“And you go to the same school and you pay attention to your lessons and you mind your own business?” The old gentleman tried to look severe as he asked these questions.
“We try to, sir.” Bess found her voice at last.
“You obey your elders and you think you are going to spend your vacation here in Tillbury, a God-forsaken place, with a half dozen bright lassies like yourself?”
“Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, sir.” Bess didn’t know what to answer. This strange old man was like no one she had ever met before. She wanted to protest that Tillbury was not a God-forsaken place, that she and Nan both liked it, but she didn’t quite dare. She wanted to speak up and tell him that vacation in Tillbury with all her friends would be fun, but she didn’t dare do that either. She didn’t quite know what to think of this white-haired gentleman who seemed so fond of Nan and was so outspoken. In her confusion, she was tongue-tied.
But he wasn’t. Each time that he opened his mouth, the words that came forth were more astonishing than they had been before. Bess found herself listening in amazement.
“Well, you’re not going to stay here in Tillbury for the summer,” he continued his discussion of Bess and Nan’s vacation. “I won’t have it. And your friends aren’t going to either. You’re all coming with me. England one summer, and Tillbury the next. Forsooth! I thought you all had more imagination than that. You, Nan, I’m disappointed in you.” His eyes twinkled merrily as he looked at his young cousin, for the stranger was Adair MacKenzie, first cousin to Mrs. Sherwood, and a wealthy Memphis, Tennessee, business man.
“Now, let’s see, when can we start?” He took out his watch as he spoke. “Hm-m-m. It will take a little time to pack,” he reflected. “Lassies are such fussy creatures. They have to have two or three dresses—”
“Two or three!” Nan exclaimed, “Why, cousin Adair, we have to have just dozens if we are going to stay away all summer.”
“Who said you were?” The old Scotchman roared and then threw back his head and laughed long and heartily at the young girl who seemed so self-possessed no matter what he said or did. Nan laughed with him and then, turning toward Bess, she introduced her eccentric old relative and his pretty daughter, Alice, a young lady about five years older than Nan who, up to this time, had said nothing, but had watched her father with amusement.
At the introduction, Adair MacKenzie bowed gracefully and, taking Bess’s hand lightly in his, kissed it quickly. “You’re a nice lassie,” he said then. “Now let’s all sit down and talk a while about this trip to Mexico.”