"I have: I most certainly have, Josie," replied Amzi, sighing heavily.
"And she"s going to do what we want?"
Amzi tilted his head to one side reflectively, and took the cigar from his mouth.
"She"s going to stand for the party, if that"s what you mean; but as to doing what you want on general principles, I"m not so dead sure."
"It was your duty, Amzi, to go into the matter thoroughly--to lay down the law to her," observed Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k.
"All right," nodded Amzi. "In the words of the poet, I done it. But Phil doesn"t need lectures."
"Doesn"t need them?" sniffed Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k. "That poor child couldn"t have a lecture too many. She always pulls the wool over your eyes. It"s right and proper for us to know just what she said when you told her she had to stop running round so much and act like a respectable well-brought-up girl."
"You"re a lot of silly geese about Phil--all of you," declared Amzi, bringing his gaze to bear upon them _seriatim_. "Phil is far from being a fool, and there"s a heart in her as big as the court-house. We don"t appreciate her; we"re always nagging her and trying to reform her."
The plural was pure chivalry. It was not Amzi who nagged Phil. The aunts, perfectly aware of this, and ready usually to challenge any intimation that their att.i.tude toward Phil was not dictated by equity and wisdom, were silent. Their failure to respond with their customary defense aroused his suspicions. They had been to a tea somewhere and were in their new fall togs. Their zealous attempts to live up to what were to him the absurdest, the most preposterous ideals, struck him just now as pathetic; but he was fond of his sisters. If the course of their lives was inexplicable and their ambitions ridiculous and futile, his good humor never failed in his intercourse with them. But they had not disclosed their hand on this occasion--he was confident of this--and he warily fortified himself to meet whatever a.s.sault their strategy had planned. The three women glanced at one another covertly: Kate and f.a.n.n.y seemed to be deferring to their older sister. It was with unmistakable diffidence and after a minute scrutiny of her cardcase that Mrs.
Waterman spoke.
"Amzi, this is an important time in Phil"s life, and there are some things we ought to counsel each other about. We all take it for granted that you know where Lois is."
Amzi crossed his fat legs and shrugged his fat shoulders. He was not in the least pleased by the direction of the inquiry.
"We feel we are ent.i.tled to know all you know about her," added Mrs.
Fosd.i.c.k.
"You should remember," said Mrs. Hastings, "that she"s our sister as well as yours."
Amzi"s jaws tightened and he inspected the end of his cigar. This sudden manifestation of sisterly interest in Lois was not without its amusing side. They had long ago spurned their sister with bitterness, and his speculations as to the real object of their visit had not touched the remote horizons against which Lois was vaguely limned.
"I don"t see," he observed deliberately, "that Lois has anything whatever to do with Phil or any of the rest of us."
"Of course not, Amzi. That"s exactly the point. We only want to be sure she"s a long way off; we"re ent.i.tled to know that. And we"ve heard--"
Mrs. Hastings laid upon _heard_ that fine, insinuating inflection that is a part of the grammar of gossip. His sisters had heard something, and while he discounted its value automatically, as was his way, he was not without curiosity as to its nature. They saw that he was interested.
"The Walters have just got back from a Western trip, and they heard in Seattle that Lois has left Holton. He had been doing badly--drinking, and all that."
"It was bound to come, of course," said Mrs. Waterman. "You can"t tell me that people who do a thing like that can ever be happy."
Her tone did not please Amzi. It was clear that he found the whole subject disagreeable. He was immensely annoyed that they had come to him to discuss Lois after years of silence. It was as though a great rock planted in the avenue of her exit had succ.u.mbed to the tooth of Time and its exfoliations were falling ominously about him.
"I thought it was understood long ago that we had dropped Lois. If she and Holton got tired of each other, it"s their business. I don"t imagine you want me to send for her to come home."
"Amzi!" they gasped.
It seemed that this shuddering exclamation expressed a horror that shook their very souls. It was incredible that so dark a thought should have crossed the mind of a man commonly looked upon as sane.
"That would be the limit," cried Mrs. Hastings. "Don"t even mention such a thing--it"s too horrible to joke about."
"I wasn"t joking. If she"s gone to smash with Holton, I thought maybe you wanted us to bring the prodigal home, and give her veal loaf for Sunday evening tea. By the way, Kate, don"t ever turn me loose on any of your veal loaf again. The last I had at your house gave me indigestion; it might have led to apoplexy and killed me."
The fierceness of his frowning caused his scalp to wrinkle clear back to his fringe of hair. His sisters were vexed by his attempt to relieve the discussion with humor. It was necessary to sober him, and Mrs. Hastings thought she could effect the sobering of Amzi.
"Minnie Walters says they have lost their money; the judge saw Jack Holton, but you know how the judge is; he wouldn"t ever speak of it to a soul."
"Minnie would," said Amzi dryly.
"Minnie only mentioned it in the kindest way," said Mrs. Waterman, coloring. "You know Minnie doesn"t gossip; but as an old friend of our family she thought we ought to know. I think it was kind of her to tell us."
