"Oh, I wouldn"t wait for that," said he; "until then you could board them at the hotel."
This suggestion was strongly backed by w.i.l.l.y Croup, and Mrs. Cliff took the matter to heart. She collected together a domestic establishment of as many servants as she thought her establishment could possibly provide with work, and, although she did not send them to be guests at the hotel, she obtained lodging for them at the house of a poor woman in the neighborhood.
When she had done this, she felt that she had made a step in the direction of doing her duty by her money.
Mr. Burke made another suggestion. "If I was you," said he, "I wouldn"t wait for times or seasons, for in these days people build in winter the same as in summer. I would put up that addition just as soon as it could be done."
Mrs. Cliff sighed. "I suppose that"s what I should do," said she. "I feel that it is, but you know how I hate to begin it."
"But you needn"t hate it," said he. "There isn"t the least reason in the world for any objection to it. I"ve a plan which will make it all clear sailin". I"ve been thinkin" it out, and this is the way I"ve thought it." Mrs. Cliff listened with great attention.
"Now then," said Burke, "next to you on the west is your own lot that you"re going to put your new dining-room on. Am I right there?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Cliff, "you are right there."
"Well, next to that is the little house inhabited by a family named Barnard, I"m told, and next to that there"s a large corner lot with an old house on it that"s for sale. Now then, if I was you, I"d buy that corner lot and clear away the old house, and I"d build my dining-room right there. I"d get a good architect and let him plan you a first-cla.s.s, A number one, dining-room, with other rooms to it, above it and below it, and around it; with porticos, and piazzas, and little balconies to the second story, and everything that anybody might want attached to a first-cla.s.s dining-room."
Mrs. Cliff laughed. "But what good would it be to me away up there at the corner of the next street?"
"The reason for putting it there," said Burke, "is to get clear of all the noise and dirt of building, and the fuss and bother that you dislike so much. And then when it was all finished, and painted, and papered, and the carpets down, if you like, I"d have it moved right up here against your house just where you want it. When everything was in order, and you was ready, you could cut a door right through into the new dining-room, and there you"d be. They"ve got so in the way of slidin"
buildings along on timbers now that they can travel about almost like the old stage coaches, and you needn"t have your cellar dug until you"re ready to clap your new dining-room right over it."
Mrs. Cliff smiled, and w.i.l.l.y listened with open eyes. "But how about the Barnard family and their house?" said she.
"Oh, I"d buy them a lot somewhere else," said he, "and move their house.
They wouldn"t object if you paid them extra. What I"d have if I was in your place, Mrs. Cliff, would be a clear lot down to the next street, and I"d have a garden in it with flowers, and gravel walks, and greenhouses, and all that sort of thing."
"All stretching itself out in the sunshine under the new dining-room windows!" cried w.i.l.l.y Croup, with sparkling eyes.
Mrs. Cliff sat and considered, a cheerful glow in her veins. Here, really, was an opportunity of stemming the current of her income without shocking any of her social instincts!
CHAPTER VIII
MR. BURKE BEGINS TO MAKE THINGS MOVE IN PLAINTON