"Don"t be in a hurry to decide; think it over. It will bear reflection," said the broker briskly.
"There"s nothing to think over. It becomes clearer every minute," said Miss Rebecca a little tartly. Then she added: "I dare say it will do him good to find that some one has something which he cannot buy."
"He will be immensely disappointed, for his heart was set on it," said David Walker gloomily. His emotions were not untinged by personal dismay, for his commission would have been a large one.
He returned forthwith to his client, who was expecting him, and who met him at the door.
"Well, Walker, what did the maiden ladies say? Have one of these," he exclaimed, exhibiting some large cigars elaborately wrapped in gold foil. "They"re something peculiarly choice which a friend of mine--a Cuban--obtained for me."
"They won"t sell, Mr. Anderson."
The furniture king frowned. He was a heavily built but compact man who looked as though he were accustomed to b.u.t.t his way through life and sweep away opposition, yet affable and easy-going withal.
"They won"t sell? You offered them my price?"
"It struck them as prodigious, but they were not tempted."
"I"ve got to have it somehow. With this land added to theirs I should have the finest place on the sh.o.r.e."
The broker disregarded this flamboyant remark, which was merely a repet.i.tion of what he had heard several times already. "I warned you,"
he said, "that they might possibly refuse even this munificent offer.
They told me to tell you that if it was worth so much they could not afford to sell."
"Is it not enough? They"re poor, you told me--poor as church mice."
"Compared with you. But they have enough to live on simply, and--and to be able to maintain such an establishment as yours, for instance, would not add in the least degree to their happiness. On the contrary, it is because they delight in the view and the woods and their little garden just as they see them that they can"t afford to let you have the place." Now that the chances of a commission were slipping away David Walker was not averse to convey in delicate language the truth which Miss Rebecca had set forth.
Mr. Anderson felt his chin meditatively. "I seem to be up against it,"
he murmured. "You think they are not holding out for a higher figure?"
he asked shrewdly.
David shook his head. Yet he added, with the instinct of a business man ready to nurse a forlorn hope, "There would be no harm in trying.
I don"t believe, though, that you have the ghost of a chance."
The furniture king reflected a moment. "I"ll walk down there this afternoon and make their acquaintance."
"A good idea," said Walker, contented to shift the responsibility of a second offer. "You"ll find them charming--real thoroughbreds," he saw fit to add.
"A bit top-lofty?" queried the millionaire.
"Not in the least. But they have their own standards, Mr. Anderson."
The furniture king"s progress at The Beaches had been so uninterrupted on the surface and so apparently satisfactory to himself that no one would have guessed that he was not altogether content with it. With all his easy-going optimism, it had not escaped his shrewd intelligence that his family still lacked the social recognition he desired. People were civil enough, but there were houses into which they were never asked in spite of all his spending; and he was conscious that they were kept at arm"s length by polite processes too subtle to be openly resented. Yet he did resent in his heart the check to his ambitions, and at the same time he sought eagerly the cause with an open mind. It had already dawned on him that when he was interested in a topic his voice was louder than the voices of his new acquaintances. He had already given orders to his chauffeur that the automobiles should be driven with some regard for the public safety.
Lately the idea had come to him, and he had imparted it to his son, that the habit of ignoring impediments did not justify them in driving golf b.a.l.l.s on the links when, the players in front of them were slower than they liked.
On the way to visit the Misses Ripley later in the day the broker"s remark that they had standards of their own still lingered in his mind. He preferred to think of them and others along the sh.o.r.e as stiff and what he called top lofty; yet he intended to observe what he saw. He had been given to understand that these ladies were almost paupers from his point of view; and, though when he had asked who they were, David Walker had described them as representatives of one of the oldest and most respected families, he knew that they took no active part in the social life of the colony as he beheld it; they played neither golf, tennis, nor bridge at the club; they owned no automobile, and their stable was limited to two horses; they certainly cut no such figure as seemed to him to become people in their position, who could afford to refuse $500,000 for six acres.
