A servant pushed Jasper’s long chair across the terrace at Netherhall, and stopping at a sunny spot, went off. Across the lawn bare branches tossed, but the buds were breaking, and under the trees daffodils nodded in the wind. Larches, bright with fresh tassels, checkered the dark firs, and a thorn hedge was touched by shining green. A throbbing noise got fainter up the dale, and the car carried a famous surgeon to the train.
The surgeon had visited Netherhall before, but only Jasper knew all he thought; one was frank with Jasper Carson. His face was thin and his body was slack, but he was something of a stoic, and when his glance rested on the group farther along the terrace his eyes twinkled. His relations knew where to leave him alone, and although he imagined they were curious they would wait.
By and by a young woman carried some documents from the house, put a camp stool by the chair, and pulled out a notebook. Jasper studied the documents and dictated one or two letters. Then he said: “Give me your notebook and read Marsden’s letter. Don’t read fast.”
The girl did so, and Jasper, using the pencil awkwardly, covered a page with clumsy curves and strokes.
“Well?” he said and gave her the book. “Can you read the stuff?”
“Oh yes! Your hand is firmer.”
“That’s something. I like to feel I command my muscles. But perhaps you think you ought to humor a sick man?”
Miss Niven blushed. “Not at all, Mr. Carson. The characters are properly shaped; you do write better. Besides, I think I’d be afraid to cheat you.”
“My despotic days are gone. Authority deserts—but after all I’m not yet dying, and I will not want you for some time. Type the letters and then take a walk; but if you’d sooner rest, I sent some chocolates and a novel by an author you admire to your room. You can go.”
Miss Niven went. At the beginning Jasper had daunted her; now she thought she knew him she was his willing servant. Although his humor was grim and freakish, he was kind. When she crossed the terrace Jasper addressed the group on the steps.
“My business is transacted; the levee may begin,” he said. “Levee, however, is perhaps not the proper word, because I don’t know when I shall get up.”
“Then Sir Antony was not encouraging?” said Mrs. Carson in a sympathetic voice.
Jasper gave her a smile. Since his doctors prescribed quiet and bracing air, he had gone to Netherhall. Alan had urged it, and although he did not think Mrs. Carson was disturbed about him, she was a polite hostess. She knew his importance, and he was her nephew’s employer.
“I have no particular grounds to be encouraged, or daunted. One tries to be philosophical.”
“But the fellow told you something” said Alan.
“Sir Antony took some wine and knitted his brows. Since his remarks are expensive, perhaps he felt he ought not to be extravagant. In the meantime, mine are not, and I talked. Sir Antony made some notes; I think that was all. It’s possible he gave my nurse his confidence, but I doubt.”
“We are sorry,” said Mrs. Carson, and motioned her husband to be quiet.
Jasper evidently did not want to talk about the doctor’s visit, and she knew his man’s reserve.
“Do you think you ought to indulge your secretary?” she inquired after a few moments. “Since Miss Niven may feel the contrast afterwards, perhaps it really is not kind.”
“Miss Niven is not my secretary. She’s a stenographer I engaged for a time from a typewriting office. The time will soon be up, but I may be forced to ask if she will remain.”
“I expect she’ll agree! Her duties are light and the pay is generous.”
Jasper smiled. Mrs. Carson liked to rule, but at Netherhall she was entitled to do so, and where she meddled his habit was to banter her.
“I rather think Miss Niven’s pay helps to support two poor but remarkably respectable old people; but I don’t know if her duties are very light. She types my letters, reads the newspapers for me, and sometimes selected passages from popular novels. Miss Niven’s muse is tragic, but her reading’s spirited. Then she teaches me shorthand.”
“Is shorthand useful to you?” Mrs. Haigh inquired.
