“Why! Oh, caretakers for some nabob, are they? Well, that isn’t bad, for a while. How long can they have that arrangement?”
“You don’t understand,” said Mrs. Forman, with a look of rebuke for Jean, who was laughing hysterically. “It is to be a permanent arrangement. Kendall has already settled two or three rooms and installed his mother there, with a maid to look after her comfort and Derrick to stay nights. Their wish was to get to housekeeping as soon as they returned, and Ray is going to select her own furniture by degrees.”
“But, Louise, you are talking in riddles! If I remember anything about this town, Dupont Circle is one of the finest residence districts. Isn’t it where you lived when Joe signed his name once too often, and went to pieces?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Forman said, with quiet voice, though the flush on her face betokened strong self-control. “You are quite right; it is our dear old home. We are so thankful to have it as one of Ray’s wedding gifts; we planned it for her long ago.”
“But what in the world? I beg your pardon, Louise, but this is most extraordinary! What relatives have we who could make such an amazing present as this? You don’t mean that the place is given to her out and out!”
Then the telephone summoned Mrs. Forman, and Jean’s lost opportunity returned:
“Yes, it is, Uncle Evarts; a regular deed, with whole yards of legal phrases, and her name, ‘Ray Kendall Forsythe,’ written out in full; the first time her new name was used. And it wasn’t Aunt Elsie’s only gift, either; you ought to see the perfectly lovely wedding dress trimmed with lace a hundred years old. Aunt Elsie gave the whole outfit, and she is going to furnish the house from attic to basement, she says, as a present to Kendall!”
“Aunt Elsie!” If written language could ever describe exclamation points one might try to tell how Uncle Evarts exploded those two words. Just those two, and then was silent; it being the first time on record that language failed him. Mrs. Forman made an earnest effort to explain. She did not wonder at his astonishment, they had all been simply overwhelmed by Elsie’s wonderful gifts; of course, they had not dreamed of such a possibility, and had not yet grown used to the thought; they knew that there was nothing too big for her heart, but that she could do things was almost unbelievable. But she might as well have saved her breath. Evarts Forman could not understand. He questioned and cross-questioned, and, after repeated assertions and attempts at explanations, Mrs. Forman felt tempted to say that he would not understand.
“Elsie!” he kept repeating, as one dazed. Why, that is absurd! It is impossible! Elsie has no money; a paltry sum, perhaps, not enough to dress her decently in a house where they pay any attention to such matters. Didn’t he know! Who settled up everything after father died, and paid all the bills, if he didn’t himself? Elsie buy a house on Dupont Circle! There was some strange mistake. Elsie knew nothing of business; she was the dupe of somebody who wanted to get the whole tribe of Formans into trouble. Where was Elsie? He must see to this at once. Joe ought to have known that all this was folly!
With Aunt Elsie herself he was decidedly sharp; he began by treating her like an audacious child, who had been meddling with what she did not understand and brought trouble upon them all. When he found that he could not frighten her into “common sense,” and that, instead, she composedly assured him that it was all quite true, she had advanced the money to pay off the mortgage, and had bought the old place on Dupont Circle for a wedding gift, he grew white with anger.