He was informed by the middle-aged, respectable-looking maid that the ladies were in the garden behind the house. A narrow gravelled path bordered with fragrant box led him to this. Its expanse was not large, but the luxuriance and variety of the old-fashioned summer flowers attested the devotion bestowed upon them. At the farther end was a trellised summer-house in which he perceived that the maiden ladies were taking afternoon tea. There was no sign of hothouse roses or rare exotic plants, but he noticed a beehive, a quaint sundial with an inscription, and along the middle path down which he walked were at intervals little dilapidated busts or figures of stone on pedestals--some of them lacking tips of noses or ears. It did not occur to Mr. Anderson that antiquity rather than poverty was responsible for these ravages. Their existence gave him fresh hope.
"Who can this be?" said Miss Carry with a gentle flutter. An unknown, middle-aged man was still an object of curiosity to her.
Miss Rebecca raised her eyegla.s.s. "I do believe, my dear, that it"s--yes, it is."
"But who?" queried Miss Carry.
Miss Rebecca rose instead of answering. The stranger was upon them, walking briskly and hat in hand. His manner was distinctly breezy--more so than a first meeting would ordinarily seem to her to justify.
"Good afternoon, ladies. Daniel Anderson is my name. My wife wasn"t lucky enough to find you at home when she returned your call, so I thought I"d be neighborly."
"It"s very good of you to come to see us," said Miss Rebecca, relenting at once. She liked characters--being something of one herself--and her neighbor"s heartiness was taking. "This is my sister, Miss Caroline Ripley," she added to cement the introduction, "and I am Rebecca. Sit down, Mr. Anderson; and may I give you a cup of tea?"
Four people were apt to be cosily crowded in the summer-house. Being only a third person, the furniture king was able to settle himself in his seat and look around him without fear that his legs would molest any one. He gripped the arms of his chair and inhaled the fragrance of the garden.
"This is a lovely place, ladies," he a.s.serted.
"Those hollyhocks and morning-glories and mignonettes take me back to old times. Up to my place it"s all roses and orchids. But my wife told me last week that she heard old-fashioned flowers are coming in again.
Seems she was right."
"Oh, but we"ve had old-fashioned flowers for years! Our garden has been always just like this--only becoming a little prettier all the time, we venture to hope," said Miss Carry.
"I want to know!" said Mr. Anderson; and almost immediately he remembered that both his son and daughter had cautioned him against the use of this phrase at The Beaches. He received the dainty but evidently ancient cup from Miss Rebecca, and seeing that the subject was, so to speak, before the house, he tasted his tea and said:
"It"s all pretty here--garden, view, and beach. And I hear you decline to sell, ladies."
Miss Rebecca had been musing on the subject all day, and a heartfelt response rose promptly to her lips--spoken with the simple grace of a self-respecting gentlewoman:
"Why should we sell, Mr. Anderson?"
The question was rather a poser to answer categorically; yet the would-be purchaser felt that he sufficiently conveyed his meaning when he said:
"I thought I might have made it worth your while."
"We are people of small means in the modern sense of the word," Miss Rebecca continued, thereby expressing more concretely his idea; "yet we have sufficient for our needs. Our tastes are very simple. The sum which you offered us is a fortune in itself--but we have no ambition for great wealth or to change our mode of life. Our a.s.sociations with this place are so intimate and tender that money could not induce us to desecrate them by a sale."
"I see," said Mr. Anderson. Light was indeed breaking on him. At the same time his appreciation of the merits of the property had been growing every minute. It was an exquisite autumn afternoon. From where they sat he could behold the line of sh.o.r.e on either side with its background of dark green woods. Below the wavelets lapped the shingle with melodious rhythm. As far as the eye could see lay the bosom of the ocean unruffled, and l.u.s.trous with the sheen of the dying day.
Accustomed to prevail in buying his way, he could not resist saying, after a moment of silence:
"If I were to increase my offer to a million would it make any difference in your att.i.tude?"
A suppressed gurgle of mingled surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt escaped Miss Carry.
Miss Rebecca paused a moment by way of politeness to one so generous.
But her tone when she spoke was unequivocal, and a shade sardonic.
"Not the least, Mr. Anderson. To tell the truth, we should scarcely understand the difference."