CHAPTER XIV.
KENNETH IS FRIGHTENED.
Lawyer Watson, unable to direct events at Elmhurst, became a silentspectator of the little comedy being enacted there, and neverregretted that, as Uncle John expressed it, he "had a reserved seat atthe show."
Jane Merrick, formerly the most imperious and irrascible of women, hadbecome wonderfully reserved since the arrival of her nieces, and wasevidently making a sincere effort to study their diverse characters.Day by day the invalid's health was failing visibly. She had no morestrokes of paralysis, but her left limb did not recover, and thenumbness was gradually creeping upward toward her heart.
Perhaps the old woman appreciated this more fully than anyone else. Atany event, she became more gentle toward Phibbs and Misery, who mostlyattended her, and showed as much consideration as possible for hernieces and her brother. Silas Watson she kept constantly by her side.He was her oldest and most trusted friend, and the only differencesthey had ever had were over the boy Kenneth, whom she stubbornlyrefused to favor.
Uncle John speedily became an established fixture at the place. Theservants grew accustomed to seeing him wander aimlessly about thegrounds, his pipe always in his mouth, his hands usually in hispockets. He had a pleasant word always for Donald or Oscar or James,but was not prone to long conversations. Every evening, when heappeared at dinner, he wore his soiled white tie; at other timesthe black one was always in evidence; but other than this his dressunderwent no change. Even Kenneth came to wonder what the bundle hadcontained that Uncle John brought under his arm to Elmhurst.
The little man seemed from the first much attracted by his threenieces. Notwithstanding Louise's constant snubs and Beth's haughtysilence he was sure to meet them when they strolled out and try toengage them in conversation. It was hard to resist his simple goodnature, and the girls came in time to accept him as an inevitablecompanion, and Louise mischievously poked fun at him while Bethconscientiously corrected him in his speech and endeavored to improvehis manners. All this seemed very gratifying to Uncle John. He thankedBeth very humbly for her kind attention, and laughed with Louise whenshe ridiculed his pudgy, round form and wondered if his bristly grayhair wouldn't make a good scrubbing brush.
Patsy didn't get along very well with her cousins. From the first,when Louise recognized her, with well assumed surprise, as "the girlwho had been sent to dress her hair," Patricia declared that theirstations in life were entirely different.
"There's no use of our getting mixed up, just because we're cousinsand all visiting Aunt Jane," she said. "One of you will get her money,for I've told her I wouldn't touch a penny of it, and she has told meI wouldn't get the chance. So one of you will be a great lady, while Ishall always earn my own living. I'll not stay long, anyhow; so justforget I'm here, and I'll amuse myself and try not to bother you."
Both Beth and Louise considered this very sensible, and took Patriciaat her word. Moreover, Phibbs had related to Beth, whose devotedadherent she was, all of the conversation between Aunt Jane andPatricia, from which the girls learned they had nothing to fear fromtheir cousin's interference. So they let her go her way, and the threeonly met at the state dinners, which Aunt Jane still attended, inspite of her growing weakness.
Old Silas Watson, interested as he was in the result, found it hard todecide, after ten days, which of her nieces Jane Merrick most favored.Personally he preferred that Beth should inherit, and frankly told hisold friend that the girl would make the best mistress of Elmhurst.Moreover, all the servants sang Beth's praises, from Misery and Phibbsdown to Oscar and Susan. Of course James the gardener favored no one,as the numerous strangers at Elmhurst kept him in a constant state ofirritation, and his malady seemed even worse than usual. He avoidedeveryone but his mistress, and although his work was now oftenneglected Miss Merrick made no complaint. James' peculiarities werewell understood and aroused nothing but sympathy.
Louise, however, had played her cards so well that all Beth's friendswere powerless to eject the elder girl from Aunt Jane's esteem. Louisehad not only returned the check to her aunt, but she came often to sitbeside her and cheer her with a budget of new social gossip, and noone could arrange the pillows so comfortably or stroke the tired headso gently as Louise. And then, she was observing, and called AuntJane's attention to several ways of curtailing the householdexpenditures, which the woman's illness had forced her to neglect.
So Miss Merrick asked Louise to look over the weekly accounts, and inthis way came to depend upon her almost as much as she did upon LawyerWatson.
As for Patsy, she made no attempt whatever to conciliate her aunt, whoseldom mentioned her name to the others but always brightened visiblywhen the girl came into her presence with her cheery speeches andmerry laughter. She never stayed long, but came and went, like astreak of sunshine, whenever the fancy seized her; and Silas Watson,shrewdly looking on, saw a new light in Jane's eyes as she lookedafter her wayward, irresponsible niece, and wondered if the bargainbetween them, regarding the money, would really hold good.
It was all an incomprehensible problem, this matter of theinheritance, and although the lawyer expected daily to be asked todraw up Jane Merrick's will, and had, indeed, prepared several forms,to be used in case of emergency, no word had yet passed her lipsregarding her intentions.
