“That is true,” she agreed; “and, Hugh, if you can be so unselfish, don’t spoil this great joy of mine—a child belonging to me; but take it as if we had known all along that you were mine. In perfect frankness let me do for you what it is my right to do. In the presence of Mr. Ogden, who has accomplished such wonders for us, let me say that he and I shall together settle such of our obligation to him as can be paid, and then you, Hugh, until you are admitted to the bar, will accept from me your education, and your allowance, without a thought of dependence—”
Hugh regarded the earnest speaker with a mixture of resistance and appreciation.
“Ross Graham Company—” he began—
“Can take care of itself,” said Miss Frink with a return of her brisk, curt manner. “You can always get competent managers.” John Ogden’s mind took a leap back to the day when he told Hugh that the department store might belong to him. “Now I know,” went on Miss Frink, “that you’re a bit afraid of your old aunt, a little afraid that in my pride I may want to put you into a velvet suit and lace collar à la Fauntleroy, or its equivalent; but you needn’t be afraid. I haven’t lived seventy-two years for nothing, and I didn’t make a mess of my treatment of your father for nothing. Neither am I in my second childhood. I have all my faculties, and, with so much now to live for, I expect to keep them until I’m one hundred. I don’t want to make an idol of you. I want you to be a man among men, and stand on your own feet; but it’s my right to give you a start, and I like to believe that you have enough common sense to accept it in the spirit in which it is offered, without any fuss or foolish hair-splitting.”
Hugh looked around at Ogden, who nodded at him.
“Put that in your pipe and smoke it,” remarked Ogden.
Hugh, pushing back his chair, rose and came around to Miss Frink.
“There’s only one answer a fellow can make to all that, Aunt Susanna,” he said, and, stooping, he kissed her.
“Now, then,” she, too, rose, “please go on the veranda and watch for Millicent. I want to see Mr. Ogden a few minutes in the study, and I’ll let her know when I’m ready for her.”
Hugh wandered through the hall, pausing between the portières of the drawing-room and looking at the piano. Was it only last evening that Ally had done her brilliant work? He shook his head, went out to the piazza, and started to take the swinging seat, but changed his mind, and, throwing himself on a wicker divan, lighted a cigarette. He was conscious of a deep soreness in the thought of Adèle. What a series of foolish moves her life had been! He shrank in distaste from it all.