Joseph Crosby Lincoln

“ Captain Elisha was much pleased.
“I told you, Jim!” he said. “She’s just as glad to see you as I am. Now don’t you see how foolish it was to stay away ’cause you and ’Bije had a spat? Think of all the good times we’d have missed! And we needed a female aboard your Uncle Jim’s craft, to help with ‘Mary’ and the rest.”
His friend nodded. “She has been a great help, certainly,” he answered. “But I can’t help feeling guilty every time I come here. It is too much like obtaining her friendship under false pretenses. She should know the whole thing, I believe.” ”

“ Why—why, just this, Caroline. This is a tough old world we live in. Things don’t always go on in it as we think they’d ought to. Trouble comes to everybody, and when it all looks right sometimes it turns out to be all wrong. If—if there should come a time like that to you and Steve, I want you to remember that you’ve got me to turn to. No matter what you think of me, what folks have made you think of me, just remember that I’m waitin’ and ready to help you all I can. ”

“ Have you bought a yacht, Sylvester?”
“No.” The lawyer’s tone was sharp.
“Humph! Well, take my advice and don’t. Yachts are all right, to have a good time on, but they cost like the devil to keep up. An auto is bad enough. By the way, Sylvester, did you hear about my running over the Irishman this morning?”
“Running over?” repeated the captain, aghast. “You didn’t run over nobody, I hope.” ”

“ And Captain Elisha, who also was something of a strategist, smiled at the fire.
“We do have our social duties, our duties to society,” snapped the widow, hotly. “They are necessary ones. Having been born—or risen to—a certain circle, we recognize the responsibilities attached to it. We are careful with whom we associate; we have to be. As for dress, we dress as others of our friends do.” ”

“ But father knew what sort of man he was, and so he asked him to be our guardian. Father thought he would be kind to us, I suppose. And he has been kind—he has. But why did he keep it a secret? Why did he.... I don’t understand that. Of course the money was his; all we had was his, by right. But to say nothing ... and to let us believe.... It does not seem like him at all. It....”
Sylvester interrupted quickly. “Caroline! Caroline!” he said, “don’t make any mistake. Don’t misjudge your uncle again. He is a good man; one of the best men I ever knew. ”

“ Graves couldn’t have given it to you, for we only decided on this apartment a few days ago.”
“Ho! ho!” chuckled Captain Elisha, rolling in his chair, like a ship in a cross sea. “Ho! ho! You remind me of Abbie, Caroline. That’s what she said. ‘I never heard of such a crazy cruise,’ she says. ‘Startin’ off to visit folks when you haven’t the least idea where they live!’ ‘Oh, yes, I have,’ I says, ‘I know where they live; they live in New York.’ Well, you ought to have seen her face. Abbie’s a good woman—none better—but she generally don’t notice a joke until she trips over it. ”

“ He had been pretty well satisfied with the result of his visit to young Dunn at the latter’s office. Malcolm had surrendered, perhaps not gracefully or unconditionally, but he had surrendered, and the condition—secrecy—was one which the captain himself had suggested. Captain Elisha’s mental attitude toward the son of the late Tammany leader had been a sort of good-natured but alert tolerance. He judged the young man to be a product of rearing and environment. He had known spoiled youths at the Cape and, in their surroundings, they behaved much as Malcolm did in his. ”

“ Caroline laughed.
“I’ve been studying housekeeping for almost a year,” she said.
“Studyin’ it! Why, yes, now I remember ’Lisha wrote you’d been studyin’ some kind of science at college. ’Twa’n’t settin’ table science, I guess, though. Ha! ha!”
“That was part of it.” She explained the course briefly. Abigail listened in amazement.
“And they teach that—at school?” she demanded. “And take money for it? And call it science? My land! I guess I was brought up in a scientific household, then. I was the only girl in the family, and mother died when I was ten years old.” ”

“ And, one morning at breakfast, Edwards informed him that the old man was dead. Annie had [Pg 146] been summoned by telephone at midnight and had gone home.
Captain Elisha, though not greatly surprised, was shocked and grieved. It seemed such a needless tragedy, almost like murder, although there was no malice in it. And the thought of the fatherless children and the poverty of the stricken family made him shudder. Death at any time, amid any surroundings, is terrible; when the dead hands have earned the bread for many mouths it is appalling. ”

