MR. EPHRAIM HUXTER.
Mrs. Oakley had determined to send John away, This resolution was
easily formed, but it was not quite so easy to decide where to send
him. There were plenty of boarding-schools where he might be sent, but
these would be expensive, and, besides, Mrs. Oakley was of opinion
that John knew enough already. He was very much the superior of Ben
in scholarship, and for this she was sorry. She would like to have
apprenticed him to a trade; but if this was done while Ben lived in
idleness, Mr. Selwyn would be sure to remonstrate, and as the will was
not yet found she felt in some fear of his opinion.
It was about this time that the stage arrived one afternoon before
the gate, and a tall, shabbily dressed man, with a battered valise,
descended, and walking up the front path rang the bell.
The servant who answered the summons thought she recognized him as a
peddler who had called there about a month before.
"We don't want anything," she said, abruptly, nearly shutting the door
in the stranger's face.
"What do you mean?" he demanded, staring at her in surprise. "I want to
see your mistress."
"It's no use. She won't take anything of you."
"What do you mean by your impudence?" he said, angrily.
"Hoity-toity," said the girl. "You put on airs enough for a peddler;
but it's of no use. You may take your rubbish off somewhere else."
"Who's a peddler, I should like to know? If you don't open that door
pretty quick, I'll tell my sister to dismiss you without a character."
"Your sister!" repeated the girl, taken by surprise. "What has your
sister got to do with me?"
"She gives you a home, and pays you wages, I reckon."
"Aint you a peddler, then?" demanded the girl, incredulously.
"I am Mrs. Oakley's brother, and you'd better invite me into the house,
if you want to stay in it yourself."
"Excuse me, sir. I made a mistake. If you'll walk in I'll tell Mrs.
Oakley you're here."
"That's the first sensible word you've spoken. I'll put my valise here
in the entry."
"Well," thought the servant, "if that's Mrs. Oakley's brother, I don't
think much of her family. I always thought she belonged to a poor set."
She went upstairs to the front chamber, where her mistress liked to
sit, and said:--
"Your brother's downstairs. He says he would like to see you."
"My brother!" repeated her mistress, not looking overpleased.
"Yes, he is down in the parlor."
"Very well, I will go down and see him."
The ill-dressed stranger was stretched out in a rocking-chair, in an
attitude more comfortable than graceful. He was gazing about the room,
and noting with much complacency the evidences of comfort and luxury
which the handsome furniture exhibited. It was thus that Mrs. Oakley
found him.
"How do you do, brother Ephraim?" she said, coldly, advancing, and just
giving him the tips of her fingers.
"I'm pretty well," he answered. "So the old gentleman's dead, hey?"
"If you mean my husband," she answered, still with coldness, "you are
right."
"It's all right about the property, hey? How much is left to you?"
"The whole."
"Whew!" whistled Mr. Ephraim Huxter.--"Well, you have worked your cards
well, that's a fact."
"I'll thank you, Ephraim," said Mrs. Oakley, with dignity, "not to use
such low language, or indulge in such insinuations. I did my duty by my
husband, and he showed his confidence in me by leaving me his property."
"Well, perhaps that's the right way to put it," said Mr. Huxter. "I'm
glad you have feathered your nest so well."
"I must again request you not to indulge in such language," said Mrs.
Oakley, in tones of displeasure.
Mr. Huxter was evidently perplexed.
"Come, Jane," said he, "there's no use in trying to deceive me. You
made a good thing of it in marrying old Oakley, and you needn't pretend
to be broken-hearted because he is dead, and has left you his fortune."
"Hush!" said Mrs. Oakley, closing the door; "what if the servants
should hear you talking in this way?"
"Well, there is something in that. That girl of yours that came to the
door took me for a peddler. She wasn't going to let me in."
Mrs. Oakley glanced at her brother's soiled linen and stained clothes,
and did not express any surprise.
"I brought my valise," said her brother. "I suppose it'll be convenient
for me to stay a few days."
