“And,” said Coe, as they were seated in a swiftly rolling taxi, “Friend Whiting is ’way off about the fortune, Elsie. For, I chance to know the will is worded, ‘married before you are twenty-four years old’; nothing is said about marrying before your birthday. Just before I started I asked your mother what hour you were born, and she said, late in the evening,—after ten o’clock! As it isn’t five yet, you’ve ample time to set your wedding bells ringing!”
“Yes,” said Joe Allison, his fine face lighted up with honest joy. “Yes, Elsie, that’s so,—and I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart! I’ll probably feel mighty different later on, but now I’m so keyed up with excitement and noble generosity, that for today, at least, I can say I’m glad you’ve got the money,—glad for you, I mean.”
Elsie couldn’t help smiling at his qualified joy over her prospects, and she was a little excited herself.
“Are you sure, Coley?” she asked; “then we must be married at once. Will you have me, Kim?”
“For richer for poorer,” he murmured, and Elsie, laughing, went on making plans. “You’re only the bridegroom, anyway,” she said, “and you haven’t a word to say. Joe, don’t cry, dear, I’ll give you a goodly slice of that old money. I’ll give you a hundred thousand dollars, anyway, and maybe more.”
“Lord! Elsie, that’s enough! I wouldn’t wish any more than that! Now I’m truly happy, all over!” and his round young face beamed joyously.
“We’re ’most home,” went on the happy bride to be. “We’ll telephone everybody we want to, and we’ll be married,—let me see,—well, we’ll be married as soon as I get things ready enough! I sha’n’t trust you out of my sight, Kim, you stay right at our house, and somebody can bring you clothes from home, and all that.”
Elsie had her way, she called the Webb ladies over first, and then arranged all sorts of things to make a pretty wedding, and the ceremony took place in ample time to make her the inheritor of the fortune left by her eccentric aunt, and later on, Allison received his promised portion.
Coe earned the fifty thousand dollars reward, for his efforts were at the bottom of the final discoveries.
Elsie even remembered the elevator girl and all others who had helped her, and the use of the money proved a source of genuine satisfaction to the newly married pair, as well as to the mother and sister of the bride.