In his heart the Judge was not over-pleased by this untoward opening of the new association, but he wouldn’t admit it to her. He merely said:
“I’m sorry if you’re going to let the prejudices of silly women spoil your own vacation. Don’t do it. Just remember what you often say, that human nature is the same everywhere. We have the pride of wealth to contend with on one hand and the pride of poverty on the other; but beneath each sort of pride lies an honest heart. I believe it, and that we shall yet see these two opposing elements merged in a warm friendship. Watch for it. It takes all sorts of people to make a world and another sort will be added, to-morrow, when Melvin joins us. Throw in the college Prex, the millionaire financier, and surgeon Mantler, and we shall have a miniature world of our own in our traveling mates.”
“Schuyler, you haven’t told me yet what part that lad Melvin is to play in this ‘world.’ Why did you ask him?”
“To test him, Lu, nothing else. His mother is anxious he should make a man of himself and isn’t sure how best he can. She permitted him to take a bugler’s place on the ‘Prince’ because he wanted to try a sea-faring life. Two seasons of it, even under the comfortable conditions of a passenger steamship, has sickened him of that. He fancied he could be a musician and has talent sufficient only to ‘bugle.’ Now he wants to see the world, though he didn’t dream I was to offer him a chance. She thinks he would make a good lawyer, and so his uncle Ephraim thinks. Her pastor thinks he ought to be a minister; and the only point upon which all his friends and himself agree is that he should not spend all his days in ‘Ya’mouth.’ I’m going to take him to camp with me, to act as handy-man for all of us. That will give me a chance to see what stuff he’s made of; and if he’s worth it—if he’s worth it—I’ll take him down to Richmond and set him at the law.
“Molly, however, must let him alone. That girl can upset more plans than the wisest man can lay; and if she gets to teasing him on account of his strange bashfulness she’ll scare him away from us and disappoint his mother’s tender heart. She thinks that ‘son’ is a paragon of all the virtues. So does this other mother who’s just joined us, think of her beloved Montmorency Vavasour-Stark. What a name! Between them and their ‘laddies’ I reckon I shall have less peace than from the wildest of tricksy Molly’s capers.”
“Schuyler, you mustn’t be hard on her. She’s exactly like what you were at her age! And she is the dearest child, you know it!”
“I must have been what you call ‘a sweet thing,’ then! But, of course, she’s my own ‘crow,’ therefore she’s pure white,” laughed the adoring father, with more earnest than jest.
“Also, brother, in all your plans for others don’t forget little Dorothy’s. I know you’re busy but I must find out who her own people are. I must. It’s a sin and a heartless one to keep her young heart longer in suspense. I know she often ponders the thing, in spite of her cheerfulness, even gayety.”
To which he returned:
“Don’t attribute more pondering to her than belongs. Of the two I fancy you do the most of that. Nor think I’ve forgotten her interests. Her history is already being unravelled, thread by thread, and stitch by stitch. When the thread’s wound clear up I trust it may make a goodly ball.”