DELIGHT MAKES HER DECISION
Zenas Henry Brewster sat on the edge of his veranda, his long legs
crossed before him with a certain angular grace and his corncob pipe
held rigidly between his teeth. Beside him, ranged like sparrows on a
telegraph wire, were Captain Phineas Taylor, Captain Jonas Baker, and
Captain Benjamin Todd. From the row of pipes a miniature cloud of
smoke ascended, but save for the distant pulsing of the sea and the
murmur of the wind in the linden near the door not a sound was to be
heard through the afternoon stillness. Yet in spite of the
tranquillity of the day and the apparent peace of the four figures that
gazed so immovably out upon the reach of blue, an electrical current of
suspense was evident in the four tense forms. They were not looking at
the bay, exquisite as it was in its cerulean beauty. Instead, the head
of each man was turned toward the road that skirted the harbor and
wound its way between the pines at the foot of the hill where the white
cottage stood.
"He'd oughter be comin' pretty soon, hadn't he?" Captain Phineas
ventured at last, unable longer to restrain his impatience. "He said
four o'clock in his letter. It must be 'most that, don't you think?"
"Mighty nigh unto it," replied Captain Benjamin. "As I reckon it,
havin' made the necessary allowances for my watch losin'
three-an'-a-quarter minutes an hour, it should be about four now."
"It ain't but a quarter of four," sniffed Captain Jonas with an air of
superiority. "That timepiece of yours, Benjamin, ain't worth the
silver that was put into it. What's the use of havin' a watch that
keeps you figgerin' backwards an' forards, an' doin' sums all day? I
wouldn't be bothered with it."
Captain Benjamin bridled with indignation.
"I don't see but my watch is good as yours," retorted he. "The only
difference is I'm addin' from mornin' 'til night while you're
substractin'."
The discomfited Captain Baker frowned.
"Mine comes out even minutes, anyhow," announced he. "If it does shoot
ahead some, it don't keep me reckonin' in fractions like yours does.
I'd see myself in Davie Jones's locker 'fore I'd go addin'
three-quarter minutes together from sunrise to sunset."
"Oh, addin' fractions is mighty good trainin' for Benjamin," put in the
peace-loving Captain Phineas, with a chuckle. "It keeps his arithmetic
brushed up. I'll bet you he could beat you at a sum, Jonas."
The triumphant Captain Benjamin observed a complacent silence.
"Let Benjamin an' his watch alone, Jonas," drawled Zenas Henry,
speaking for the first time. "Somebody in the house has got to be up
on mathematics, an' it may as well be Benjamin as another. I'm only
sorry his ticker holds him just to addin'; if it would only make him
multiply an' divide some, an' take him into square root 'twould give
him a liberal all-round education. Still, there's always hopes it may
take a new turn. The last time it went overboard there was indications
that 'twouldn't be long before 'twould be leadin' him into algebra an'
the fourth dimension."
Captain Benjamin grinned at the sally.
"It won't be goin' overboard no more now, Zenas Henry," responded he
serenely, "'cause since the _Sea Gull's_ got that eel-grass-proof
contrivance hitched to her, there won't be no call for me to be lyin'
head down'ards astern. I'll be settin' up like a Christian in
future--all of us will. My soul, but Bob Morton an' Willie Spence did
a good job on that boat! It's somethin' to have a young chap with
brains like that marryin' into the family! I'll bet there's 'most
nothin' on earth he couldn't tackle."
"You're right!" Captain Phineas chimed in. "If Delight's got to get
married--an' we'd be a lot of selfish brutes not to want her to--she
certainly has picked a promisin' husband. You can lose money--fling it
away or have it stolen from you--but you can't lose brains."
"That's so, Phineas! That's so!" Zenas Henry said. "Besides, 'tain't
as if he was takin' her to Indiana. New York ain't fur. Why, I'll
stake a catch of mackerel we could fetch up at that Long Island place
in the _Sea Gull_."
"Of course we could, Zenas Henry," agreed Captain Jonas, flashing a
glance of affection into his friend's face. "There's no question about
it. Take a good clear day an' the sea runnin' right, we could make it
without a mite of trouble. Long Island wouldn't be anything of a
cruise. No place that we can sail to in our own boat is fur away."
A listener of discrimination might have detected in the dialogue a note
of assumed optimism and suspected that the four old men seated like
images on the piazza rail were trying to buoy up one another's courage,
and in the assumption he would not, perhaps, have been far wrong.
"What do you s'pose this Galbraith has up his sleeve, Zenas Henry, that
he should be comin' over here?" Captain Benjamin Todd speculated,
during a lapse in the conversation. "He has some scheme in mind, you
can be sure of that."
