the relation of keturah smiley to the events in lucius brown’s office was fairly simple; at least, she and[134] mr. brown seemed to find it so. they met later in the day. miss smiley was unaccompanied.
“now about this money,” she said, in her most decided tones. “most of it must go to hosea hand. it will be the sum dick hand withheld from him, with interest at 6 per cent. for more’n a quarter of a century. if hosea knows where it came from he won’t take it,” she told mr. brown with a grin. “fix it up. left him by a cousin several thousand dollars removed.
“i’ll take the $1,000 for the option on my land and run the risk dick hand’ll exercise it. he hasn’t enough money left for that. how much do you want?”
mr. brown, without affecting embarrassment, named a fee.
“too little,” keturah commented. “i have, besides the money for the option, $5,000 for the leases, the money i lent that old fox. that’s $6,000. i figure it’ll take $12,000 to set hosea right. that leaves $2,000. take it. you deserve all of it. i’m not saying you don’t deserve more. it’s worth that to me to take the hair and some of the hide off that man.”
“about the patents, miss smiley?” lucius brown suggested.
“i’m not forgetting them,” answered keturah. “but they didn’t cost me anything and i don’t want anything for them. i once fed and housed a crazy inventor—that is, he was crazy some ways but his inventions seem to be all right. he left ’em to me for[135] his keep and out of gratitude, maybe. anyway, i’ve had ’em, along with other odds and ends, these many years. i saw enough to convince me that they were worth something; so did you. just how much i don’t know; i was never one to monkey with those things. but it won’t hurt richard hand to part with a few thousands for them. they’re all in good shape and order. if he goes ahead and makes a mint o’ money with them i’ll be sorry!”
“he hasn’t the necessary capital,” said brown.
“and he can’t get it,” finished miss smiley. “and he has no more nerve than a hen crossing the road. it takes a young man to do those things. some day that boy of his might make something out of them—if he’s got any stuff in him besides the hand meanness!” she concluded, thoughtfully.
“i don’t know why i’m so generous with dick hand,” she continued, after a moment. “twelve thousand dollars of this money represents an accumulated sum unrighteously withheld from his brother. two thousand dollars represents your fee. that’s fourteen thousand—and for it he is getting patents that may be worth ten times that. but we had to give him something,” she said, half humorously. “i wish i had a little less conscience so’s to use him as he’s used others!”
a knock sounded on the door. mr. brown called out, “come in,” and mermaid entered. she wore a dark green tailored suit, and her skirts had lengthened. her[136] abundant coppery red hair had been “put up,” and she looked an astonishingly mature young lady. the three freckles remained in place and the dimples had deepened.
“aunt keturah,” she said, using a new form of address, “time to go home! dickie hand is outside waiting for me. have you heard the news? his father told dickie and his mother that he’d broken a tooth and lost all his money. must have been his wisdom tooth,” surmised the girl as miss smiley rose to go with her.
