Jane, delighted and quite as triumphant as he, made a spring for him, and flinging both arms around his waist hugged him ecstatically, shouting,
“I knew you could do it! I said you could!”
Paul tweaked her nose.
“I suppose you’ll be saying you made that cake, next. You couldn’t learn to bake an article like that in a life time. Unhand me, woman, I’ve got to fix the frosting.”
His satisfaction sprang from a deeper source than that of the mere success. Some people might think it quite a trivial matter to make a good cake, but Paul, during weeks of abject failure, had come to consider that it required superhuman powers. It must be remembered of course, that Winkler’s cakes were not like any others, and that into the mixing and baking of those delectable goodies there had to go a skill and care that not many people could give. Repeated failure had made Paul moody; he had even begun to think that his lack of success was attributable to some deep-rooted weakness in himself. He had, in fact, begun to give it quite an important significance; and, in his earnestness, had even gone to the length of making a curious pact with himself. He had determined not to touch a pencil, not even to open the precious box of paints that Jane had given him, until he had learned to make cakes and bread that should be an honor to the venerable traditions of his family. Moreover, considerable reflection had convinced him that Jane had been right in advising him to try to win his uncle’s good will; and he had not liked to have Mr. Lambert believe that he was deliberately trying not to make good.
Jane understood very well the real cause of his satisfaction; and she was as pleased as if he had accomplished a Herculean task.
That night Mr. Lambert expressed his satisfaction in Paul’s final success. He was a very just man, and he did not fail to commend his nephew for his patience.
“I am glad to see, my boy, that you have taken a reasonable view of your situation; and have so fully realized your peculiar responsibilities.”
Thereafter he began to treat Paul with a marked difference of manner; he consulted him quite as often as he consulted Carl, discussed domestic and public business with him, entrusted important errands to him, and, in a word, no longer treated him as if he were an eccentric and willful child.
Within the three months that had passed since Paul had come to live with his relatives his position had changed astonishingly. At the beginning of February he found himself looked up to by the “women-folk” as if he were a prime minister. He suggested, and was allowed to carry into effect several important changes in the simple business system of the Bakery; and customers with special requests were now referred to the big boy, who handled their concerns and their temperaments with perfect tact and good sense.