“I am in hopes that may help you and Dr. Morton, Madam,” said Uncle Joseph gravely. “Mr. Harding tells us Dr. Morton is anxious to sell the place, and if Mr. Gassett makes the settlement we hope for, he will simply pay back the purchase money to Dr. Morton because the place was never his to sell. He has arranged to meet us tomorrow morning.”
It was several years later before Jane was old enough to understand exactly how the letter she and Gertie had carried to Dick Harding could work all the wonders it seemed to be responsible for.
Mrs. Morton said it was the work of Providence that this special letter was preserved and found at just the right time. Uncle Joseph declared that Alice’s asking them to hunt through the old closets had more to do with it than Providence. But Dick Harding said it wasn’t Providence at all—it was paper dolls and Chicken Little Jane.
“At any rate,” he said, “I never heard of Providence making a man turn green, and Gassett certainly did when I showed him his own writing and read him about two paragraphs of it. There it was in black and white that the mortgage on the house had been paid in full, and that the bank had just returned Mr. Fletcher’s stock certificates deposited with them to secure a firm debt. The letter was jubilant over the business success that had enabled Fletcher and Gassett to pay up, and Mr. Gassett declared he was grateful beyond measure to Alice’s father for risking his bank stock for the firm credit. Nice way he took to show his gratitude, wasn’t it?” Dick Harding looked the disgust he could not express.
Uncle Joseph had been telling the Mortons what happened when Mr. Gassett met them in Mr. Harding’s office.
“Did he show any signs of fight at the start?” inquired Dr. Morton.
“Oh, he tried to bluster for a moment,” replied Dick, “but I asked him ‘Do we go on with this case in court, Mr. Gassett, or do we not? Yes, or no?’ ‘No,’ said Mr. Gassett, so we got down to business.”
“He was willing to do anything to hush the matter up,” added Uncle Joseph. “It took exactly ten minutes to hand over a check for the money Dr. Morton paid him for the house, and to give Alice a paper resigning all claim to the bank stock. I have an idea the old rascal was afraid we might discover something else he had stolen.”
“The Gassetts are going away I understand,” said Dr. Morton. “Well, it’s a lucky strike for me to get the money back for the house. I am delighted, too, that Alice is to have her parent’s home. Do you ever expect to come back to live in it, Alice?”
Alice blushed and Dick Harding looked confused.