“I suppose they do get what they want. They’re awfully nice, though. They’re perfect dears. And I must say, father, that they’ve never said a thing to me about horses. That’s my own wilfulness and extravagance.”
He laughed and smiled at her with his mirthless smile.
“There’s a lot of trickery in the horse business. You’d better let me get the horse for you, if you really want one.”
“Oh, never! Half the fun would be to buy my own.”
“But these horse dealers!”—he shrugged his shoulders. “A girl must not deal with them.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean to buy my horse here. I’ll go to Kentucky where the good horses come from and buy my charger there. You see, Mrs. Carr has friends in Lexington. She was telling me wonderful things of the country down there. It would be great fun to go. Why, maybe you’d go with me!”
“No! no!”
Ezra Dameron sank back in his chair. He was baffled and perplexed. This demand for money had come unexpectedly. He had underestimated the girl’s intelligence, for he had never hinted to her that the property he held in trust was large. On the other hand he had several times implied quite pointedly that it was necessary for them to exercise the greatest economy. He challenged for the first time her apparent simplicity and frankness. She was deeper perhaps than he had imagined; it was wholly possible that she was asking for this sum of money merely to draw him out. It might be that she wished a refusal in order to demand an accounting of her property. He feared Rodney Merriam, and he thought it quite possible that his brother-in-law had suggested this course of procedure; for he believed Merriam to be a subtle and crafty man. Zelda was very probably acting under her uncle’s instructions; but he would not be caught by any net spread by Rodney Merriam. The amount was large, to be sure, but it was no breaking matter; he would give it to the girl graciously. He suffered her to talk of other matters as he pondered, and he said, after he had risen to go:
“I shall stop at the bank and open an account for you this morning. I believe you said a thousand dollars. Of course you weren’t serious. But I’m disposed to be generous. I will call it five hundred dollars.”
He inclined his body slightly. There was in him a formal courtesy, or the mockery of courtesy. He could give a fine touch to an ignoble thing, if need be; or he could yield to an importunity in a way that brought him becoming martyrdom.