“Elsie is Nick’s little girl, and a sort of foster-niece to Aunt Katherine now, I suppose.”
“It was Nick’s wife who was killed in the automobile accident in France, wasn’t it? But why haven’t you told me about her, about this Elsie? I’ve always wanted a cousin so, Mother!”
“Well, she isn’t exactly a cousin, you know. But even so, if Nick and I hadn’t quarrelled, if we had stayed as we were, in the course of things you would have known each other and perhaps have been very dear friends. It would have been natural.”
“Oh, Mother—quarrels! When you are so lovely, how have people quarrelled with you so? It’s a—paradox. Now don’t say I’ve used the wrong word!—But here’s more, more to the letter!”
Kate had turned the letter over and discovered a postscript on the back. Katherine, who had missed it, bent down, and they read it cheek to cheek.
P.S. I will add, for this will perhaps make your acceptance the quicker to come to, that Nicholas’s name is never mentioned here, either by me or the servants, or even Elsie herself. So that end of things need cause you no anxiety. Elsie is a charming, well-mannered child.
That paragraph had not been intended for Kate’s eyes. Katherine understood that at once, but it was all that she did understand about it. She frowned, puzzled.
“Notice how she says ‘Make your acceptance quicker to come to’,” Kate pointed out sharply. “She takes it for granted you’ll come to it, apparently. If there is any question, it’s only one of time. But why isn’t Nick’s name mentioned?”
Katherine shrugged. “I am afraid she must have quarrelled with him, too, just as she did with your father and me. But if that’s so it must be terrible for both of them, since he owes her so much and she counted on him so to make up for Father and me and later you, Kate, and everything! How could he quarrel with her? Why, he should have put up with anything!”
Katherine’s cheek was again on her hand. Her face was all puzzle. “And why should Elsie be lonely in Oakdale?” she went on aloud, but almost to herself now. “Oakdale is quite a gay little place, and I know very well there are plenty of young people there. Some of them are children of friends of mine, friends I haven’t seen since I was married. Why, there are even the Denton children, just next door to Aunt Katherine’s! It’s all very mysterious, Elsie’s being lonely.”