"Why do you always go rootin' up evil like as if you was diggin' fur
clams, Benjamin?" inquired Captain Phineas impatiently, "All Mr.
Galbraith said was he wanted to see Zenas Henry. There surely is no
harm in that. Delight bein' his niece, it's only to be expected he'd
want to get sight of the folks she is livin' with. Most natural thing
in the world, it seems to me. 'Twould be queerer if he didn't show no
interest in the people who have brought her up."
"That's so, Phineas," Captain Jonas echoed. "Nothin's likelier than
that he's comin' to sorter thank Zenas Henry."
"Thank us!" Zenas Henry burst out. "Thank us for bringin' up our own
child! What business is it of his? Do we go traipsin' to Belleport to
thank him for bein' good to his children?"
"No, no, Zenas Henry," Captain Phineas replied soothingly. "Of course
he ain't comin' here to thank us. That would be plumb ridiculous.
More probable he's comin' as I said, to make a friendly call since he's
a relative."
But in spite of this reassurance, the ripple of misgiving had not
entirely died away before the well-known touring-car with the New York
financier in its tonneau made its appearance at the foot of the hill.
"He's comin', Zenas Henry!"
"There he is!"
"That's him!" was the excited comment.
But Zenas Henry maintained a grim silence. He had risen to his full
height and now stood braced to meet an ordeal which he dreaded far more
than he would have been willing to admit. His gaunt figure was stiff
with resolution, his jaw set, his lips compressed. It was the same
expression his countenance had worn the night he had gone forth into
the storm to rescue the sinking crew of the _Michleen_ from probable
death; it was the expression his companions dreaded and feared,--the
fighter ready for combat. Yet his antagonist, as he alighted from the
motor-car and crossed the grass in leisurely fashion, appeared to be
anything but a formidable adversary. He came toward Delight, who had
hurried out to meet him, with easy friendliness, his hands extended and
a smile of genuine affection on his face.
"I am glad to see you, my dear," he said, "--and in your own home, too.
I fancy you must have thought me a great while in coming. I was
detained in New York much longer than I expected; otherwise you would
have seen me days ago."
She smiled up into the kindly gray eyes.
"And my, my, my! What a lot of mischief you and Bob have been getting
into in my absence! You sly little puss! You may well blush. The
bare idea of your springing a surprise like that on your new uncle!
Bob has told me all about it," he suddenly became grave, "and I am very
glad for you both. You could not have chosen a finer husband, little
girl. Robert Morton is one man in a thousand. We'll talk more of him
by and by. Just now I wish to meet all your family. You must present
each one, so that I shall not get all these many captains confused."
How simply and naturally he bridged the awkwardness of the moment!
Before they realized it, Abbie and the three veteran seafarers were
chatting gaily with the visitor, and even Zenas Henry was venturing out
of his reserve and unbending into geniality when the words "_and now to
business_" chilled the warmth of his mood and sent him back into his
shell, thrilling with vague forebodings.
With every eye fixed expectantly upon him, Mr. Galbraith took off his
Panama and fanned himself.
"Now that we have put together a few of the links that bind our two
families," he began, "and laid the foundation for a friendship which I
hope the future will foster, there are a few intimate matters of which
I wish to speak. First there is Bob Morton, and if you want any
reassuring as to his character, I can give it to you. Your own wise
and shrewd discrimination has led you to accept him at his face value
and your estimate of him has not been a mistaken one. I do not think
there is a young man in the world of greater sterling worth than the
one your daughter has chosen for a husband."
At the firm emphasis on the word _daughter_, Zenas Henry's jaw relaxed.
"Of course, you feel the same anxiety for your child that I feel for
mine, and realize how much a woman's happiness depends on the man into
whose hands she puts her life. In giving up Cynthia I know what it
means to you to give up Delight. We parents cannot expect to have all
the joy and none of the suffering that comes with having children,
however." He looked at Zenas Henry and a quiet sympathy passed from
one man to the other. "But we should be selfish indeed were we to deny
to those we love the best gift heaven has to bestow. It is making
others happy in their way, not in ours, that tests our real affection
for them. And so I know that underneath all your personal regrets you
rejoice in the prospect of Delight's marriage as I rejoice in
Cynthia's. We shall not always be in this world to safeguard our
daughters. How much better to see their future in the protection of
younger and stronger men than ourselves!"
"Yes, yes!" murmured Zenas Henry.
