Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason Corner Folks Part 25

"That paying teller got twenty years in prison for his penmans.h.i.+p," said Maude. "Father thought you were the bad man until Aunt Ella sent the message that led father to investigate and find out who deposited the check. I was awful glad that you got out of it so nicely."

"So was I," said Reginald. "I hope some day I can help somebody else out of a bad box just to show my grat.i.tude."

Maude thought of her "bad box," but Reginald could not help her or Harry.

"Are you going to India?" she asked. "How is it that you are not with the army?"

"I have sold my captaincy. Florence did not wish me to leave her, and my eldest brother decided the matter. He hates farming and accounts. I love both, so I am in charge of the estate. My brother Paul has been given a living as they call it in the church, and Geoffrey has entered the navy.

My brother Wilfred will inherit the t.i.tle, so we are all provided for."

Aunt Ella and Alice had many long confabs about the young couple, and how to reinstate Maude in her father's good graces when the truth became known to him.

"I have an idea," said Alice one morning to Aunt Ella. "Yesterday I had a letter from Dr. Paul Culver, one of the executors of Quincy's will. He says his practice is so great that he cannot do justice to my interests, and asks me to suggest some one to be appointed in his stead."

"What's your idea? Though perhaps I can guess," said Aunt Ella.

"I am going to suggest Mr. Merry. I had many talks with him while you were away with Maude, and I am deeply impressed in his favour. Are you surprised?"

"Not so much as you will be when I tell you that Florence and her husband are going back with Maude. Harry will have to go too, so something must be done. Now, you know that I gave Quincy an allowance of five thousand dollars a year when he was married. I am going to give it to Harry."

"And why not let them live in the Mount Vernon Street house--until--"

Her voice broke.

"I know what you were going to say, Alice. It is a good idea--all furnished and ready for occupancy. I shall never see it again--and you may not for years--for I can't spare you."

"When do they sail?" Alice asked.

"In about a week. I'm going to write a letter to Sarah to-night to pave the way."

It was midnight when Aunt Ella completed a letter that seemed to fit the case.

"MY DEAR SISTER SARAH:--I write to let you know that Florence and her husband will sail for America in about a week. This may not be news to you, for probably Florence has written you, but it will be news when I tell you that Maude and her husband, Mr. Merry, will sail on the same steamer. They have visited Florence and are now here with me.

"I presume Nathaniel will be very angry, and he may say that I am responsible, as he did in Quincy's case. I did help Quincy and Alice and I am going to help Maude and Harry. I am going to allow them five thousand a year and Alice gives them the free use of the Mount Vernon Street house. She has written Nathaniel about Mr. Merry taking Dr.

Culver's place as one of Quincy's executors.

"Now, if Nathaniel gets very angry and threatens to disinherit Maude, just ask him, for me, why it is that all his children have been married away from home. Has it always been their fault, or is his home discipline in part, or wholly, the cause? It didn't make so much difference in Quincy's case, but here in England no girl is married outside of her father's house, unless it be in church.

"Your children are now all married, and, I think, well married. Let Nathaniel make the best of it, and, instead of keeping up a family warfare, change his tactics and become an indulgent, loving father.

"Your sister,

"ELLA.

"P. S. Let Nathaniel read this letter. It will do him good."

Aunt Ella read her letter over before sealing it. There was a quiet smile on her face as she pressed the seal upon the melted wax. Then she soliloquized:

"Yes, it will do him good to read that letter. He has no one else to boss now but Sarah, but she doesn't resist, and ready acquiescence takes away the pleasure of domineering. The boss wishes to break stout twigs, not simply press down pliant willows." There came a sharp rap upon the door--it was thrown open, and Alice entered.

"Oh, Aunt Ella, Quincy is very sick. He is choked up so he can hardly breathe. I'm afraid it is the croup."

"We must send for Dr. Parshefield at once. But who can go? Henry injured his foot to-day and cannot walk. Lennon, the butler, cannot ride a horse, and Simon, the stable boy, would be frightened to death so late at night."

"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Alice.

"Do?" exclaimed Aunt Ella. "I'll go myself. It's only two miles to Ketchley and I can ride back with the Doctor. I'll get Harry to help me harness the horse. Open the windows to give your boy plenty of air, and fan him."

She took up the oil lamp that stood upon her writing table. "This is whale oil--a nauseous smelling compound. Rub his neck and chest well with it."

Alice sought the nursery and followed Aunt Ella's directions. She was sitting by the crib watching her child's laboured breathing when her aunt returned.

"Harry is going on horseback. He knows the road to Ketchley and where the Doctor lives. Give him some more of the oil."

It was administered and the child began to choke--he seemed to be strangling--then the phlegm that had impeded his breathing was thrown off, and his face resumed its natural colour. When the Doctor arrived an hour later, he was sleeping quietly. Aunt Ella told what they had done by way of emergency treatment.

"Evidently a very effective treatment," said Dr. Parshefield. "I could not have done better myself."

"It was so good of you, Harry," said Alice. "I shall never forget your kindness."

Then she threw her arms about Aunt Ella's neck.

"Oh, Auntie, if he had been taken from me, I could not have borne it."

CHAPTER XVI

YOUNG QUINCY

It had been arranged while Aunt Ella and Maude were at Ellersleigh that Florence and her husband should come to Fernborough Hall and make a visit before their departure for the United States. Owing to Harry's presence at the Hall it became necessary, when they arrived, to divulge the well-kept secret of Maude's unconventional marriage.

Aunt Ella managed the introduction with her usual straightforwardness, treating it as a matter of course. Florence and her husband were naturally surprised, but both of them liked Harry Merry. Had Florence been married at home, with the usual family friends and accessories, she would have looked with less tolerance on Maude's elopement. To be sure she had not eloped, but when she looked into her own heart she had to confess to herself that she would have married Reginald even if her parents had refused their consent. So, as the intent makes the offence, she forgave Maude for her escapade, and during their stay at the Hall they manifested more sisterly regard for each other than they had ever before shown.

Reginald and Harry "hitched horses" at once. Men who marry sisters are united by a stronger tie than the usual brother-in-law bond, and the Englishman and the American felicitated themselves upon their capture of the Sawyer sisters. They played billiards on a table where the b.a.l.l.s had not clicked for a generation. They smoked in a room which had been free from the odour of tobacco for a score of years. They rode horseback upon steeds whose princ.i.p.al duty, as Harry expressed it, had been to "heat their 'eads horff." They even fished in the miniature lake and gave their catch to dogs who knew so little about real sport that they thought the fish were game. They took long walks together and knew by name every man, woman, and child on the estate. The conservative Englishman, if alone, would not have gone so far, but the democratic American took the lead, and politeness, if not inclination, forced his companion to follow.

They often pa.s.sed an evening with Sir Stuart in his library. The Captain related incidents in his military life, while Harry, who had been a great reader, drew on both memory and imagination for tales of the Great West, with an occasional ghost story, supported by irrefutable witnesses. The day before their departure, Aunt Ella took Florence to her boudoir and told her what she had written to _her_ sister, Nathaniel's wife, about her children's marriages.

"I hope Sarah will let your father read my letter. I said just what I thought, and I shall stand by Maude and her husband come what may."

"And so will I," cried Florence. "You helped Reginald by solving the mystery of that check, and I will do all I can to help Maude and Harry.

I think he is a fine fellow, and Reggie says they have become like two brothers."

"I am glad to hear," said Aunt Ella, "that they are bound by love as well as by law."

In about a month there came a long letter from Maude.