“So far, I admit it is not, because I cannot afterwards read the script, and Miss Niven is puzzled; but she states I make some progress. Then, when your nervous control is weak, to economize muscular effort helps, and shorthand’s advantage is that it is short. But I think I tried to justify my indulging my stenographer. You see, she’s a capable young woman and sternly conscientious. I imagine her only weaknesses are chocolate and sentimental novels, and to supply the articles is not a great extravagance.”
For a moment or two the others said nothing, but Jasper knew them interested, and their speculations excited his amusement. Perhaps they thought he pondered marrying his stenographer. Sometimes an infirm old man did marry a useful servant.
“Harry wants to see you, and you must not stay out long. The wind is cold,” said Mrs. Carson.
The party went down the steps, and Ledward, carrying some papers, advanced.
“Marsden thought you would like to know all we are doing, and we made some notes about the fresh orders on which we have started at the forge. We have marked the prices and the manufacturing costs.”
Jasper took the papers and was quiet for some minutes. Then he nodded.
“It looks as if I’m not indispensable! When do you go back?”
“I ought to get the afternoon train. Simmonds calls me to London; he’s bothered about the recent Canadian contract, and in the morning he’ll give me particulars. If he lets me go soon, I might be back to report before you go to bed to-morrow.”
“You earn your pay,” said Jasper. “Do you and Marsden agree?”
“On the whole——” said Ledward, and stopped.
“Marsden jars? Well, he’s my forge manager. A rough dog, but stanch. Since you have got to work with him, you must use some tact.”
For a time they talked about the forge, and Ledward heard the others in a path behind a beech hedge. He thought somebody had arrived, but the dead leaves still clung to the branches and he did not know who it was. By and by he said: “The Savile Tube Company are issuing new shares. The prospectus is attractive, and Marsden states the tubes are first-class. What would you think about a speculation, sir?”
Jasper took the prospectus. “They don’t exaggerate much; their stuff is good. The ordinary shares ought to be a sound investment; but I didn’t know you speculated. Sometimes when a young man wants money it is because he thinks about marriage. You, however, declared you did not.”
Ledward hesitated. Jasper had met him and Evelyn at Hadriansford, and Kit was Evelyn’s lover. Moreover, he was Jasper’s nephew, but Ledward had not thought the old fellow annoyed.
“Until recently, for me to think about marrying would have been ridiculous,” he said. “Now, perhaps, I would not be very rash. Your generosity would justify the plunge.”
“I wonder,” Jasper remarked, and gave Ledward a baffling smile. “I doubt if I am generous, Harry; I try to be just. Well, if the lady were not extravagant, you could support a wife.”
The others crossed the grass, and Ledward wondered whether Jasper had noted Evelyn’s arrival. His remark about his being just was puzzling and somehow ominous. Ledward felt he had got a hint, but he did not see where the other led. By and by Jasper let him go, and Alan Carson came up the steps.
“You were engaged with Harry, and I waited,” he said. “We hoped Sir Antony’s report might be encouraging, but you did not tell us much, and I thought you were disappointed. Did he not give you some notion about when you might get up?”
“He doesn’t know,” Jasper replied in a quiet voice.
Alan’s look was disturbed, and Jasper knew his emotion sincere.
“After all,” he resumed, “I’m getting old, and since, for the most part, I’ve gone where I wanted to go, when I’m forced to stop I mustn’t grumble.”
“Your pluck’s good,” said Alan. “But you made the forge famous, and to give up control and perhaps see others let down the business would hurt.”
“For a time, at all events, I expect to carry on. I can trust Marsden, and Harry’s useful. He thinks about getting married. Perhaps you know?”
Alan frowned. “Since I can’t meddle, I’m not interested. Harry’s my wife’s relation and your secretary; but I don’t like the fellow. Why don’t you send for Kit? He’s your man.”
“Kit is my Canadian competitors’ man.”
“If I didn’t know your cleverness, I’d think you a fool!” Alan rejoined. “You don’t, after all, believe Kit sold the shipyard’s plans and joined the construction company in order to spite you?”