Mrs. Oakley assented rather ungraciously,--in truth she did not care
much to present such a man as her brother. She felt that it would make
it still more difficult to obtain the position which she desired to
maintain in the village.
"I thought maybe I could help you in settling up the estate," said Mr.
Huxter.
"I don't think I shall require any assistance. Mr. Oakley was a good
business man, and the task is an easy one," said his sister, coldly.
"How much does the property amount to?" asked Mr. Huxter,--the property
being in his eyes the main thing to be considered.
"I can't say exactly."
"Well, you can give a guess."
But Mrs. Oakley did not care to have her brother understand her exact
position as regarded money matters. She saw clearly enough that he was
already speculating how to turn her prosperity to his own advantage,
and this she was determined he should not do. She would like to have
kept him at a distance, but she was already feeling one of the
inconveniences of wealth. There are some whose chief enjoyment of
wealth arises from the happiness which it enables them to impart to
others, and some, in Mrs. Oakley's position, would have been glad
to do something for such of their relatives as were in struggling
circumstances; but it was not so with her. She was of a stingy,
penurious disposition, and did not mean that her money should benefit
any one but Benjamin and herself, except the small sum which she felt
obliged to spend on John.
"No, I don't think I could form any estimate," she said. "Mr. Oakley
has recently died, you know."
"Has he left as much as fifty thousand?"
"Fifty thousand!" exclaimed Mrs. Oakley; "what are you thinking of?"
"It isn't much less, I am thinking. At any rate, you're a rich woman."
"I am comfortably provided for."
"I wish I was as comfortably provided for," said Mr. Huxter. "Seems
to me your ideas have risen some, Jane, since you used to live with
me, and bind shoes for a living. You and Ben wouldn't have been very
comfortable, I reckon, if I hadn't helped you once upon a time."
"As to that," said Mrs. Oakley, "I worked for my board. It was no great
favor on your part."
"At any rate, you thought yourself lucky to get a home. Now, things are
changed considerably. You are a rich woman, and--well, I'm hard up."
"You always were shiftless, Ephraim," said Mrs. Oakley, who saw what
her brother was coming to.
"Shiftless!" repeated Mr. Huxter, in an injured tone. "I don't know
what you call shiftless. I've been a hard-working man; but luck's never
been on my side."
Mr. Huxter's nose had a suspicious redness, which seemed to indicate
whiskey might have had something to do with his want of luck. This was
in fact the case. If he had never made much headway, it was partly, at
least, his own fault, as his sister knew well enough. But she knew also
that there was very little chance of his amending in that particular,
and though she gave him little encouragement by her manner, she felt
that she should have to help him at last.
"How are your family?" asked Mrs. Oakley.
"Oh, about as usual. Wife's always scoldin' and complainin', and the
children are fractious. I don't know what makes 'em behave so. My home
aint a very happy one, that's a fact."
Mrs. Oakley knew that very well. For more than two years, when left a
widow, with Ben on her hands, she had found a home in her brother's
family, which proved so far from agreeable, that she finally determined
to leave it, and do as well as she could for herself outside. She
had been lucky enough to obtain a situation in Mr. Oakley's family
as house-keeper, and this proved the starting-point of a new and
prosperous career. During Mr. Oakley's life, Mr. Huxter had never been
near her. This had been at Mrs. Oakley's special request. She felt that
her brother was not calculated to do her any particular credit, and
she had succeeded, though with some difficulty, in keeping him at a
distance. She had accomplished this by an occasional present, and the
distinct intimation that these would cease unless her brother should
respect her wishes. Now that she was a widow, he considered that the
prohibition was at an end, and had presented himself unexpectedly, and
was by no means welcome.
At this moment Ben, who wished to see his mother, and was not aware
of his uncle's arrival, entered the room, and, observing the shaggy
appearance of the visitor, whom apparently he did not recognize,
surveyed him with unconcealed contempt.