"So you see, little girl," he concluded, in a burst of unguarded enthusiasm, "we are piling up money for you while you are playing over here."
As something seemed to be expected of her, Adelle remarked lamely,—
"That is very nice."
"Yes," Mr. Crane continued with satisfaction. "You can congratulate yourself on having such good care of your property as we give it.... And let me tell you it didn't look promising at first. There were no end of legal snarls that had to be straightened out—in fact, if I hadn't urged it strongly on the old man I doubt if they would have taken hold of the thing at all!"
"Oh," Adelle responded idly, "what was the trouble?"
"Why, those other heirs—that Edward S. Clark and his children. If they had turned up we should have been in a pretty mess."
"Oh!"
"It would have upset everything."
"Why?"
He had just explained all this, but thinking that women never understood business matters until everything had been explained several times, and anxious to impress the girl with the benefits that she had derived from the guardian which the law had given her, also indirectly from himself, he patiently went all over the point again.