“ But Caroline refused to sit in the parlor and be “company.” She insisted upon helping. Miss Baker protested and declared there was nothing on earth to be done; but her guest insisted that, if there was not, she herself must sit. As Abbie would have as soon thought of attending church without wearing her jet earrings as she would of sitting down before dinner, she gave in, after a while, and permitted Caroline to help in arranging the table.
“Why, you do fust-rate!” she exclaimed, in surprise. “You know where everything ought to go, just as if you’d been settin’ table all your life. ”

“ You know, Caroline, that money and what it brought was spoiling Steve. He has never been so much a man as during the past year, when he thought himself poor. But your uncle has planned for him as well as for you and, when he believes the time has come, he—”
“Please,” she interrupted, falteringly; “please don’t say any more. Let me think. Oh, please let me think, Mr. Sylvester.... You say that Uncle Elisha intends giving us all that father took from him? All of it?”
“Yes, all. He considers himself merely your guardian still and will accept only his expenses from the estate.” ”

“ If you don’t,” with determination, “I shall make Uncle Elisha tell me as soon as he comes. I shall!”
Sylvester sighed. “Well, by George!” he repeated, feelingly. “I’ll tell you one thing, young woman, you’re wasting your talents. You should be a member of the bar. Anyone who can lead a battle-scarred veteran of cross-examination like myself into a trap and then spring it on him, as you have done, is gifted by Providence.” ”

“ The conductor laughed. “Guess you’re right,” he said. “This is about as wet a storm as I’ve run through since I’ve been on the road. If we get to Provincetown without a washout we’ll be lucky.... Well, we’ve made another hitch. So far, so good.”
The brakeman swung open the door to shout, “Denboro! Denboro!” the conductor picked up his lantern and hurried away, the locomotive whistled hoarsely, and the train hiccoughed alongside another little station. Mr. Graves, peering through his window, imagined that here the silhouettes on the platform moved more briskly. They seemed almost excited. ”

“ The memory of his recent interview with Captain Elisha did not embarrass him, outwardly at least, half as much as it did the captain. He declared that old Pat’s death was beastly hard luck, but accidents were bound to happen. It was a shame, and all that. “If there’s anything the mater and I can do, Caroline, call on us, of course.”
“Yes, do, Caroline,” concurred his mother. “However, one must be philosophic in such cases. It is a mercy that people in their station do not feel grief and loss as we do. Providence, in its wisdom, has limited their susceptibilities as it has their intelligence. ”

“ You newspaper fellers are supposed to know about all there is to know [Pg 109] of everything under the sun. Do you know much about the Stock Exchange?”
Pearson smiled.
“All I can afford to know,” he said.
“Humph! That’s a pretty good answer. Knowledge is power, they say, but—but I cal’late knowledge of the Stock Exchange is poverty, with a good many folks.”
“I think you’re right, Captain. It’s none of my business, but—were you planning to tackle Wall Street?”
Captain Elisha glanced, under his brows, at his new friend, and his eyes twinkled. ”

“ A more appreciative observer would have noticed and enjoyed the subtler points. Stephen’s glare of disgust at his uncle when the latter tucked his napkin in the opening of his waistcoat; Caroline’s embarrassment when the captain complimented the soup, declaring that it was almost as good as one of Abbie’s chowders; the visitor’s obvious uneasiness at being waited upon attentively, and the like. These Edwards missed, but he could not help appreciating Captain Elisha’s conversation. ”

“ Captain Elisha regarded them curiously.
“This ain’t a holiday, is it?” he asked, after a while.
“No. Why?”
“I was just wonderin’ if all those fellers hadn’t any work to do, that’s all.”
“Who? That crowd?” The lawyer laughed. “Oh, they’re doing their regular stunt. You’ll find most of them here every afternoon about this time.”
“You don’t say. Pay ’em wages for it, do you?”
“Not that I know of. Some of them are brokers, who come up after the Exchange closes. Others are business men, active or retired. Some don’t have any business—except what they’re doing now.” ”