Kenneth's life, during this period, was one of genuine misery. Itseemed to his morbid fancy that whatever path he might take, he wassure of running upon one or more of those detestable girls who werevisiting at Elmhurst. Even in Donald's harness-room he was not securefrom interruption, for little Patsy was frequently perched upon thebench there, watching with serious eyes old Donald's motions, andlaughing joyously when in his embarrassment he overturned a can of oilor buckled the wrong straps together.
Worse than all, this trying creature would saddle Nora, the sorrelmare, and dash away through the lanes like a tom-boy, leaving himonly old Sam to ride--for Donald would allow no one to use the coachhorses. Sam was tall and boney, and had an unpleasant gait, so thatthe boy felt he was thoroughly justified in hating the girl who sofrequently interfered with his whims.
Louise was at first quite interested in Kenneth, and resolved to forcehim to talk and become more sociable.
She caught him in a little summer-house one morning, from whence,there being but one entrance, he could not escape, and at once enteredinto conversation.
"Ah, you are Kenneth Forbes, I suppose," she began, pleasantly. "Iam very glad to make your acquaintance. I am Louise Merrick, MissMerrick's niece, and have come to visit her."
The boy shrank back as fur as possible, staring her full in the face,but made no reply.
"You needn't be afraid of me," continued Louise. "I'm very fond ofboys, and you must be nearly my own age."
Still no reply.
"I suppose you don't know much of girls and are rather shy," shepersisted. "But I want to be friendly and I hope you'll let me.There's so much about this interesting old place that you can tell me,having lived here so many years. Come, I'll sit beside you on thisbench, and we'll have a good talk together."
"Go away!" cried the boy, hoarsely, raising his hands as if to wardoff her approach.
Louise looked surprised and pained.
"Why, we are almost cousins," she said. "Cannot we become friends andcomrades?"
With a sudden bound he dashed her aside, so rudely that she almostfell, and an instant later he had left the summer house and disappearamong the hedges.
Louise laughed at her own discomfiture and gave up the attempt to makethe boy's acquaintance.
"He's a regular savage," she told Beth, afterward, "and a littlecrazy, too, I suspect."
"Never mind," said Beth, philosophically. "He's only a boy, anddoesn't amount to anything, anyway. After Aunt Jane dies he willprobably go somewhere else to live. Don't let us bother about him."
Kenneth's one persistent friend was Uncle John. He came every dayto the boy's room to play chess with him, and after that one day'spunishment, which, singula
rly enough, Kenneth in no way resented, theygot along very nicely together. Uncle John was a shrewd player of thedifficult game, but the boy was quick as a flash to see an advantageand use it against his opponent; so neither was ever sure of winningand the interest in the game was constantly maintained. At eveningalso the little man often came to sit on the stair outside the boy'sroom and smoke his pipe, and frequently they would sit beneath thestars, absorbed in thought and without exchanging a single word.
Unfortunately, Louise and Beth soon discovered the boy's secludedretreat, and loved to torment him by entering his own bit of gardenand even ascending the stairs to his little room. He could easilyescape them by running through the numerous upper halls of themansion; but here he was liable to meet others, and his especial dreadwas encountering old Miss Merrick. So he conceived a plan for avoidingthe girls in another way.
In the hallway of the left wing, near his door, was a small ladderleading to the second story roof, and a dozen feet from the edge ofthe roof stood an old oak tree, on the further side of a tall hedge.Kenneth managed to carry a plank to the roof, where, after severalattempts, he succeeded in dropping one end into a crotch of the oak,thus connecting the edge of the roof with the tree by means of thenarrow plank. After this, at first sight of the girls in his end ofthe garden, he fled to the roof, ran across the improvised bridge,"shinned" down the tree and, hidden by the hedge, made good hisescape.
The girls discovered this plan, and were wicked enough to surprise theboy often and force him to cross the dizzy plank to the tree. Havingfrightened him away they would laugh and stroll on, highly amused atthe evident fear they aroused in the only boy about the place.
Patricia, who was not in the other girls' secret, knew nothing of thislittle comedy and really disturbed Kenneth least of the three. But heseemed to avoid her as much as he did the others.
She sooned learned from Oscar that the boy loved to ride as well asshe did, and once or twice she met him on a lonely road perched on topof big Sam. This led her to suspect she had thoughtlessly deprived himof his regular mount. So one morning she said to the groom:
"Doesn't Kenneth usually ride Nora?"
"Yes, Miss," answered the man.
"Then I'd better take Sam this morning," she decided.
But the groom demurred.
"You won't like Sam, Miss," he said, "and he gets ugly at times andacts bad. Master Kenneth won't use Nora today, I'm sure."
She hesitated.
"I think I'll ask him," said she, after a moment, and turned away intothe garden, anxious to have this plausible opportunity to speak to thelonely boy.