Aunt Jane's Nieces
The transformation was complete, and Uncle John had suddenly become an
eminently respectable old gentleman, with very little to criticise in
his appearance.
"Do I match the flat, now?" he asked.
"To a dot!" declared Patsy. "So come to dinner, for it's ready and
waiting, and the Major and I have some wonderful fairy tales to tell
you."
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE MAJOR DEMANDS AN EXPLANATION.
That was a happy week, indeed. Patsy devoted all her spare time to her
lessons, but the house itself demanded no little attention. She would
not let Mary dust the ornaments or arrange the rooms at all, but
lovingly performed those duties herself, and soon became an ideal
housekeeper, as Uncle John approvingly remarked.
And as she flitted from room to room she sang such merry songs that it
was a delight to hear her, and the Major was sure to get home from the
city in time to listen to the strumming of the piano at three o'clock,
from the recess of his own snug chamber.
Uncle John went to the city every morning, and at first this
occasioned no remark. Patsy was too occupied to pay much attention to
her uncle's coming and going, and the Major was indifferent, being
busy admiring Patsy's happiness and congratulating himself on his own
good fortune.
The position at the bank had raised the good man's importance several
notches. The clerks treated him with fine consideration and the heads
of the firm were cordial and most pleasant. His fine, soldierly figure
and kindly, white-moustached face, conferred a certain dignity upon
his employers, which they seemed to respect and appreciate.
It was on Wednesday that the Major encountered the name of John
Merrick on the books. The account was an enormous one, running into
millions in stocks and securities. The Major smiled.
"That's Uncle John's name," he reflected. "It would please him to know
he had a namesake so rich as this one."
The next day he noted that John Merrick's holdings were mostly in
western canning industries and tin-plate factories, and again he
recollected that Uncle John had once been a tinsmith.
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There was once an honest journeyman tailor, by name Labakan, who learned his trade with an excellent master in Alexandria. It could not be said that Labakan was unhandy with the needle; on the contrary, he could make excellent work: moreover, one would have done him injustice to have called him lazy. Nevertheless, his companions knew not what to make of him, for he would often sew for hours together so rapidly that the needle would glow in his hand, and the thread smoke, and that none could equal him.
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