Mr. Van Meter frowned and rubbed his hands together in a nervous way which he sometimes had. “How you came to be lost to us I can not understand at all. Why your grandmother did not notify us of your father’s death is another strange thing. Surely her undoubted jealousy of your poor mother would not go that far.”
“Oh, it didn’t, Uncle Pieter! I have a little note that says she had written.”
“And there was the matter of your grandfather’s legacy. Have you had that?”
“No, sir. I have Grandmother Eldon’s little fortune, enough to keep me in school. Then I thought perhaps I’d be a missionary.”
Mr. Van Meter’s frown changed into a smile. “I’ve no doubt you’d make a good one, Jannet, but suppose you try your missionary efforts here for a while.”
Jannet met her uncle’s eye. Actually there was a twinkle in it!
“At least it would be as well to stay with us until you are grown, Jannet, and we have a chance to clear everything up. Now your grandfather died before your mother did. That much is sure. We have a letter, or did have it, written by your mother the day we telegraphed about your grandfather’s passing. Then we received sad telegrams and orders for flowers, for she could not come, though we told her that it might be possible to wait for the funeral till she arrived. Your father wrote, also. Then there was silence, Jannet, a silence so long that we did not know what to make of it.
“It was not so strange that Jannet would not write often to me, for I was so much older and your mother, too, thought that I was interfering and dictatorial and I admit that I thought her impulsive and foolish. She thought that I did Andy a great injustice by my second marriage and matters were on an uneasy footing between us when she was married.”
This was the first mention of the second marriage that Jannet had heard, but she kept herself from showing any surprise.
“But that there should be no communication,” continued Mr. Van Meter, “was strange, particularly as I had written her that when she came home in the summer, we could arrange about anything she wanted and her own furniture. Father did an unusual thing, you see. He knew that he could not live a great while and while we had no inkling of that, for he was as active as ever, he divided the property, giving me the home place, giving Jannet another farm and certain bonds and securities which were sent her and which she received. Indeed, I sold the farm for her, with Father’s permission, after he finally overcame all our objections and said that he preferred to see how we would ‘carry on.’ Yet both of us reserved certain funds for Father. Such was the arrangement, and a very poor one from a parent’s standpoint, though Father was safe enough in trusting us.