What did she mean by such talk? Had she any idea what a house on Dupont Circle cost? If she had had money hidden away all these years, what had she meant by deceiving them all and coming here to live on charity! But here a chorus of voices interrupted.
“Mother!” from Florence; “must we sit here and let Aunt Elsie be spoken to in that way?”
And Jean in the same breath: “‘Charity!’ Oh, mother, will you let him say that?”
Then Mrs. Forman’s voice, cold and dignified: “Evarts, you must not speak in that way to Elsie in our house. No greater blessing ever came to a home than came to ours with her; if she had not a penny in the world, as we thought she had not, we should be grateful for the privilege of sharing our last crust with her. You shall not insult us by speaking of charity.”
Then Uncle Evarts had some slight realization of what he had said.
“Oh, well,” he interrupted, impatiently, “I am not after heroics; and I am not saying anything against her; she knows she is welcome to a home with any of us, of course; what I want to get at is this miserable business; she has been duped by somebody, made the victim of a huge imposition that involves the Forman name and honor; and I want to rescue us all, if you will give me a chance. When will Joe be home? He ought to have a little common sense left, and be able to help us out of this mix.”
Then Aunt Elsie’s quiet voice: “Really, Evarts, there is no occasion for all this excitement. I can explain whatever needs explaining in five minutes, if you will listen. You took it for granted that I had no money, without asking me any questions; I never told you so. As a matter of fact, I had a few thousand dollars that father invested for me years ago, the interest of which has always been more than I needed. Then Derrick sent me some money, from time to time, and I invested that, and was fortunate; it has grown a good deal.”
“Derrick!” he said. “You mean—”
“I mean our brother Derrick.” His amazement was increasing. He was bristling with questions, but she hurried on:
“So, you see, I had money enough for what I wanted to do, and some left over. I came here to get acquainted with Joseph’s family; I will not deny that I had a purpose in doing so, and I have discovered what I wanted to know. But I did not know until a very short time ago that Joseph was in serious financial trouble; if I had, I should have moved before. They were so careful not to let the poor relation who had thrown herself upon their ‘charity’ feel herself a burden that they never even hinted to me the danger they were in of losing their home; I found it out by eavesdropping and accident. But about the business matters that trouble you, instead of waiting for Joseph let me make a suggestion. Go and talk with Henry Westlake about it all; he has had charge of my affairs for some time, and he is enough of a business man, I suppose, to suit even you.”