“I wished to propose that myself,” he replied, smiling. “And I will tell you now what I had expected to conceal until your birthday, of a little gift I am making you. I have placed two thousand dollars to your credit at the bank. It is subject to your check. It is from my own estate, of course. I should hardly make you a present of your own money.”
He rose and paused for a moment, smiling down on her, and she lifted her eyes to his.
“You are very kind; it is a handsome gift; but I think we’d better put it into the new trusteeship. Then I shall not be tempted into extravagances.”
He had expected some exuberant expression of pleasure; but she had spoken coldly, and her manner troubled him. He took from the table a brown paper parcel and opened it, carefully untying the knot in the tape which had fastened it.
“I think you have never seen a copy of your mother’s will, Zee,—unless perhaps your Uncle Rodney has shown it to you.”
“No; I have never seen it,” she answered.
He unfolded a copy of the last will and testament of Margaret Dameron carefully, and then refolded it lengthwise to remove the creases for greater convenience in examining it. He proceeded with an exaggerated deliberation. A man likes to mystify a woman about business matters; his own wisdom grows refulgent in the dark recesses of her ignorance.
“You had better ask the maid to excuse you if any one calls.”
She went to the kitchen and spoke to Polly. The telephone was on the second floor, and she pondered a moment as to whether she should not call her uncle. She prolonged her visit to the kitchen, talking to the colored woman to give herself time to think. She had grown fond of Polly and felt a grateful security in the knowledge that the woman was in the house.
Dameron read his wife’s will through, and Zelda listened attentively, though few of the terms meant anything to her, and the numbers of lots and the names of additions, divisions and subdivisions were only rigmarole. Her father paused now and then to make some comment on an item, explaining more fully what was meant.