Aunt Jane's Nieces
And so the meal passed pleasantly
enough.
After it was finished Uncle John strolled into the garden to smoke his
pipe under the stars and Louise sang a few songs for Aunt Jane in the
dimly-lit drawing room. Beth, who was a music teacher's daughter,
could not sing at all.
It was some time later when John Merrick came to his sister's room to
bid her good night.
"Well," she asked him, "what do you think of the girls?"
"My nieces?"
"Yes."
"During my lifetime," said the old man, "I've always noticed that
girls are just girls--and nothing more. Jane, your sex is a puzzle
that ain't worth the trouble solving. You're all alike, and what
little I've seen of my nieces convinces me they're regulation
females--no better nor worse than their kind."
"Louise seems a capable girl," declared Aunt Jane, musingly. "I didn't
care much for her, at first; but she improves on acquaintance. She has
been well trained by her mother, and is very ladylike and agreeable."
"She's smarter than the other one, but not so honest," said Uncle
John.
"Beth has no tact at all," replied Aunt Jane. "But then, she's younger
than Louise."
"If you're trying to figure out what they are, and what they are not,"
returned the man, "you've got a hard job on your hands, Jane, and like
as not you'll make a mistake in the end. Where's the other niece?
Aren't there three of them?"
"Yes. The other's coming. Silas Watson, my lawyer, has just
telegraphed from New York that he's bringing Patricia back with him."
"Had to send for her, eh?"
"Yes. She's Irish, and if I remember rightly her father is a
disgraceful old reprobate, who caused poor Violet no end of worry. The
girl may be like him, for she wrote me a dreadful letter, scolding me
because I hadn't kept her parents supplied with money, and refusing to
become my guest."
"But she's changed her mind?"
"I sent Watson after her, and he's bringing her. I wanted to see what
the girl is like."
Uncle John whistled a few bars of an ancient tune.
"My advice is," he said, finally, "to let 'em draw cuts for Elmhurst.
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In a village there lived two men who had the self-same name. Both were named Claus. But one of them owned four horses, and the other owned only one horse; so to distinguish between them people called the man who had four horses Big Claus, and the man who had only one horse Little Claus. Now I'll tell you what happened to these two, for this is a true story.
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