“ Graves said—”
“Oh, yes, I know. You swallowed every word Graves said, Caro, as if he was the whole book of Proverbs. By George, I don’t; I’m from Missouri.”
Mr. Warren, being in the Sophomore class at Yale, was of the age when one is constitutionally “from Missouri.” Probably King Solomon, at sixty, had doubts concerning the scope and depth of his wisdom; at eighteen he would have admitted its all-embracing infallibility without a blush.
“I tell you,” continued Stephen, “there’s no sense in it, Sis. You and I know plenty of people whose incomes are no larger than ours. ”

“ Most of the male “regulars” were in business about the city and therefore lunched elsewhere, but the females were in evidence. Pearson introduced his guest. The captain met Mrs. Hepton, the landlady, plump, gray-haired, and graciously hospitable. She did not look at all like a business woman, but appearances are not always to be trusted; Mrs. Hepton had learned not to trust them—also delinquent boarders, too far. He met Miss Sherborne, whose coiffure did not match in spots, but whose voice, so he learned afterward, had been “cultivated abroad.” Miss Sherborne gave music lessons. ”

“ CHAPTER XV Thus Captain Elisha entered another of New York’s “circles,” that which centered at Mrs. Hepton’s boarding house. Within a week he was as much a part of it as if he had lived there for years. At lunch, on the day of his arrival, he made his appearance at the table in company with Pearson, and when the landlady exultantly announced that he was to be “one of our little party” thereafter, he received and replied to the welcoming salutations of his fellow boarders with unruffled serenity.
“How could I help it?” he asked. “Human nature’s liable to temptation, they tell us. ”

“ My dear child, I think my position in society is sufficiently established to warrant a risk or two. If I am seen in company with—with the encumbrance, people will merely say, ‘Oh, it’s another of her eccentricities!’ that’s all. ”

“ Your dad didn’t mean to take what didn’t belong to him—for good, that is; the note proves that. He did do wrong and used another man’s money, but—”
“Then why didn’t he keep it? If you’re going to steal, steal like a man, I say!”
“Steve, Steve! steady now!” The captain’s tone was sterner. “Don’t speak that way. You’ll be sorry for it later. I tell you I don’t condemn your father ha’f so much as I pity him.”
“Oh, shut up! You make me sick. You talk just as Caro does. I’ll never forgive him, no matter how much she preaches, and I told her so. Pity! Pity him! How about pity for me? ”

“ Steve and Caroline were quite impossible—really quite furious. Your sudden appearance in the capacity of guardian was too much for them. They were sure you must be a perfect ogre, Captain. I had to use all my eloquence to convince them they would not be devoured alive. But now—what a change! Why, already Caroline accepts you as—well, [Pg 164] almost like an old friend, like myself. In the last few days this change in her attitude is quite marked. What have you done? Are you a wizard? ”

“ Caroline Warren, you listen to me: I’ll give you till two o’clock to make up your mind to take the money that belongs to you. If you don’t, I swear to the Lord A’mighty I’ll take the fust train, go straight to New York, hunt up Graves, make him go down to the office and get that note your father made out turnin’ all his property over to that Akrae Company. I’ll get that note and I’ll burn it up. Then—then you’ll have to take the money, because it’ll be yours. Every bit of evidence that’ll hold in law is gone, and nobody but you and Steve’ll have the shadow of a claim. ”

“ They’re young and—and, well, I ain’t the kind they’ve been used to. Caroline’s a nice girl. She is, sure. All she needs is to grow a little older and have the right kind of advice and—and friends.”
“How about the boy?” Mr. Sylvester had met young Warren, and his eyes twinkled as he spoke.
“Steve? Well,” there was an answering twinkle in Captain Elisha’s eye; “well, Steve needs to grow, too; though I wouldn’t presume to tell him so. When a feller’s undertakin’ to give advice to one of the seven wise men, he has to be diplomatic, as you might say.” ”

