“I love walking,” she said. She might have added that she preferred to do it on a day when the wind was not blowing quite so keenly from the East, but her uncle’s obvious excitement at the prospect of cheating the rapacity of the sharks at the Durham House restrained her. Her independent soul had not quite adjusted itself to the prospect of living on the bounty of her fellows, relatives though they were, and she was desirous of imposing as light a burden upon them as possible. “But how about my trunk?”
“The expressman will bring that up. Fifty cents!” said Uncle Elmer in a crushed way. The high cost of entertaining seemed to be afflicting this man deeply.
“Oh, yes,” said Jill. She could not see how this particular expenditure was to be avoided. Anxious as she was to make herself pleasant, she declined to consider carrying the trunk to their destination. “Shall we start, then?”
Mr Mariner led the way out into the ice-covered road. The wind welcomed them like a boisterous dog. For some minutes they proceeded in silence.
“Your aunt will be glad to see you,” said Mr Mariner at last in the voice with which one announces the death of a dear friend.
“It’s awfully kind of you to have me to stay with you,” said Jill. It is a human tendency to think, when crises occur, in terms of melodrama, and unconsciously she had begun to regard herself somewhat in the light of a heroine driven out into the world from the old home, with no roof to shelter her head. The promptitude with which these good people, who, though relatives, were after all complete strangers, had offered her a resting-place touched her. “I hope I shan’t be in the way.”
“Major Selby was speaking to me on the telephone just now,” said Mr Mariner, “and he said that you might be thinking of settling down in Brookport. I’ve some nice little places round here which you might like to look at. Rent or buy. It’s cheaper to buy. Brookport’s a growing place. It’s getting known as a summer resort. There’s a bungalow down on the shore I’d like to show you tomorrow. Stands in a nice large plot of ground, and if you bought it for twelve thousand you’d be getting a bargain.”
Jill was too astonished to speak. Plainly Uncle Chris had made no mention of the change in her fortunes, and this man looked on her as a girl of wealth. She could only think how typical this was of Uncle Chris. There was a sort of boyish impishness about him. She could see him at the telephone, suave and important. He would have hung up the receiver with a complacent smirk, thoroughly satisfied that he had done her an excellent turn.
“I put all my money into real estate when I came to live here,” went on Mr Mariner. “I believe in the place. It’s growing all the time.”
They had come to the outskirts of a straggling village. The lights in the windows gave a welcome suggestion of warmth, for darkness had fallen swiftly during their walk and the chill of the wind had become more biting. There was a smell of salt in the air now, and once or twice Jill had caught the low booming of waves on some distant beach. This was the Atlantic pounding the sandy shore of Fire Island. Brookport itself lay inside, on the lagoon called the Great South Bay.