So, setting his teeth, he endeavored to forget anger, hurt pride, and all the rest of the non-essentials. The checkmating was partly his own fault. He had taken a woman’s advice, instead of depending upon his own judgment, and was paying for it. It was Reliance Clark who had put into his head the fool notion of sending his niece away. Neither she, nor any one else, should put another there. Henceforward he would, as he had told her, handle the reins. And the race was by no means lost.
He was in his room on the second floor, writing a letter, when he heard Esther’s voice in the library.
“Uncle,” she was calling. “Uncle Foster, where are you?”
“Here I am,” he answered, “I’ll be down in a minute.”
He signed the letter he had written and addressed the envelope to Mrs. Jane Carter in Boston. He had given her orders, short, sharp and compelling. She was not to waste time asking questions. She was to write what he told her to write and do it at once. And when he saw her he would tell her why. He was as sorry as she could be that the affair had turned out as it had.
Esther’s good humor at supper time was as pronounced as it had been in the morning. She was nervous, however; he could see that. He did his best to appear good-humored also. When they were in the library together the cause for her nervousness was disclosed. She told him at once about Bob Griffin’s going to Paris to study art. His reception of the news was far different from what she feared it might be. He appeared to regard it as a good thing for Bob to do.
“Why, Uncle Foster!” she exclaimed. “Aren’t you awfully surprised? I was, when Bob told me, last evening. I had no idea he even thought of such a thing—for the present, at least.”
Her uncle rubbed his beard. “He is studying to paint pictures, just as you are studying to sing,” he observed. “According to what I hear, they teach both those things better over yonder than they do here. I don’t wonder he wants to go. Good idea, I should say. When is he going?”
“Very soon. In a few weeks, he says. His grandfather has said that he might.”
“Has, eh? Humph! Elisha must have more money than I thought he had. Paying lawyers can’t be as expensive for him as it is for me. Or,” with a twist of his mouth, “perhaps he doesn’t pay ’em.”