"Well, it doesn"t seem to have made you girls much happier. What on earth are you going to do; what do you want me to do?" he demanded, blowing out his cheeks and glaring.
"We don"t want you to do anything, Amzi," said Mrs. Hastings, with that sweetness with which women of little discernment attempt to blunt the wrath of man.
It was important to keep Phil in the picture: with Phil dancing before them Amzi could be held in subjection. Mrs. Waterman hastened to mention Phil and the responsibility they all felt about her, to justify their curiosity as to Phil"s mother. Amzi blew his nose and readjusted his spectacles. Mrs. Waterman advanced the battle-line boldly.
"We a.s.sume that you have always kept in touch with poor Lois and that you still hear from her. And we feel that the time has come for you to treat us more frankly about her. It"s for Phil"s sake, you know, Amzi."
Amzi could not see how any of the later transactions in the life of Phil"s mother were of the slightest importance to Phil. He shook his head impatiently and shrugged his shoulders.
"Lois," he blurted, "is in Dresden."
"Then she _has_ left him!" cried Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k, with a note of triumph that trumpeted the complete vindication of Mrs. Waterman"s averments.
"I tell you I don"t know anything about Holton," replied Amzi, who had, in strictest truth, told them nothing of the kind. He experienced the instant regret suffered by secretive persons who watch a long-guarded fact slip away beyond reclamation; but repentance could avail nothing, so he added,--
"Yes; she"s abroad. She"s been over there for some time."
"Of course, he"s run through her money; that was to be expected!"
exclaimed Mrs. Fosd.i.c.k in a tone that implied a deep resentment of the fate that had robbed the erring Lois of her money.
"If he did she never told me so," Amzi answered. "But Lois was never what you might call a squealer; if he robbed her you can be pretty dead sure she wouldn"t sob about it on the street corners. That wouldn"t be a bit like the Lois I remember. Lois wasn"t the woman to go scampering off after the Devil and then get scared and burst out crying when she found her shoes beginning to get hot."
After all these years Amzi had spoken, and his sisters did not like his tone. Their brother, a gentleman the correctness of whose life had never been questioned, was referring to the conduct of the sister who had disgraced her family in outrageous and sinful terms. The Prince of Darkness and the fervid pavements of his kingdom were not to be brought into conversation with any such lightness, as though the going to the Devil were not, after all, so horrible--not something to be whispered with terror in the dark confessional of their souls. One might have imagined that Lois"s very sins had endeared her to this phlegmatic older brother! There was not only this gloomy reflection, but his admissions had opened long vistas to their imaginations. He probably knew more than he meant to disclose, and this made it necessary to continue their pumping with the greatest discretion.
"It would be hard if she came back on you for help--after everything that"s happened; but of course that would be your affair, Amzi," said Mrs. Hastings leadingly.
"It would," Amzi admitted explosively. "It undoubtedly would!"
This, in their eagerness, seemed an admission. The interview was proving fruitful beyond their fondest hopes. He had doubtless been in Lois"s fullest confidence from the first; and darkest of all, it was wholly likely, now that she had broken with Holton, that Amzi was supplying her with the means of subsistence in the capitals of Europe. Around this last thought they rallied.
"Of course, if Lois should really be in need, Amzi," said Mrs. Waterman, "it would be the duty of all of us to help her; that would only be right. But even if it comes to that we should have to consider Phil, too. When you think of everything, our responsibility is much greater for Phil than for Lois. Phil is here; her life"s before her; she"s one _of_ us, you know, Amzi."
"Right, Josie; you are mighty right. What you mean is that if it came to a question of Lois"s starving in Europe and Phil"s starving on our doorsteps, we"d help Phil first because she"s right here under our noses. But I don"t understand that Lois is starving; nor is Phil for that matter. Phil"s all right."
The thought that he was sending money to Lois was disagreeable; that he should be doing so when Phil"s needs cried so stridently aroused the direst apprehensions. They had all received from Amzi their exact proportion of their father"s estate; even Waterman had never been able to find a flaw in the adjustment. Through Waterman they had learned that Lois"s proper receipt was on file; they knew exactly the date on which it had been placed of record in the county clerk"s office. They had looked upon this as the final closing of all the doors that shut this sister out of their calculations. They, or their children, were potential beneficiaries in Amzi"s property if he ultimately died a bachelor. And there was no telling when his asthma might be supplemented by a fatal pneumonia. This was never to be whispered in so far as the chances of their own offspring were concerned; but of Phil and the propriety of her expectations they might speak with entire candor.
"While we are talking of these matters," observed Mrs. Hastings, "we may as well face one or two things that have troubled us all a good deal.
You know as well as we do that poor Tom has gradually been playing out; it"s pitiful the way he has been letting his business go. Every one knows that he has ability, but he"s been living more and more up in the air. He owns the block over there and the rent he gets from that is about all he has. And I shouldn"t be at all surprised if the block had been mortgaged."