"And now I want to speak to Delight, although I am sure she will wish
you to hear what I have to say to her. It is a matter of business
about which she alone can decide. When Madam Lee, her grandmother,
died, she left a large property in real estate and securities which she
willed outright to an old friend of whom she was devotedly fond. She
felt the Galbraiths were amply provided for and therefore, with the
exception of certain jewels and heirlooms that were to be retained in
the family, she bequeathed them nothing. We understood the motives
that governed her in thus disposing of her property and were in full
accord with them. The document, however, was drawn up before she knew
of the existence of this other granddaughter, and in view of this fact,
the person to whom the property is willed feels that it is only just
that the whole or a part of it should be relinquished in Delight's
favor."
There was an instant's pause.
"This the beneficiary does of his own accord, not alone as a matter of
duty or as a matter of honor, but because his affection was so deep for
Madam Lee that it is a pleasure to him to act as he thinks she would
have desired. Had not her end come so suddenly, she would without
doubt have made a new will and done this herself."
"You mean that without courts or lawyers askin' him to, this man just
wants to hand over the money?" gasped Captain Jonas.
"Yes."
"Well, I dunno who he is, but I'll say this much for him--he's an
honest cuss!" ejaculated the fisherman.
In spite of his earnestness Mr. Galbraith smiled.
Delight, however, had risen during the interval of silence and with
nervously clasped hands had gone to Zenas Henry's side, where she now
stood, her eyes large with thought.
Her uncle turned toward her.
"Well, my dear, what have you to say?" he asked.
"It is--is very kind of a stranger to be so noble, so generous," she
declared gently. "He mustn't think that I do not appreciate it. But I
couldn't take a cent of the money," she went on with quick decision.
"Even had it been willed to me in the first place, it would have made
no difference. I don't want to be unkind or to hurt anybody's
feelings. But can't you see that Madam Lee was really nothing in my
life? She came in and went out of it like a phantom, and she did not
begin to mean to me what she did to this old friend of hers. Just
because at the close of her days it was discovered that I was of her
kin, it established no bond of affection between us--nothing but a
legal claim. If she had lived and we had grown dear to one another,
and she had given the fortune to me out of her heart, then I should
have accepted it gladly. But to have it bestowed on me merely by right
of succession--I couldn't think of touching a penny of it!"
She caught her breath, and her chin rose a trifle higher.
"And besides," she continued, "I would rather just be indebted to Zenas
Henry and my own family. My grandmother was unjust to my parents,
unkind. Although she lived to be sorry for it and would, doubtless,
have done differently when she was older, she was harsh and cruel to
them. I have forgiven but I never can forget it. I don't want the Lee
money. Zenas Henry and the three captains give me all I need, and I
have no fears but that in the future Bob can look out for me."
There was something in the proudly poised figure, so slender and erect,
so firm and self-respecting in its calm decision, that roused every
hearer's admiration and drew from the New York financier an involuntary
homage. Nevertheless with a fear that impulse might have prompted the
girl's verdict, he felt impelled to explain:
"But you are tossing away a large sum--thousands, child! You and your
people would be rich."
"We don't want to be rich!" cried Delight, with quivering nostril. "Do
we, Zenas Henry?" she slipped an arm about his neck as he collapsed
into his seat on the piazza rail. "We are happy just as we are! You
don't want me to take the Lee money, do you?" she asked, putting her
cheek against his.
"No, honey, no! You shan't be beholden to any one but me," he
answered. "I hoped you'd decide as you have. 'Twould take half the
pleasure out of my life if it warn't us that was to do for you. Just
the same, Mr. Galbraith, we thank you kindly for bringin' the offer,
an' your friend for makin' it; an' though we refuse it, 'tain't done in
no unfriendly spirit."
"I understand that," nodded the financier.
Nevertheless he gazed with no small amount of awe and respect at these
poor fisherfolk who could so lightly fling aside a fortune.
"Mebbe," resumed Zenas Henry, "you'll tell this friend of Madam Lee's
that we've took note of his squareness."
"Oh, yes, do tell him that it was splendid of him, splendid!"
interrupted Delight.
"He's a gentleman, whoever he is," Captain Phineas added. "Tell him so
from all of us."
"You might like to tell him so yourselves," returned Mr. Galbraith
slowly.
"Eh?" Zenas Henry questioned. "Oh, we might write him, you mean.
That's so. Likely it would be more decent. We'd be surer of his
knowin' how we felt if 'twas put down in black an' white. What's his
name?"
"Robert Morton."
"Robert Morton! Robert Mor--not our--not _Bob_!"
"Yes."
He saw Delight flush, and her eyes suddenly fill with tears.
"Bob!" she whispered half-aloud. "Bob!"
Zenas Henry drew her closer.
"What does the girl want with money," he demanded, "when she's got a
man like that? He's better than all the money on earth."
"But she'll get the money just the same, Zenas Henry," piped Captain
Jonas. "She'll get it. Have you thought of that?"
"It will be Bob's money, not mine," returned Delight with shy dignity.