“Walter,” she smiled towards him beautifully, “Richard has won your hard-hearted old mother over. You shall have a yacht, the kind you want, to do with as you please. I just won’t get used to the fact that you are grown up. All mothers are that way, I suppose. So you run along and buy yourself one and win some of those races the Chronicle’s always talking about. And you can climb up after peak halyards or birds’-nests or whatever you want! Geraldine will make you out a cheque. She’s in full charge of the money now.”
“But, mother——” objected Geraldine, to whom the new office was a sudden and unexpected promotion.
Mrs. Wells laughed almost boisterously—a most unusual performance. Small things had begun to amuse her out of all proportion to their entertaining powers.
“No ‘buts,’ my child,” she began before Geraldine could voice a further protest. “You’ve just been elected, and I’ve resigned—or the other way about. I’ve plumped everything on the library table—deeds, bills, mortgages, cheque-books, stock, everything. Look them over at your leisure, child. Study them out. You’ll begin to appreciate the work your mother’s done for you——”
“But I do, mother! I do!” Geraldine protested. “Of course, if you wish I’ll——”
“Tut! tut! child!” she soothed; “don’t get frightened. I’ll sign things when you bring them to me. But I find I need a rest. Little things annoy me. I want to get free. You don’t know how jolly I felt the moment I came to that resolution. Really,” she puffed a little, “I am perceptibly growing stouter! Expect any minute to see the hooks and eyes start from their roots!”
Here the laughter verged into happy tears.
Many sobering things had happened to Jerry recently, but none more serious than this. It was the sudden abdication of a beneficent monarch, and therefore, to the crown princess, unbelievable. But it was something more: it was a strong mother cut down by the swift approach of old age. Some of the old fear of the dominant woman lingered in Jerry’s attitude—it never quite left her—but it was mingled now with pity. Those puffy cheeks and the simper were ghastly when one thought of the past years of firm dignity. And a patch of pure white had appeared beside the grey of her temples.
Almost as abruptly as the mother had put off her responsibilities Jerry took them up. As the older woman had grown child-like, the younger woman had matured. But Geraldine Wells had always been older in thought than she ever had expressed in word or action; and now she quietly assumed her proper years. Richard had had a large share in that transforming, but the pitiful picture of the smiling, contented mother had hastened the process.
Richard was intent upon Walter; as much as he could he diverted the boy’s attention from the extraordinary transfer of authority just being promulgated so carelessly. It was a great relief to see that Walter’s interest was in the forthcoming yacht, and not at all in the change of management of the estate.