“ He took money that didn’t belong to him, and he forged that certificate. But he must have intended to make restitution. He must have been conscience-stricken and more to be pitied, perhaps, than condemned. No doubt, when he first began to withhold the dividends and use the money which was not his, he intended merely to borrow. He was always optimistic and always plunging in desperate and sometimes rather shady speculations which, he was sure, would turn out favorably. If they had—if, for instance, the South Shore Trolley Combine had been put through—You knew of that, did you? ”

“ It’s all accordin’, as I’ve said so often. Enemies? No, indeed!”
She laughed again. “I’m so glad!” she said. “Malcolm declares he’d be quite afraid of me—as an enemy. He seems to think I possess some mysterious and quite diabolical talent for making my un-friends uncomfortable, and declares he would compromise rather than fight me at any time. Of course it’s ridiculous—just one of his jokes—and I’m really harmless and very much afraid. That’s why I want you and me to be friends, Captain Warren.”
“Sure!” Captain Elisha nodded emphatically. “That’s what I want, too.” ”

“ He had no right to expect gratitude, so he told himself, and the girl undoubtedly felt that she was justified in her treatment of him; but it is hard to be misunderstood and misjudged, even by one whose youth is, perhaps, an excuse. He forgave Caroline, but he could not forgive those who were responsible for her action.
After Pearson had departed, on the morning when the conversation dealing with Mrs. Van Winkle Ruggles and her change of attitude took place, Captain Elisha put on his hat and coat and started for his lawyer’s office. Sylvester was glad to see him and invited him to lunch. ”

“ You make her act like a sensible girl! You’re her guardian, and you make her! And, after that, if he tries to hedge, you tell him a few things. You can hold him! Do it! Do it!”
Captain Elisha turned on his heel and began pacing up and down the room. His nephew watched him eagerly.
“Well,” he demanded, after a moment, “what are we going to do? Are we going to make him make good?”
The captain paused. “Steve,” he answered, deliberately, “I ain’t sure as we are. And, as I’ve said, if he’s got a spark of decency, it won’t be necessary for us to try. ”

“ But I’m nine year older than ’Bije was—and yet I’m left alive. Hum!”
“Your brother had two children by his marriage,” said Graves, after a moment of silence.
“Hey? Two children? Why, yes, I remember he did. Boy and girl, wa’n’t they? I never saw em. They’ve growed up by this time, of course.”
“Yes, the eldest, Caroline, is nearly twenty. The boy, Stephen, is a year younger. It is concerning those children, Captain Warren, that I have come to you.”
Captain Elisha turned in his chair. “Hey?” he queried. “The children? You’ve come to me about ’Bije’s children?” ”

“ I need friends, I know. I have few now, which is not strange,” rather bitterly.
He protested earnestly. “I did not mean it in that way,” he said. “It is an honor and a great privilege to be one of your friends. I had that honor and privilege once. May I have it again?”
“Thank you, Mr. Pearson.... Now tell me about your novel. I remember it all so well. And I am very much interested. You must have it nearly completed. Tell me about it, please.”
[Pg 336] They were deep in the discussion of the novel when Captain Elisha walked into the living room. ”

“ Dunn,” said Caroline, gratefully. “I should like to. Indeed, I should. But we have been expecting a business call from Mr. Graves, father’s lawyer, and—”
“Oh, come on, Sis!” interrupted Stephen. “I’m dying to get out of this jail. Let old Graves wait, if he comes. We won’t be long; and, besides, it’s not certain that he is coming to-day. Come on!”
“I’m afraid I ought not, Steve. Mr. Graves may come, and—and it seems too bad to trouble our friends—”
“It’s not trouble, it’s pleasure,” urged Mrs. Dunn. “Malcolm will be delighted. It was his idea. Wasn’t it?” turning to her son. ”

“ Then you will be of age and can send your encumbrance to the right-about in a hurry.”
Caroline, under the spell of this convincing eloquence, began to cheer up. She even smiled.
“Well,” she said, “I will try to be diplomatic. I really will. But Stephen—I’m not sure what dreadful thing he will do.”
“He will return to college soon. I will take upon myself the convincing of the encumbrance to that effect. And while he is at home, Malcolm will take charge of him. He will be delighted to do it.”
“Mrs. Dunn, how can we ever thank you sufficiently? What should we do without you and Malcolm?” ”