“I do not. I think I’m logical.”
“Then you ought to bring the boy back and give him a fresh chance. He’s an engineer and your nephew. In some respects he’s strangely like you.”
“I know where to wait,” said Jasper in a meaning voice.
“But I don’t see——”
“Oh, well, for one thing, Kit has not yet tried his powers. He’s good stuff, but he’s raw, untempered stuff and hasn’t felt the fire and the hammer. At the Canadian bridge he’ll no doubt be forced to take some knocks. Well, I’d sooner you didn’t talk about it to your wife, and I’m tired. You might call my man.”
Alan admitted Jasper’s argument was plausible, but he knew his brother, and fancied he had not told him all. He went to look for the servant, and they wheeled Jasper to the house.
Some time afterwards Ledward joined Mrs. Haigh, and she stopped at a bench in a quiet sunny spot.
“Have you heard the doctor’s opinion?” she inquired.
“I have not. Jasper does not talk about his illness. All the same, he does not seem to get much better.”
“His illness is awkward for you, and no doubt implies extra labor and responsibility. In fact, one feels you bear some strain. You’re preoccupied and you get thin.”
“I don’t know if it’s a drawback,” said Ledward, smiling, and pondered for a few moments. He thought he saw where Mrs. Haigh led, and he had waited for a sign.
“My load is rather heavy,” he resumed. “Jasper has good servants, but each was required to stick to his particular job, and the control was single. Jasper alone knew the plans, and although the company’s a limited company, he, so to speak, held the reins. Now he’s forced to let go, the consequences are embarrassing. Since he’s remarkably keen, I expect he knew he ought to have an understudy. We of course thought Kit the man——”
“Ah,” said Mrs, Haigh, “Kit is rather dull and he’s obstinate. When he indicated that he did not want the part his uncle was perhaps entitled to be offended.”
“At all events, he offered me the part, and I saw no reason to refuse. The trouble is, I’m not an engineer, but I begin to understand the rather complicated business, and by and by I hope some difficulties will vanish. In the meantime, I think my employer’s satisfied.”
“If he does not get better, you will have control. In fact, it may be yours for good,” Mrs. Haigh remarked in a thoughtful voice.
Ledward felt she gave him his cue, and he resolved to play up.
“It is possible. At all events, Jasper has agreed that so long as I am content the post I now have is mine. The important thing is, it enables me to support a wife. Well, I expect you know I not long since asked Evelyn to marry me?”
“She refused.”
“That is so,” said Ledward. “All the same, I thought she hesitated, and her refusal was not very firm. Well, I felt I must not urge her. Kit’s my friend; he’s a generous, attractive fellow. The trouble is, he’s young and impulsive. Somehow I think Canada will claim him, and he will not come back. Then Jasper is willing for him to stay. The ground is awkward, but after all, Kit to some extent did let the old fellow down.”
Mrs. Haigh saw his cleverness, but his argument was logical. In fact, she herself had argued like that.
“One must not be shabby, and Evelyn is stanch,” she said. “She did not altogether engage to marry Kit, but we agreed, if he made good progress in Canada, we would talk about it again. My stipulation was, he must for twelve months use his best efforts and not bother Evelyn. Well, the twelve months are not gone.”
“Do you imply that when the time is gone I might try again?”
“Ah!” said Mrs. Haigh, “my duty is rather hard. Kit trusts me, and he has some charming qualities, but I must think for my daughter. If you can persuade Evelyn, I will not refuse. But I cannot cheat Kit, and you must wait. When he started it was summer, and summer will not be long.”
She got up, but she signed Ledward to stay and he gathered she would sooner the others did not know they had engaged in confidential talk. On the whole, Ledward was satisfied. When he again urged Evelyn he thought he could reckon on her mother’s support. Moreover, he imagined Evelyn would weigh the argument by which he had moved Mrs. Haigh. He was now Jasper’s favorite, and Kit was done with.