“Limerick!” cried Phœbe; “it’s kind of fit!”
“Shan’t I get a glass of water?” Mrs. Wells rose timorously.
Phœbe’s laughter pealed again. “No!” she said. “Would you quench the fire of divine doggerel?”
Jawn minded them not at all. His eye was fixed on distance and his hand waved gently and his lips moved.
Mrs. Wells was not quite assured of the humour of the lines, but she found herself laughing with the others at the droll face of the reciter. He seemed a pleasant sort of man, although his laugh was rather startling. But he was a friend of Richard’s; that was enough to assure her; so he was invited to become a guest at “Red Jacket.”
It was a relief to know that he had not called on business connected with the estate. Since the return from Europe Mrs. Wells had found it impossible to focus her mind upon the financial end of her household affairs. Never before had she realized how complicated everything was. Not that she had ever conceived her task to be easy; but she had always been able heretofore to summon her will to the problem, and like an almost impossible puzzle, the answer had come out eventually. One had only to persist, she always told herself. If interest on mortgages was due and the bank balance was needed to pay off the vineyard helpers, there was always a new loan on this or that stock; and if the bills for last year’s grape baskets or this year’s spraying and willow-wiring became too accumulative, one could hypothecate the wine stock or sell a parcel of orchard land or—many things that a resourceful business woman could think of.
Naturally her bookkeeping had assumed an Egyptian character; a private sign here and there, a subtraction indicated without a balance being drawn, a borrowing from this page not paid over to the other page—in short, a system that amounted to a code understood solely by Mrs. Wells. And not always to Mrs. Wells was the code instantly clear. There were days when she puzzled over the meaning of this or that entry; and sometimes surprising cheques were received on accounts which she had scored off as settled, and even more surprising bills were presented whose existence had faded from her memory. Concentration had always opened a way of at least temporary escape; but the mental lassitude which had seized her since her return from abroad had made concentration impossible. Even the thought of the figures was terrifying.
There had been strange visitors several times during the previous eight or ten years, men representing corporations with which she had had dealings on matters of mortgages and loans. They had been very pleasant fellows, just like Jawn, only not so boisterous and self-assured; and always she had needed her strength to meet all their exacting requirements. When certain recent polite letters had assured her that it was about time for one to appear, then it was that she had decided to surrender unconditionally and let her healthy grown-up daughter do the worrying.
When the luncheon-gong sounded Phœbe prepared to stay on without question. George Alexander always looked about him before he set the places, and the presence of Phœbe before a meal always meant a place for her. Besides, she announced that Jawn had to be watched.
Mr. Richard’s non-appearance had been explained by Phœbe.