Miss Ann was weary and tremulous. She had been strangely moved by Judge Middleton’s 171 speech. Why, she did not know exactly, but all evening she had been putting herself in Judith’s place, wondering what life would have held for her if at the turning point she had shown the character and spunk of this young girl. She had gone with the rest to shake hands with the girl after Judge Middleton’s speech. She longed to declare their relationship, but was afraid to until the family accepted Judith. So Miss Ann merely took Judith’s hand in hers and pressed it gently. All she said was, “I am so happy to have met you.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Peyton. I am indeed glad to know you.” Judith had almost called her cousin. She devoutly hoped nobody had noticed it, but there was no time for repinings because one was stand-offish. Too many persons must be introduced to the debutante. Even had Mildred Bucknor been inclined to chat with her former schoolmate she would not have been allowed to do it. There were others who pressed forward to greet the fairy godchild of the old men of Ryeville.
The general attitude of the assembly was good natured and congratulatory. The aristocratic contingent was inclined to be a little formal, but polite and not unkindly. The aristocrats were more or less related to one another, and 172 most of them were connected, closely or distantly, with the Bucknors. Their formality in greeting Judith might easily have been accounted for by the fact that Big Josh Bucknor had kept the ball rolling in regard to old Dick Buck’s kinship with the family. From the moment Miss Ann Peyton had made the statement that the Bucks and Bucknors were originally the same people, Big Josh had been spreading the news. All of them had heard it before, but nobody had ever given serious thought to it. To be related to slovenly, lazy, dissipated old Dick Buck was out of the question. The possibility of such a connection was laughably preposterous. It was quite a different matter, however, to contemplate receiving into the charmed circle a beautiful young girl who was everything her unworthy old grandparent had not been.
“But we must go slowly,” Little Josh Bucknor had said, when approached by his cousin, Big Josh. “It’s a great deal easier to get relations than it is to get rid of them. Ahem—Cousin Ann, for instance! Cousin Ann is so distantly related to us that one cannot trace the kinship, but we got started wrong with her in old days and now you would think she was as close as a mother or something. 173
“I’m mighty bothered about Cousin Ann, Big Josh. The fact of the matter is, my wife won’t stand for her. I can’t even make her go up and speak to the old lady. She’s been talking to Cousin Betty Throckmorton and they’ve been hatching up a scheme to freeze out Cousin Ann and fix it so she’ll have to go to an old ladies’ home. Cousin Mildred Bucknor is in on it, too, and from the way they’ve had their heads together all evening I believe your daughters are in the plot.”
“The minxes! I don’t doubt it. Poor Cousin Ann! She’s never done anybody any harm in her life,” and Big Josh’s round, moon-like face expressed as much sorrow as it was capable of.
“No—never any harm—but I reckon Cousin Ann hasn’t done much good in her time. When you come right down to it, chronic visiting is a poor way to spend your time, unless you are a powerful good visitor, which Cousin Ann isn’t. She got started wrong and never has got put on the right road. I don’t see what we are going to do about it. Bob Bucknor is having more than his share, but I can’t do a thing with my wife. You see, she made her own living before she married me and she’s got no use for what she calls the unproductive consumer. She says that’s what Cousin Ann is. 174 Mrs. Bob is getting worn out with it, too, because her girls are grown now and they are kicking at having the poor old lady come down on them on all occasions. It looks as though we’d have to call a meeting of the family and thresh the thing out.”
Little Josh, who had acquired the diminutive title merely because he had been born two years later than his cousin, Big Josh, showed despondency in every line of his six-feet-two.
“The women will all be banded against her and want to send her to a home, but we can’t stand for that,” said Big Josh. “The women’ll have to get it into their heads that they can’t boss the whole shooting match. Well, come on and let’s speak to our little cousin. Oh, you needn’t worry. I’m going to be as careful as possible and never say a word I shouldn’t. I can’t take her into the family unless all the others do. When we have the family meeting about Cousin Ann we might bring up this business of Miss Judith Buck at the same time.”
“Good idea! Good idea!” agreed Little Josh.